Learning the Kana

By Abner Huertas

皆さんこんばんは。

Good evening to everyone. In the last post we're talking about the Japanese alphabet, or the syllabary. 

In this post I will give you some suggestions to learn the Kana. Remember that there are two syllabaries: the hiragana and the katakana. Both syllabaries have the same sounds, what changes are the symbols.

Each syllabary has about 44 symbols. First let's recognise each syllabary:

Hiragana:　あいえうおかきけくこ

Katakana:  アイエウオカキケクコ

In the example above you can see the difference between both, as you can see the hiragana syllabary has more "curves" than the katakana syllabary. Hiragana it's the most used. Katakana is more used for foreign words.

Now, one of the first things you would like to learn are those syllabaries. Believe me, it’s easy, but you have to have discipline.

I learnt these syllabaries by doing homework. First I started with hiragana and did some written exercises such as this:

As you can see, I wrote the phonetic sound in romaji at the top and the corresponding hiragana below.

I did the same with katakana with a small difference, to remember the hiragana and it's katakana counterpart, I wrote both symbols, in this way I remembered each sound in both syllabaries.

Once you have finished your homework, you need to practice. If you have an iPad I recommend you an app called: Nihongo no Kana, this app will let you practice your new knowledge. The best of this app is that will help you to practice a proper way to write each kana. You can download it from the App Store.

Another great tool is called: Kana-Match a game where you have to pair each symbol with its counterpart, for example you have to pair お with オ. This game will improve your memory with both syllabaries. As you can see learning can be very fun.

In the following posts I will share with you other games that will let you practice and improve your kana.

またね。