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hirigana and katakana, which first? 2006/10/14 02:29
I will hopefully soon be attending the Yamasa Institute. I know I should study hirigana and katakana before I go, but which do I start out with? How long on average does it take to learn???? And does anyone know of any online resources or textbooks that would help me learn before leaving???
by Steve L  

Hiragana and katakana 2006/10/14 11:02
Steve,

Firstly, it's "hiragana".
I would suggest learning them both together.
by Dave in Saitama rate this post as useful

kana 2006/10/16 08:17
I learned both hiragana and katakana together and as a Japanese tutor, I teach both together. As for how long it will take, that depends on how much you study. I learned them all in about 2 months but that was from a class. I assume you are studying on your own so you can learn at your own pace. good luck!
by yume rate this post as useful

Another 2006/10/16 10:26
Another vote for hiragana first... I learned hiragana and then katakana immediattly following.
by TheRage800 rate this post as useful

BOTH 2007/4/12 17:33
i would say hirigana unless you have to study foreign stuff but try to do both but katakana is easier
by sushi chef lolz rate this post as useful

Kana 2007/4/13 05:22
When I learned kana I actually found Hiragana to be easier...
by TheRage800 rate this post as useful

Kata 2007/4/13 05:59
Im going to japan this summer and learning katakana first, right now ( along with japanese 1 and the first box of kanji cards )

Its frustrating because once I know what the symbold mean, Im still at a loss to figure out what the word is because it sounds so drastically different than it would if spoken in english.

I hope i get better at it.


I plan to continue to learn more japanese in the future.

My question is: Would learning hiragana have any real benefit for me as early as this summmer? Or should I wait?

I guess Ill only know about
3oo or 400 words in japanese by then.
by Gibault rate this post as useful

Hiragana 2007/4/13 10:35
Well all words can be written in Hiragana, of course in katakana as well but katakana is used for loan words. If you can learn katakana then learn hiragana as well.
by TheRage800 rate this post as useful

Hiragana 2008/6/30 03:35
When I began studying Japanese in 2006, I learned Hiragana first then Katakana. I guess it's because Hiragana is easy to write. In Japan, according my pen pal, whom I teach English to each week on Skype, Hiragana is taught to children first.

Hope that helps! ^_^
by Melissa rate this post as useful

Let's Learn Hiragana/Katakana 2008/6/30 07:10
When I started learning Japanese, my tutor told me to buy "Let's Learn Hiragana" and "Let's Learn Katakana" before anything else. We started with hiragana first and I believe I did about 20 pages a week. After I finished it, he tested me on all the characters and I was rather surprised that I had nearly mastered all of them (a slip up here and there, but nothing major). The same approach was taken with katakana, which brought about good results once again.
I think I had pretty good mastery of the kana system after about two months. I highly suggest that you get these two workbooks, as they really helped me. Good luck!
by Jeemusu rate this post as useful

hiragana then katakana 2008/7/1 00:23
hiragana hen katakana is best and it really only takes two weeks.

Kanji is what is really going to stump you.
Get a tutor
by Kat D rate this post as useful

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