Are you learning Hiragana and Katakana? Are you struggling with them?
Yes, I know it's difficult. There are 46 letters for each Hiragana and Katakana and you need to memorize totally 92 letters and it's the first step of learning Japanese. You might want to say "What!?" but you know, English learners also need to know 26 capital letters and 26 small letters.... totally 52 letters. Some people are struggling with b, d, p and q!! so it's the same. Just a bit more letters to learn.
I assume the people reading this know about what Hiragana and Katakana are, so I am not going to explain about it here. If you don't know, please ask google for now.
Yes, I know it's difficult. There are 46 letters for each Hiragana and Katakana and you need to memorize totally 92 letters and it's the first step of learning Japanese. You might want to say "What!?" but you know, English learners also need to know 26 capital letters and 26 small letters.... totally 52 letters. Some people are struggling with b, d, p and q!! so it's the same. Just a bit more letters to learn.
I assume the people reading this know about what Hiragana and Katakana are, so I am not going to explain about it here. If you don't know, please ask google for now.
As there are plenty of websites that talks about how to practice Hiragana and Katakana, I'm going to write something different. I searched some websites for Japanese kids. Yes, I knew that learning Japanese as a first language and a foreign language is different, but I believed that you can find some hints from the way Japanese kids learn. How they learn is actually very simple. Please check the 3 steps below.
Step 1. Use Hiragana / Katakana Charts
As Japanese kids, they need to memorize all Hiragana and Katakana. They simply use Hiragana / Katakana charts and try to memorize them every time when they see them.
Hiragana/Katakana charts are very useful, however, as there are many apps or websites to help you learn Japanese, I guess not many learners think the charts will help you so much.
Simply put the charts on the wall in your room and try to memorize at least 5 characters every time when you see them.
There are many charts online, but I leave some links from the website I found. With these charts, you can learn some words with each character as well. (for example, あ with あめ (candy)). Also, I personally think it is better for you to use a chart which is written from the right and vertically to get used to read from right to left. (*When you write Japanese horizontally, you write from the left to write... same as English.)
(from ちびむすドリル)
As you may know, Japanese people take bath at night, so waterproof charts can be placed on the wall of the bathroom and kids practice when they are taking a bath. The charts might be found in the washroom as well. They often see the charts and force themselves to memorize all.
By placing the charts in your life space, it will remind you that you need to memorize them, which is very important when you want to memorize something. You might want to pronounce the characters or practice writing in the air.
If you always use your computer, it would be a good idea to set your desktop picture Hiragana or Katakana chart.
Step 2. Use Hiragana / Katakana writing practice sheets
When Japanese kids learn how to write Hiragana and Katakana, they simply write again and again to memorize how to write.
Again, you might think it is important to practice Hiragana and Katakana using an app, but I believe that writing repeatedly with your hand is very important to memorize something, so I recommend you to do that first.
I leave the link here for worksheets to practice Hiragana and Katakana. There are 6 kinds of worksheets for each. I recommend you to start from the top left one that you can trace the words following the writing order. By clicking the fourth chart from the top, you can get all 6 worksheets at once.
(from ちびむすドリル)
Step 3. Play games to test yourself
Simply writing the chart is one of the ways to test yourself, however, as there are puzzle-typed toys for Japanese kids to practice Hiragana and Katakana, I think learning through playing games in this step often works well as well.
I think this game below would be a good exercise for those who have just memorized Hiragana and Katakana.
(from Usagi-chan's genki resource page) (English website)
Conclusion
You might want to find some apps and games to learn Hiragana and Katakana. Yes, some apps are very helpful and I think it's good idea to use them if it's more suitable for your learning style. However, I believe that following the 3 steps is also important. You might get confused if you start learning them with an app, instead of recognizing the charts first. You might get confused if you play Hiragana game without knowing all the characters yet.
I remember when before I was entering the elementary school, my parents always gave me some questions to see if I memorized the words, and I did the same thing to my younger brother. I also remember I could not write オ (Katakana O) well when I was 6 years old and I had to stay after school to practice. I was half crying. I was embarrassed. hah, now I can write it well of course. Everyone learning Japanese gets through this step. I promise if you keep working hard, you will master them soon.
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