Katakana Chart カタカナ

 

I was excited to learn Katakana because it was the second big milestone for learning Japanese after learning Hiragana. Ooh, I learned a syllabary, and now on to... the second syllabary! I'm doing it! I'm learning Japanese! 

I decided it is important to force enthusiasm upon yourself when you start something. Especially if that something is a Category IV "Super Hard" Language as rated by the FSI. But nevermind that! THE NAME SOUNDS COOL, doesn't it? KA TA KA NA! The syllables are sharp and strong, you can almost imagine someone slashing a sword to cut the characters into the air.)

セーター　means "Sweater!"
(Image unrelated!)

The easiest Katakana to memorize for me were the characters in the vowel-row: アイウエオ。I chalk this up entirely to their being first, rather than being intrinsically easier to learn. With any memorization task, being first in line means you get the most repetitions over time. 

By the time I worked by way over to the N- and M- rows, it was getting a bit more difficult to consistently recall the characters and I was getting frustrated. Why does メlook so much like ナ? Wait a minute... is 'hu' ワ, フor ウ? Thank god for little カ, who looks just like his Hiragana brother か...

I learned Hiragana and Katakana during self-study last year, through brute force memorization and mindless repetition. I would not recommend it. I downloaded "Learn Japanese!" on my iPad and a few apps like it. While the apps are great, and really did help me learn the syllabaries, they are SO tedious. They essentially repeat 3 types of exercises that teach you the character and the stroke order, and have you trace it until you can write it yourself.  

Now that I am a part of this class, the fact that I really didn't know how to learn a language is pretty apparent. As I began studying Japanese, I'd also look up articles and videos on "how to learn a language" along the way. Most of the advice boiled down to "do it a lot". I never came across anything about the helpful Heisig method for learning Kanji, or about mnemonic devices. 

So there I was, tracing characters over and over. In a way, that was very like my memories of learning the English alphabet in elementary school. One of the great things about this class is learning how to learn. One could either read and write "ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne" two hundred times until the distinct neural pathways for ネ in your brain are paved flat, or you could look at an illustration 10 times and have it down.

Like I said, it was a tedious use of time. That's why in class when we are questioned about mnemonic devices "What could help us remember this? What do you see?" I have little to provide. My poor, battered brain just whispers "ス is ス because that's what ス looks like, forever and ever. Amen." 

Katakana is difficult to learn because it just isn't used as much as Hiragana. When I started to read, I was seeing more Hiragana characters, which helped solidify it more. So I realized I needed to put more of a focused effort into reading and writing Katakana words. Doing the lab exercises and workbook activities have been great because they've really helped me in that regard. Plus you get to learn words along the way, which is nice, and applicable. :)