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Katakana is very similar to Hiragana; you should be able to pick it up without too much trouble. Actually [begin: Clay's confession] I have never studied Katakana. But I can read it just fine. What do I mean - you ask? Well, in real written Japanese, Katakana is used very sparcely unless the subject has a lot of foreign words or names. So I picked up Katakana when I needed it. That is, when I came across katakana I would look it up. Because I read a lot, I was able to learn Katakana without specifically studying it! Sounds like I am trying to discourage you from studying, huh? Ok I will stop. Gambatte! There are tons of FREE resources on the web. I encourage you to use them. At the bottom of this page are a few links to pages elsewhere on the web that introduce the Japanese writing system very well. Also at the bottom there are links to books on katakana. Enough of the introduction! I wanna get down to business. (GO TO katakana LESSONS)
Katakana is known as the more
'masculine' of the Japanese writing systems. This
is because it is rigid with sharp turns. Katakana
is mainly used for foreign loan-words. For example:
Cola is コーラ ko-ra.
You will notice the dash in the middle of コ ko and ラ ra. This makes the コ
ko longer in sound. If
this is written in Hiragana, it would look as such: こうら
koura. (In Hiragana the
う u lengthens the
previous character) Other than that, Hiragana and
Katakana work and sound in the same way.
Most sounds in Japanese are found also in English. Unlike English, the 'letters' in Japanese only have one sound, with a few exceptions that will be mentioned later on. Please click on the sound files to get a feel for the sounds. The most important to master are the vowels (the first row). The sounds are all found in English. Please repeat the sounds many times. If you spend a few moments looking at the chart, you should be able to see a clear pattern (each column has the same vowel sound and each row has the same consonant sound.). The 4 letters in red are the only ones that deviate from the pattern.
These are all the basic Katakana letters. The rest are simply combinations of two Katakana. (For Example: to make the 'sha' sound - add シ(shi) + ヤ (ya) = シャ (sha) - Notice how the second letter is smaller; but we will look at this latter) We will look at about 5 'letters' a
page. Do one a day and in no time you will be reading
real Japanese! 1. a-i-u-e-o FUN WITH KATAKANA BOOKS: These books are great especially if you are a learner who needs something to encourage you. What's best? I don't know. Follow the links and read the comments by people who have used the books. Let's Learn Katakana Beginner's Kana
Workbook : Practice Drills for Writing Hiragana and
Katakana Remembering the
Katakana Easy Katakana : How to
Read and Write English Words Used in Japanese Want more? Click here or go to Amazon.com LINKS FOR MORE ON THE WEB!:
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