[Hatredcopter]

I agree with the above post - writing is the key. Don't just look at the letters and try to memorize them, actually write them over and over. I learned Hiragana in two weeks and Katakana in another two weeks just by continuously writing them and by using flash cards. My Japanese instructor also used little pictures or stories to go along with each letter, like the letter for 'he' (へ) would be "haystack". Silly, but it works.

The same works for kanji; I find that writing them helps much more than just looking at them.