Learning kana

I'm sure most people who've found themselves interested in Japan has thought it: I wish I could learn Japanese... This isn't so much a matter of learning it to be able to talk it, as a matter of learning how to read it. Even with a basic Japanese vocabulary, actually reading it takes a bit of an effort to learn. Why? I think this is probably common knowledge, but I'll say it anyway: Japan uses so called 'hieroglyphs' (no, that word doesn't only apply to old Egyptian writing, but all pictorial alphabets) called Kanji - but that's not all, they use 'kana' as well. While you need to know about 2000 kanji to read a newspaper, there are also the kana 'Hiragana' and 'Katakana', which are simplified 'alphabets' that are easier to learn than kanji (and you can build all words using only kana). Hiragana is used for Japanese words, while Katakana is used for foreign words and names.

I say that you 'can' build all words using kana - you can - but that doesn't necessarily mean that's how the word is most commonly writen. You can get by using it though - children learn kana before they dig into kanji, and often kanji is explained using kana, since a kanji can be pronounced several ways while the kana only has one meaning per sign. Uncommon kanji often get explanatory kana in tiny letters, so it's good to know kana.

But how to learn it? It's, after all, 96 signs if you add them up. It's individual of course, but as for me, I realised that the best way for me was to first learn to read before I write. That is, learn to recognise the kana and what sound they represent. The best way for me is repetition, over and over again, and I found that this site: www.kanagrams.com, was an excellent tool for repetition, and learn to quickly read a sign. After only using it for a little while, I begun being able to read the Japanese comments on, let's say, youtube. The feeling when those signs finally makes sense is so great! <3