こんにちは (Konnichiwa) everyone!

Welcome back to my weekly blog. This week, I’ve delved into the challenging { well it seems to me atleast 😂 } world of Japanese kana characters — hiragana and katakana. Trust me, it’s been quite the rollercoaster ride! 😅

Before moving on to the challenge I faced and How I tackled it. Let’s review the Kana Characters that is Hiragana and Katakana. So, If you are wandering what are these terms you might check my last week’s blog where I am talking about the writing system of japanese language. Here is the Blog

Kana

Kana (仮名, Japanese pronunciation: [kana]) are syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. In current usage, kana most commonly refers to hiragana and katakana.

• Hiragana and Katakana have the same syllabaries but are written in different forms, and each set corresponds to the letters in the other set.
• In each of these set, there are 5 consonant sounds - a, i, u, e, o. And there are series of consonant sounds starting with - k, g, s, z, t, d, n, h, b, p, m, y, r, w with a vowel at the end.
• Quotes are written in corner brackets in Japanese like this 『おはいよいよ』

Japanese writing involves two ways of writing

1. Left to Right and from top to Bottom
2. Top to Bottom and Right to Left

Hiragana

Hiragana characters are the most common of the three because

• It is used to write functional words like grammatical particles.
• It is also found in the end of adjectives and verbs
• There are a lot of common words that are written in hiragana than in kanji
• Also it is used to substitute the kanji characters which you don’t know. These are written on top or on side of the kanji and this is called furigana.

Here is the entire chart for hiragana including the basic 46 sounds and the Diacritic Sounds made using Dakuten and Handukuten.

• A small つ just before a sound can elongate the sound.
• Small や　ゆ　よ can be used just after some of the sounds ending with “i” to create a combined sound.

Katakana

It is the exact equivalent of hiragana when it comes to pronunciation but differs in writing and rather the characters are a little more angular. In general there is no resemblance between the two sets of characters, but there are few exceptions. The main use of Katakana are as follows:

• It is used for writing loan words { foreign words } that is most country names, foreign names, and modern Loan Words.
• It is also used for writing technical or scientific words as well.
• It is also used to write onomatopoeia ( the sound effects in manga )
• It is also used to put emphasis on the words

Here, there is one dakuten for the U sound as well. This is made to generate the v sounds. In general, if you see va, vi, ve, vo sound is not native to japan. That’s why it is not present in Hiragana. These are replaced by ba, bi, be, bo sounds by a Japanese speaker.

Similarly, there are some new sounds in Katakana to match the syllabaries of the Foreign words. w sound and v sound is generated from the Digraphs with vowels.

The Challenge: Memorising Kana Characters

Learning the hiragana and katakana characters, along with their corresponding sounds, is no small feat. At first, I felt overwhelmed trying to remember which character corresponded to which sound.

It was like trying to memorise a secret code! There are altogether of more than 220 characters, digraphs combined. But, honestly now I can say I am able to remember most of them and can read and as well as write. So, what did I do ?

How I Introduced kana to myself

I turned to YouTube and found some great Japanese learning videos. I picked two videos, one for hiragana and one for katakana of 1 hour each

• Hiragana - Video 1
• Katakana - Video 2

These videos offered a lot of values to me during the overall process of learning characters. The way she { video host Risa } introduced the characters and the Digraphs, it was phenomenal. What values these two videos offered to me:

1. It taught me the pronunciation, which is very crucial.
2. It added additional tidbits of grammar, giving me a broader understanding of the language.
3. Risa { the host of the videos } added a lot of words that give a more depth in knowing the language
4. I made notes by following along the video and I think it enabled me to get some writing practise as well especially knowing the stroke order was crucial as well.

But, After I have completed all the videos. I was left with hundreds of sounds from characters, digraphs, words and modifiers from both Hiragana and Katakana. It was very overwhelming. But, then things changed.

My Secret Weapon: Anki Flashcards

Enter Anki, my new best friend. If you haven’t heard of it, Anki is an amazing flashcard app designed to help with spaced repetition learning. It’s like having a personal tutor in your pocket. You can go to this website to download according to your Device - Anki App

I added all the characters and digraphs and whatever other sounds I was introduced to by the video into two decks of flashcards in Anki: one for katakana and one for hiragana. Then I started to play with them whenever I had some free time every day.

How I Used Anki

1. Guess the Character: The app would show me a kana character, and I’d try to guess its sound.
2. Reverse the Process: To solidify my memory, I reversed the process. Anki would show me the romaji, and then I would guess the character or the digraph and write it in my notes.
3. Writing Practice: Before checking the answer, I’d write the character down. This not only reinforced my memory but also improved my writing skills.

So, this was all about how I got through the Kana Characters. I am thinking of writing individual articles on Hiragana and Katakana. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Tips for Fellow Learners

If you’re in the same boat as I am, here are a few tips that might help:

1. Consistent Practice: Make it a daily habit. Even if it’s just 10 minutes, consistency is key. Pull out that Anki App and play with cards with 10-15 min every now and then
2. Engage Multiple Senses: Write, listen, and speak. The more senses you engage, the better you’ll remember.
3. Be Patient: It’s easy to get frustrated. Remember, learning a language is a marathon, not a sprint.

While it’s been a tough week grappling with hiragana, katakana, dakuten, handakuten, and digraphs, I can already see the progress. Every small victory, like remembering a tricky character or nailing a pronunciation, feels incredibly rewarding.

So, that’s it for this week! How’s your language learning journey going? Do you have any tips or resources to share? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Resources for this week

Following are some of the resources that helped me this week.

1. The Kana Videos - Hiragana and Katakana
2. Anki App - Download from Here Available on iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS
3. Genki Books { these books serve as a very good learning material } - Genki Books

Looking Ahead

In the upcoming week, I plan to

• Practise the Kana
• Get started with a little bit of grammer
• Start reading books having only hirgana and katakana

Last Week’s Blog - Week 1

Until next week, happy learning!

ありがとうございます (Arigatou gozaimasu) – thank you very much!

Feel free to share your thoughts or struggles with memorising kana characters in the comments below. Let’s support each other on this journey!