Katakana Page 01

KATAKANA PART 1

So you want to learn Katakana? Great! You will soon notice how similar it is with Hiragana. However there are some important differences. Although you don't have to learn Hiragana before doing this page, I recommend it if you are not living in Japan. Hiragana is used much more in writing. But Katakana is used when writing foreign loanwords and in advertizing. Therefore, Katakana is very useful for the foreigner IN Japan.

Each Lesson will tackle 5 characters. If you haven't studied Hiragana yet, I would recommend starting with it.

Today's lesson will teach you the vowel sounds in Japanese.  These are the SAME SOUNDS as the Hiragana vowels.

Basically, like Spanish, there are 5 vowel sounds.  a, i, u, e, o.  


ア - a    - as in fAther, Ah
it looks like a capital A leaning over (doing exercises)


イ - i    - as in fEEt
It looks like a lowercase i with a hat on instead of a dot


ウ - u    - as in fOOd
It looks like a mouth about to eat fOOd


 エ - e    - as in eh? or hAte
It looks like a capital I but it is really an Eh sound


オ - o    - knOw  
It looks like someone kicking something "OH OH!"

These are the first 5 letters in katakana.  Write them out 10 times a day and soon you will get it.  To aid memorization, make silly associations to go with them. You can use the above mnemonics or you can make your own!

　

STOP!!!

Did you write the above katakana 10 times? Did you sound them out as well? Well, do it again! And then take the following test & Javascript quiz (see link below)...

TEST
How do you read these Katakana characters?  What English words are they?

エア ____________    This means ____________
アイ ____________    This means ____________
イア _____________   This means _____________
オア _____________    This means ______________ (think of a row boat)

Click here to check your answers

Perhaps you can recognize these 5 in just one day of practice.  

　

　

　

　

　

ANSWERS:

　

エア     ea This means AIR
アイ  ai This means EYE
イア    ia This means EAR
オア   oa   This means OAR

Think you have it all down pat?
Click here to take the Quiz