Katakana

[Arthur]

Hi there!

I'm totally new on this forum. I've learnt japanese for a year (one hour and a half a week), but I quit , and it's only recently (when I met two lovely japanese girls in a bar) that I decided to get back on track. I just love that podcast, and find it very useful since I am now able to send text messages and have a small conversation in japanese with my new friends, so THANK YOU GUYS!

There comes my question: I had no real problem remembering the Hiragana, but I find very hard to do so with the Katakana; Do you have any advice or "trick" to remember it faster ?
(especially in the katakana to rômaji way)

I'm sorry if that sort of question have already been asked a few million times, but I thank you in advance!

Ps: If you have any questions about French, I'll be glad to answer!

[Max]

how did you learn hiragana?
use that method :P

[Harjeet Bhogal]

I actually sat there and just learned the katakana chart in my accounting class lol. But, I would say one method that could probably help you is learning words that incorporate katakana, for example パン（Pan-bread)　オレンジ（Orenji－Orange) and so on, while your learning the katakana chart.

[Arthur]

Thank you guys! That's kind of obvious, but I guess I just have to work harder^^

[Sai]

The best way to remember is to write them out over and over again until you get sick of it. Then do it a little bit everyday until you don't even have to think about what you're doing, they're so familiar. That's what worked for me. I also carried around a notebook where I practiced drawing random kana when I had spare time. Good Luck!

[sumo73]

It's quite common for people to learn Hiragana and then move onto Kanji but forget about Katakana sometimes.

You could always try to write a few characters down each day and then move onto writing simple katakana words (food, drink, countries) and practice them.

http://www.coolest.com/penpen/
http://www.softempire.com/dreamkana.html

You might want to have a look at - Let's Learn Katakana: Second Book of Basic Japanese Writing (Paperback) by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura. I haven't got this book but it looks ok. Gambatte! (^.^)

[Arthur]

Hey! I recently found something interesting to remember Hiragana or Katakana:

http://www.tevader.com/japonais/test_kana/reviser-les-kana.php

It shows a kana, and you have to type what it corresponds to.
It's in french but just choose between wich lines you want your kanas to be and click on "Commencer"

[marie]

Merci !
Thank you!
Arigato!
I'm gonna try that link to see if it's any good,i've been studying Japanese on and off for three years , but i always find it hard when it comes too remembering what the characters associate with ...I'm french too so maybe with a french website , it will be easier!!

[Joanna]

Thank you for posting this site! Its really helpful. Thanks again!

[Magdalena Gajdosova]

I had big problems with katakana too, especially those "smileys" like tsu, shi, n and so :D What really helped me was atlas of the world in japanese, which I got from my geography ex-teacher. 95% of text there is in katakana and it is really fun to try read each names of countries and our cities... it gives you practice which is the most necessery. I had a terrible mess in katakana before that but after an hour or too spent with this atlas I can read much better :)
So the only advice is to find something what gives you practice. Read and write, read and write, have a motivation and that´s all.

[Sai]

worksheet booklets always help, they helped me :D