What is the best way to learn hiragana & katakana?
Don’t write hiragana & katakana !
If you are just starting to learn Japanese,
DO NOT WRITE hiragana & katakana !
It’s not recommended at all.
Let’s dive in!
3 reasons why we should not learn hiragana & katakana by writing in the first place
Why shouldn’t we learn hiragana & katakana by writing when we’ve just started learning Japanese?
Here’s why:
- hiragana and katakana are the basics to “read” Japanese
- But if you don’t have a Japanese sound model in your head, the default sound is your native language
- So, writing hiragana and katakana and memorising their readings will increase your incorrect Japanese pronunciation
So if you want to speak Japanese fluently, do not practice writing hiragana and katakana until you are familiar with the Japanese sound.
3 steps to effective hiragana & katakana learning
The best way to learn hiragana & katakana is to
- Familiarise yourself with basic Japanese phrases and vocabulary by sound
- Read with hiragana & katakana
- Practice writing hiragana & katakana that you can understand by sound and reading
If you follow these steps, you will have learned how to listen (and preferably speak) and read by the time you start practicing writing hiragana and katakana .
Let’s start learning hiragana & katakana by listening.
One of the best ways to learn Japanese by listening is to use
NHK Easy Japanese conversation lessons
*NHK is a Japanese public service broadcaster.
3 steps to follow :
- Listen and practice the phrases with English subtitle
- After you have learnt the phrases by sound, use the Japanese subtitle to learn how to read hiragana and katakana used in the sketch as complying with sounds
- Once you’ve learnt how to read them, write and practice (individually and as a whole sentence)
See also :
Comment