New-Languages

The Japanese writing system consists of the two phonetic syllabaries hiragana and katakana, the Chinese characters or Kanji, and the roman alphabet or romaji. The very first step to mastering the Japanese language is to learn hiragana and katakana. With a bit of practice it is possible to memorize all kana, i.e. hiragana and katakana, after few study sessions. The key to success are practice and writing drill exercises. Luckily, there are good resources online that provide free work sheets to learn hiragana and katakana efficiently.

Why is it so important to learn Katakana and Hiragana, first?

There are a number of good reasons to start the Japanese language learning adventure with mastering the Kana. First of all, it's a phonetic syllabary. That means, once the student has mastered reading the Kana, he or she can read simple Japanese texts with the correct pronunciation. Students who stick to using Romaji for too long tend to have a weird accent that is difficult to get rid off later.

Another good motivation to master the kana writing is that kana are used in many contexts in Japan. For example, many signs are written in hiragana or katakana. The same is true for commercials and headlines in brochures or magazines. Being able to read all these contents will be helpful in many situations for everyone who travels Japan or makes business with Japanese partners.

Last but not least, Japanese people are often deeply impressed and react enthusiastically when they  meet a foreigner -- gaijin in Japanese -- who takes the trouble to learn their complicated language. Introducing oneself in correct Japanese and being able to write some words in hiragana or katakana can be a door opener in Japan.

Learn Hiragana and Katakana with free practice sheets. This is the best starting point for everyone who desires to master the Japanese language. It helps a lot to connect to Japanese people, find new business partners, enjoy the beauty of Japan and the richness of its culture.

Can you introduce yourself in Japanese? Do you know how to exchange business cards the right way in Japanese? Can you ask for the way to the main station in Japanese? Can you imagine how useful it would be to be able doing all this? Speaking and understanding the language was the key to many great experiences I made, not only in Japan.

If I had to start from scratch today, I'd certainly learn Japanese with a high quality audio Japanese course right from the beginning.