Katakana...

[Nanajuu]

Alright, I've put aside my verbal study for now to study some Katakana. Does anyone have any tips for this that may have helped you learn it?

Thanks!

[Shadowulf]

lol when i learnt my katakana
i took the complete list of basic katakana and wrote it out once
and then cover and rewrite
took me about 10 minutes to remember to write the katakana in order that way

after that was just picking out random katakana whenever i saw them lol
im still having trouble with ソ "so" and ン"n" though... its so annoying haha

[Eiri]

^ I agree... but once you get the hang of it it should be easier

[Orcrist]

I learned katakana a row a day. I don't like the all at once method, since you will have a harder time getting fluent in reading it. However, thats different for every person.
The one site that has helped me was: Real Kana - Practice Hiragana and Katakana Just whenever I had a spare minute I practiced my rows.
But writing the characters you know a couple of times a day (and eventually just once a day or w/e) helps alot.

Also, if you have trouble seperating kana from eachother just take a few spare minutes and observe them both very very good and compare them to eachother so you know exactly what the differences are. I never had any problems at all seperating ン from　ソ.

[kokunin]

okay here's how you right in katakana and help you, WRITE katakana and write it to make sentences in yoru own language, if its english then write katakan to make english words...

[LearnAmazingJapanese]

Well, the tried and true method is the one that Japanese kids use.

Write, write, write.

I would add that as you write, you should say the sound out loud:

Write カ, say "ka" and then repeat about 50x or so.

Not fun, perhaps, but I think it's the best way to do it.

I don't encourage flashcards as the primary way to study writing/ reading because flashcards only involve your visual senses (and maybe aural if you say it out loud). Writing and saying the letter/ character out loud involves visual, aural, and kinesthetic (motion) senses.

If you want to go overboard (but help retention even more), get a brush and some ink and write the characters out reeeealy big.

The more senses involved in learning, the quicker the and more permanent the retention.

Sore ja.

[Nanajuu]

Wow, thanks! I think I will try that!

Now, wheres my comically large notepad and brush, eh?

[Shaelyn]

I'll tell you what my professor told my class to remember the syllabary. it's a roundabout way of remembering, but it may help...if you don't know it already.

my professor said he went to a temple in japan once, and he saw these arrows there. so he asked what they were, and someone answered him "hamaya"
he said, hey, I've seen that before.

ha
ma
ya

that's an order of the syllabary.

so then he asked the class, so what do you shoot in a temple with arrows?
evil spirits...and then he asked for another word for that, so on and so forth, til we got this progression.
evil spirit -> demon -> devil -> satan

and he said, hey, I think I've seen that before. satana.

sa
ta
na

goes right before hamaya in the syllabary.

and he said, wait, and aka is red. a ka.

a
ka

sa
ta
na

ha
ma
ya

so if you can remember that you gotta shoot the red devil with an arrow, you might be able to remember it a little easier. then you just gotta remember that ra and wa come just below that.

anyway...as far as the katakana goes, I'd just go one row at a time. learn shi real well before you try to learn tsu...or vice versa...or you'll get confused. the only difference between the two is basically one's strokes are all vertical, and the other's are horizontal. ...and same for so and n.

flashcards definitely help too.

good luck!

[MMM]

Don't set aside verbal study to study katakana. You should do both together.

...and that is a great system Shaelyn!

[DarklightAkito]

Im Practicing Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. It's kind of hard memorizing it sometimes, but I'm very much getting used to it. Think of it like learning a new alphabet (which it basically is except they're not alphabets! ) Well if you need help, here is a site for beginners, they quiz you on the Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji, you might not know it, but its helping me get used to it. And from what I experienced, the quiz has no end so you can stop when you want. Anyway, I personally think it's a good system. Here it is:

MyJapaneseLessons