Beginner Japanese/Kana

Welcome to the kana lessons course, where you will learn how to read, write, and pronounce hiragana and katakana, the two syllabaries of the Japanese language.

Like kanji, the kana are not just geometric shapes but rather three-dimensional paths. Character strokes must therefore be arranged in a certain way.

Reading

 * Japanese – Hiragana and Katakana.

Lesson
The kana consists of two scripts, namely hiragana and  katakana. Hiragana is mainly used to write grammatical elements and native Japanese words not written in kanji, while katakana is used to write foreign names and vocabulary.

Practice
The kana are generally best learned by rote though mnemonics can help with the initial memorization. Find yourself a nice drilling program or website and practice every day until you can consistently remember the entire kana. Build on a small subset and work from there.

You will find links to useful software in the textbook Practice section.

Mix in plenty of writing practice as you learn the readings. It will take many repetitions to get used to the movements to make your characters look nice. You can practice writing on this sheet.