Yeah after years living here I’m finally trying to learn how to actually read, but I gotta say that memorizing a thousand kanji and still barely being able to read shit is pretty discouraging.
I’ve been practicing that alphabet for over a year. I still see some of them, and my mind just blanks. It’s fun, though, slowly understanding more as time goes on.
It’s surprisingly doable. If you have a free weekend you can learn all of them. Even one day may be enough if you are dedicated and a quick learner. Of course, repetition is a must if you don’t want to forget them again, but the initial investment is really not that big.
This resource suggests mnemonics which are surprisingly effective. They teach hiragana first, but it’s not a hard requirement if you want to learn katakana exclusively.
I did my first trip to Tokyo a few months ago. A week before leaving I started playing a kana learning game on my phone while I was on the train to work. I also played it during the flight over.
Two things I figured out:
Just learn katakana. Even if you do learn hiragana, it just sounds out the japanase words that you don’t know anyway. Katakana seemed to be used exclusively for English pronunciation.
It’s actually fun. The majority of signs and labels are bilingual and you will see English and Katakana side-by-side. Once I walked into a cafe (in Disneyland) that had no English menu. The whole thing was katakana. I figured out how to order a “ka-fe ra-te” (cafe latte) and a “ko-ka ko-ra” (Coca Cola). I was so pleased with myself.
If you learn the katakana alphabet, most signs and menus in Japan are like this. They’re just English words approximated to sounds in Japanese speech.
It’s like, 70 characters. Not huge at all.
Yeah after years living here I’m finally trying to learn how to actually read, but I gotta say that memorizing a thousand kanji and still barely being able to read shit is pretty discouraging.
I’ve been practicing that alphabet for over a year. I still see some of them, and my mind just blanks. It’s fun, though, slowly understanding more as time goes on.
It’s surprisingly doable. If you have a free weekend you can learn all of them. Even one day may be enough if you are dedicated and a quick learner. Of course, repetition is a must if you don’t want to forget them again, but the initial investment is really not that big.
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/
This resource suggests mnemonics which are surprisingly effective. They teach hiragana first, but it’s not a hard requirement if you want to learn katakana exclusively.
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I did my first trip to Tokyo a few months ago. A week before leaving I started playing a kana learning game on my phone while I was on the train to work. I also played it during the flight over.
Two things I figured out:
Just learn katakana. Even if you do learn hiragana, it just sounds out the japanase words that you don’t know anyway. Katakana seemed to be used exclusively for English pronunciation.
It’s actually fun. The majority of signs and labels are bilingual and you will see English and Katakana side-by-side. Once I walked into a cafe (in Disneyland) that had no English menu. The whole thing was katakana. I figured out how to order a “ka-fe ra-te” (cafe latte) and a “ko-ka ko-ra” (Coca Cola). I was so pleased with myself.
Oh wow, that website is awesome. I’ll definitely add that into my studying. Thanks.