I recently took an introductory course in Japanese. As a part of the course, I had to learn the Hiragana and Katakana writing systems within the time-frame of a month for each. It seems daunting at first, but with some effort and effective study strategies, you can do this too.
Step 1: Get the right materials.
If you are already taking Intro to Japanese at a college or university, you should already have this. However, if you’re trying to learn on your own, this may be harder. Textbooks are only so useful; you need to be able to hear the proper pronunciation of the Hiragana/Katakana. Visit Youtube, or find a audio suite from a textbook. Either way, you need to know to pronunciation.
Step 2: Study Order.
Begin with the Hiragana, and learn them in the A-Ka-Sa-Ta-Na-Ha-Ma-Ya-Wa-N order. This particular order is the standard order that they are grouped in with “A” as the first sound and, I, U, E, and O sounds following. Once you are comfortable and are able to correctly write and recite them all, you can move to Katakana next.
Katakana is slightly easier to learn since it builds off the same principles that we learned with hiragana. Likewise, many of the katakana is very similar to their hiragana counterparts. Since Katakana is still the A-Ka-Sa-etc. system, all there is to do here is memorize this set of characters and learn its writing conventions.
Step 3: Flash cards
In trying to memorize this writing system, working with flashcards, either by yourself or with a partner, is essential. This is a memory based task. Working with flash cards will not only help to keep the letters in your memory, but also constantly identify letters you may be having trouble remembering.
Step 4: Time and practice
While this step may seem self-evident, I can’t stress it enough. You need to practice every day for at least an hour, if not more in order to learn this in the time frame of a month. Likewise, get a stack of notebook paper. Write the hiragana in order, saying each one as you write it over, and over, and over again. Try writing each letter five times before moving on. Be sure when studying that you do not mix up hiragana and katakana letters, as they have two separate uses.
Step 5: Learn the writing conventions and uses of the letter sets.
This step is critical, as just memorizing both sets is not enough. You need to know how to use them to have them be of any use. This is where a textbook or instructor comes in useful, but the information should be available on the internet.
An example of a convention is the “wa” and “ha” convention. For example, I want to write “watashi wa Amerikajin”. I would use the wa letter –わ – for watashi, but use the “ha” letter – は– for the wa that connects watashi and amerikajin.
Likewise, keep in mind that hiragana should be used for Japanese words, but foreign words should be written with katakana. Using the above sentence again, “watashi wa” is written in hiragana like so わたしは while the word amerika is written in katakana and the next word, jin, is in hiragana: アメリカ and じん.
There are many other writing conventions, but that’s for a different article to cover later. At this point you may be wondering about learning a few kanji. Admittedly, you’re going to have your hands full with memorizing hiragana and katakana. However, if you are actually putting time into this every single day, seven days a week, you can probably learn a few kanji as well. The ones to start with would be from the first grade class of kanji. This set is what is taught to first graders in Japan, and most are rather simple and are used for very typical family names like Tanaka, Yamanaka, etc. For example, the kanji for yama (or mountain) is 山. That’s a pretty simple kanji that is easily memorable by both shape, and the fact that it’s only composed of four strokes. Ta (field) 田 , naka (middle) 中, kawa (river) 川, and ichi (number one) 一 are also easy to learn and memorize alongside the hiragana and katakana. Likewise, they are also easy to combine and integrate into the practice sentences that you should be learning to write with your hiragana and katakana practice.
The main thing to remember is to study hard and memorize the letters. Having someone who is an expert to look over your handwriting is also useful, since handwritten letters sometimes have minor differences that you should know. For now, the five steps above should be what you need prepare yourself to learn these letter sets. Make sure to remember that the major factor in whether you’re successful is how much work and effort you put into it. That is what will make all of the difference.