Katakana – ナ to ノ

It’s カタカナ time!　 Lesson 5 – ナ to ノ。 ナ – NA A nut cracker. For me, it was always easy to remember that hiragana “na” means nun. And here is her cross! 二　- NI These are two needles. Of course, for those who know your numbers, “ni” also means two, and there are two strokes here. Infact, this is the same is the kanji for two, also...

Katakana – タ to ト

It’s カタカナ time!　 Lesson 4 – タ to ト。 タ – TA a tadpole with one leg, soon to become a frog. Try not to confuse this one with ク “ku”. チ　- CHI a chicken’s feather ツ　- TSU A needle and two buttons. Tie this in with ソ　”so” – you’ve now put on two buttons. And pronounce “two” like “tsu”....

Katakana – サ to ソ

It’s カタカナ time!　 I think in learning katakana, it helps to know hiragana. Just like in capital letters and small letters in the roman based alphabet, there are some similarities. For instance, C and c both look similar. An example in Japanese would be か　in hiragana and カ　in katakana. However, you have to be careful in Japanese, as there are some characters that look...

Katakana – カ to コ

It’s カタカナ time! Now we are on to “カ to コ” Lesson 2 – カ to コ。 カ – KA Cut the bread with a sharp knife. The first stroke here outlines the break. Then the second stroke is a knife, cutting though the bread. Easy to remember because it is a more angular hiragana か without the second stroke. キ　- KI This is a picture of a key. I always found...

Writing Katakana – ア to オ

It’s カタカナ time! Katakana is the part of the Japanese Writing System that I perhaps have the most trouble with – I still have to sound out each syllable, and I can barely write it – only words that I know well. Even sounding out words is difficult – as often I’m trying to make out some kind of English word, something that I shouldn’t do as not all...