3 Tips to Learn Hiragana and Katakana Fast

Hi, I am Shingo SATO, a native speaker with more than 10 years of experience teaching Japanese.

You may be having trouble remembering hiragana and katakana.

In this article, I will introduce 3 tips for learning hiragana and katakana quickly.

3 tips for learning hiragana and katakana quickly

Let’s start with three tips.

They are as follows:

1. Use mnemonic techniques
2. Concentrate on reading first
3. Focus on practicing letters that need to be handwritten

Let’s look at them in this order.

Use mnemonic techniques

There are many different mnemonic techniques, but one that I recommend is memorizing the shapes of letters by associating them with illustrations.

To use this method, you can take advantage of a free app created by the Japan Foundation, “Hiragana Memory Hint” and “Katakana Memory Hint”.

You can see what the app is like in the following video.

To download the apps, you can click the buttons below.

For more information about these apps, please read the following posts.

A Comprehensive App Review: Hiragana Memory Hint from the Japan Foundation

App Review: Katakana Memory Hint from The Japan Foundation

5 Japanese Learning Apps Recommended by a Native Speaker

Concentrate on reading first

I live in Japan and rarely write letters by hand.

At most, I write my name and address at hospitals and government offices.

The rest I type on my PC or smartphone.

Since this is the situation, it would be more useful to concentrate on reading practice first.

Also, I run a Japanese language school, and here it is not essential to be able to write. The goal is to be able to read first.

However,  if you feel it is suitable for you to memorize forms by handwriting, it is also recommended.

Focus on practicing letters that need to be handwritten

Finally, be strategic in your writing practice. Concentrate on only those letters that you need to write.

If you live in Japan and, like me, only write your name and address at the hospital, you should only practice writing your name and address first. Of course, if you are studying Japanese at a university, etc., and all hiragana and katakana will be on the exam, you will need to prepare well. 

Conclusion

In this article, we have introduced 3 tips for learning hiragana and katakana quickly.

The 3 tips were as follows.

1. Use mnemonic techniques
2. Concentrate on reading first
3. Focus on practicing letters that need to be handwritten

I hope this article will give you some tips for learning hiragana and katakana.

If you are interested in the way to write confusing katakana correctly, please read this post: The Easiest Way to Write “n”, “shi”, “so”, and “tsu” in Katakana Correctly: Using Equilateral Triangles