Learning Katakana /Hiragana? Try this

[sewid]

If you're just learning Katakana and/or Hiragana in your own time without professional assistance you might find it difficult to find ways to study.

I was using flash cards and a girlfriend but those tools are now unecessary!

Check this free software out:

http://www.dreambreed.com/download/DreamKana.exe

Its just a simple, free flash card software that displays a Kana and you type in what sound you think it is.

Helped me

[Demon Dave]

Great find

Nice little program for learning hiragana/katakana.

It's a shame they don't have something similar for learning Kanji....ohh, how I hate kanji

[sewid]

Same... its hard.

I think learning Kanji is all about just immersing yourself in it and learning about the particles and the origins of them and stuff.

Being an ideographic language helps a tiny bit, but that will only get you so far. My example is the Kanji for Ni ( 日 ), as in Nihon ( 日本 ) looks like a box with a line in it. That is supposed to represent the sun? Hon is the word for book (looks a bit like a tree with a stick across it and is in fact a derivative of the tree Kanji　（木 ）　but it's also the word for origin.. The word Nihon is literally "the origin of the sun" or "the land of the rising sun" AKA Japan. Thats how i remember everything... Only about 50000000 more of these things to go.

Usually those kinds of ideograph lead me down the path of frustration. Sure those ones are easy to remember but they get silly. Ask a fluent Japanese/Chinese person to write the Kanji for Dragon and prepare to throw your arms up in the air

I dont see me learning 5000 Kanji anytime soon. I probably know about 20 basic particles which means i can read a couple of words max. Im basically useless.

[DaiOni]

dave: web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/

[DaiOni]

mind you, I use flash cards myself - and written repetition. I find flash cards to be the easiest method - as I can use them anywhere - I find studying at the computer very difficult and distracting (why study when you can look at cars and naked women?)

For anyone studying, I highly recommend the "basic kanji" series (published by bonjinsha) - very straightforward. I know about 400 kanji and it's ultra helpful - I wouldn't say I know that 400 in-depth though (all on and kun readings), but I get by. I'm not a studious person - and that's a serious problem (motivation!). Kanji can be lots of fun. The biggest problem I had is when the kanji I was learning surpassed my vocabulary - it's very easy to learn kanji for words you already know, but when you need to learn new (non-daily usage) vocab, it becomes exponentially difficult.

And I've always sucked at languages!

[akeenan]

  Quote

It's a shame they don't have something similar for learning Kanji....ohh, how I hate kanji

I like learning kanji :confused:

Sit down at my desk and study study study ...

[Jimbo2000]

for somebody who has no experience (well very little, did it in primary but thats all but flushed out of my gooey brain)

is it a pipe dream to want to learn jap?

if you're not really deadly serious, as in having to learn for a reason

[DaiOni]

what's experience? you've got to start somewhere

mind you, I have heard some linguistic theory that says the human ability to (relatively) easily master a second language peaks when we are young, shudders to a halt at about 21-23, then it's all down hill from there...

motivation is the key - if you can keep yourself genuinely interested then the process of learning is no pronlem (ability is something else all together)

[Demon Dave]

Motivation and time...

I'm motivated, but finding time between work, more work, family (wife and kids)and hobbies (got to fit in time for this place , other forums, masses of events, car mags, etc etc etc ) leaves little time left for study...

[StraightSix]

Hey guys I'm just starting to get back into studying and just beginning with the kanji . . . I'm finding http://japanese.about.com/blkodarchives.htm very useful. They have the kanji up to grade 5 level, with stroke order, common compounds, and wav files so you can get the pronunciation right . . . also if I ever get around to upgrading my handheld to a colour unit I mean to get KingKanji from http://www.gakusoft.com/ , you can write the kanji on the screen and it corrects you as you go.

Cheers

Jason

[Mazinger]

thanks a lot sewid, just what i was looking for.

the only word that i know in katakana is "Supra" , heh i dont even know how yo read skyline....YET

[Parag0n]

  sewid said:

If you're just learning Katakana and/or Hiragana in your own time without professional assistance you might find it difficult to find ways to study.  

I was using flash cards and a girlfriend but those tools are now unecessary!  

Wait so you don't need your girlfriend anymore?

[sewid]

  Mazinger said:

thanks a lot sewid, just what i was looking for.

the only word that i know in katakana is "Supra" , heh i dont even know how yo read skyline....YET

My usertext says - basically - Skyline Junkie. But if you were to read and pronounce it litterally the sounds are actually:

Su-ka-i-ra-i-n - スカイライン

ja-n-ki - ジャンキ

Remembering that in Japanese the vowel sounds are:

a - as in far

i - as in field

u - as in put

e - as in get

o - as in pot

Of course in Japan they would, and do, just say Skyrine.

Supra would be:

Su-pu-ra

Which is a whole lot simpler just: スプラ

[sewid]

  Parag0n said:

Wait so you don't need your girlfriend anymore?

:D :headspin:

[Rezz]

  sewid said:

Supra would be:

Su-pu-ra

Which is a whole lot simpler just: スプラ

Actually, thats "Su-pura" (extend the "u" sound) like スープラ。

C'mon, everybody... Suuuuuuuuu-pura. Suuuuuuuuuuuu-pura. Thats it! One more... Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-pura.

Right!

[V8skylineMAN]

  sewid said:

I was using flash cards and a girlfriend but those tools are now unecessary!

Your girlfriend is a tool? haha.............mines a programmer:type: