How to learn all the Katakana in 1 day : Hey guys, how are you? Welcome to this insanely epic Japanese lesson about how to learn all of the Japanese Katakana in just 24 hours. For those of you guys who are looking to absolutely crush Japanese in record time this is going to be fantastic for you.
Contents
How to learn all the Katakana in 1 day
What we are going to do first is just introduce katakana to you and what exactly it’s all about. Then we are going to look at breaking down the process of how you can come to master the katakana in just 24 hours. Now don’t get us wrong this is definitely going to take some serious concentration, but we are so sure that you guys can rise to the challenge and crush it!
So without further hesitation, let’s absolutely destroy today’s online Japanese lesson.
What is Katakana?
So Katakana is one of three writing systems in the Japanese language. The Katakana is generally used to communicate borrowed words from other languages. These are things like names, food items and much more. Just like the hiragana there are 46 characters in the writing system so it really should take all that long to master.
Take a look at these words below to see some examples.
Words such as these:
| America | アメリカ | Amerika |
| Sofa | ソファ | Sofua |
| Halloween | ハロウィーン | Harouiin |
Most of the time, the Katakana sounds exactly like the loan word counterpart too, Amerika and America sound pretty similar right?
Each of the 46 Katakana characters represent a different sound syllable. It’s exactly the same as the Hiragana and follows the A I U E O pattern. We are now going to have a look at how you can remember these characters.
Remembering all of the Katakana: An effective technique
So now that we know a bit more about this writing system we are now going to look at exactly what you need to do to learn and remember them effectively. First we are going to need to take the first row and create stories around each katakana to help us identify them and their respective sounds.
| A | ア | This katakana look like an “A”xe |
| I | イ | This character looks like the English I |
| U | ウ | This one looks like an upside down U |
| E | エ | This Katakana looks like the doors of an “E”lavator |
| O | オ | “O”h do you like my cape? |
You can see how these stories are highly memorable in helping you to remember the specific characters. You will need to do this with all of the different lines of the katakana alphabet. Now altogether you should be spending about 30 minutes on each line to really ensure mastery on this.
Refer to the guide chart below, print it out if you need to. Remember to run the same creative process with each one and if you get stuck for inspiration, head online to find some pre-existing stories for the katakana. Some also look similar to their hiragana counterparts so try and use this to your advantage as well.
Once you have been over all of them and you have your stories. Put them into an anki system and spend some time remembering them through a spaced repetition method, there are plenty of free aps that can achieve this.
The final stage will be to then to start writing as many words as you can in Katakana. These can be existing words, English words, made up words, anything. The idea is to get comfortable with actually writing them for the next few hours. Once you get faster and more proficient with writing these you will be pretty much there with the Katakana.
Here is the list of the complete Katakana characters:
| vowels | アa | イi | ウu | エe | オo |
| k-line | カka | キki | クku | ケke | コko |
| s-line | サsa | シshi | スsu | セse | ソso |
| t-line | タta | チchi | ツtsu | テte | トto |
| n-line | ナna | ニni | ヌnu | ネne | ノno |
| h-line | ハha | ヒhi | フfu | ヘhe | ホho |
| m-line | マma | ミmi | ムmu | メme | モmo |
| y-line | ヤya | ユyu | ヨyo | ||
| r-line | ラra | リri | ルru | レre | ロro |
| w-line | ワwa | ヲwo | |||
| ンn |
Now it’s time to look at a few further katakana rules before we finish off.
A few extra things with Katakana
Now there are a few additional rules with katakana that you are going to need to learn before you can master it completely.
These are:
The Dakuten ガ which is the 2 small lines on the upper right of the kanji and the small circleポ in the same location. This changes the sound of the kanji and can be seen in the chart below.
The combination hiragana: ヤャ ユュヨョwhich alter the ending sound of the katakana
The small ッ which turns things into a double consonant.
| g-line | ガga | ギgi | グgu | ゲge | ゴgo |
| z-line | ザza | ジji | ズzu | ゼze | ゾzo |
| d-line | ダda | ヂji | ヅzu | デde | ドdo |
| b-line | バba | ビbi | ブbu | ベbe | ボbo |
| p-line | パpa | ピpi | プpu | ペpe | ポpo |
So with all this you now have all of the tools to master the katakana in just 24 hours. If you have any questions or some more ideas for great future content that you would like us to write about, please feel free to get in touch. We will see you all in the next online Japanese lesson form Bondlingo!
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