Customer Reviews

Easy Katakana

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I know everyone says that you should study Hiragana before Katakana, since the former is most often used in writing Japanese. Many instructors or programs place little emphasis on Katakana. However, I have found that it is the perfect starting point for learning to read and write Japanese.

First of all, the thought of learning to write in Japanese is usually very intimidating to most westerners. Katakana gives you a much friendlier introduction to writing Japanese since the characters are so much simpler than Hiragana or (gulp!) Kanji. Only around 4 kana are introduced in each lesson, with special attention given to the correct pronunciation and stroke order (proper stroke order is VERY important when writing Japanese). You are then presented with plenty of opportunities to practice with them. This is where Katakana has the biggest advantage for the beginning student.

Katakana is used for words borrowed from foreign languages, mostly from English. Also, pronouncing Japanese is easy since the sounds never change based on context like they do in English. In fact, the vowel sounds in Japanese are very similar to those in Spanish. So by being able to read a few characters and use simple pronunciation rules, you can usually interpret the words! Some examples are:

kamera: camera
kaa: car (sort of like the Boston accent)
merii: Mary
aian: iron, as in the golf clubs (ai is pronounced like "eye")

Most lessons present dozens of examples of words like these, and there are over 1500 in all. For me, it was very exciting to be able to read and interpret many of these words so quickly. Even a novice can pick out one or two words written in Katakana from a whole page of Hiragana and Kanji and have some understanding of the rest from the context.

Using this text, I was able to become proficient in Katakana after a couple of weeks. I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about learning to write in Japanese. I also recommend another book in this series, Easy Hiragana, though I wish it were written in the same style as this book. Learning to write nihongo is not easy, but this book makes it a bit easier. Good luck! (Kouun wo inorimasu!)

I think this is a great book for people who are interested in learning Japanese. It also gives you not only the pronounciation, but that pronounciation in an English word. It makes it easy to read and write Katakana. Unlike many books, if you read one or to two lessons it will stick.

This book gave me a lot more confidence in my writing. Most other book made me feel like I needed to do everything with a brush. This book shows you how to write properly with a pen. Essential for eventual reading of Nihongo.

This book is not only very simplistic and fun to read. Which in my eyes makes it a great study guide and refference. This book really allows you to learn and read Katakana from the very first day not in fact from the very first hour. The book is set up so that every chapter gets a little bit harder but not impossible to learn. A worthy addition to anyone really seriously interested in the study of Japanese.