Memorising hiragana and katakana

When you launch the project of learning Japanese, it is necessary to learn writing hiragana symbols and remember how to read them. The best way to memorise hiragana should involve visual memorisation, writing practice and pronunciation practice. But importantly, add some flavour to this process. Your imagination, engagement and enjoyment are crucial as all this leads you to succeed in reading hiragana letters easily.

Here, there are recommendations that help you with the memorisation and can significantly speed up the learning process.

Imagine the sound and the shape of a letter

Before writing a hiragana letter, create an image by finding a common link between the sound of a hiragana letter and its shape.

For example, a hiragana letter い ’i’ is pronounced like in a word ‘eel’. Draw a picture of two ‘eels’, one small and the other one bigger, lying parallel to each other. This picture should look like a hiragana letter い helping you to stick out in your memory.

What I would like to add is that the image you create should be specific to you and exist in your mind. Be creative and make associations, be they logical or natural, silly or funny.That should take a memorable form so you can remember the letter you learn easier.

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Take care about the stroke order

When writing a hiragana letter, it’s important to follow the correct stroke order. Remember how the strokes in each letter are ordered and so write the letters accordingly. Some sites offer images with hiragana stroke order so you have that verified. In writing, pay attention to the position of the character in relation to the box that you are writing in such that the proportion, size and shape of the lines are well balanced.

Use flash cards

Making flashcards is a method that works well for memorising hiragana. You need to write the hiragana letter on one side and how to pronounce it on the other side. Make hiragana cards for all the letters. Play with them, read loudly and check the pronunciation with what you wrote on the other side. Repeat this practice whenever you have spare time. Select cards with letters you don’t remember well and continue playing with these cards until you get all hiragana letters right.

Make a song

If you like singing, turn hiragana into a song to your advantage for memorising. This is a quick way to success.You can find some relevant rhymes. Music with a beat may work particularly well with rhymes of hiragana syllables. Alternatively, you can search for a hiragana song on the Internet. Select one and just sing it.

“Air” conducting

Repetition is a great exercise for enhancing memory. Write, speak, and recall the characters and sounds over and over. Pretend to be a conductor and write hiragana letters in the air. Each time you do this, think about the letter and say it loudly. Then it’s just a matter of repeating it often enough.

頑張ってね。Ganbatte ne! All the best!

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