Learning Japanese (Kana Worksheet)

In my experience, one of the most important things you can do to make your time in Japan feel safer, more exciting, and more productive all at the same time is to do your best to learn Japanese. Usually Linda can help set you up with a weekly Japanese class in the area. Take it. It will help a lot.

However, if you're not yet in Japan, with a few months to go before you start your journey, don't think that there is nothing you can do to prepare yourself...because there is! Learn how to read Japanese!

Now, much of the Japanese language is written using the Chinese characters called "kanji". There are around 3000 of these (there are actually more, but 3000 is considered the level of "fluency"), so you probably won't be able to learn to read the kanji in a few months (or even a few years, for that matter). However, much Japanese is also written in Hiragana and Katakana. These character sets can be thought of as the Japanese alphabet. Each character represents one syllable (the combination of a consonant and a vowel in English). Hiragana is typically used to "write out" the pronunciation of kanji (like in your Japanese hymnal), and katakana is used to write foreign words (like your name!). I found katakana to be extremely useful, though, as menus and tags in stores are often written in katakana, so taking the time to learn this character set can make a trip to the super market much easier!

Below, I've attached a worksheet that provides a grid showing the hiragana and katakana character sets, how to write them, and how to pronounce them, along with a practice sheet with empty grids for you to fill in. I found that the best way for me to learn to read the kana was to actually learn to write them, because if you can write them all from memory, you will have no problem recognizing them to read. Many of the characters look very similar (especially in katakana), so it can take a little time to be able to differentiate them. Also, there are some slight differences in the typed version and written version of some characters (see "ki" and "sa" for an example).

Trust me, though...taking your time to learn to read Japanese is well worth it...and a fun skill to have!

The files are attached in both PDF format and OpenDocument format. OpenDocument files can be read using the freely available OpenOffice, or the Google Docs service.