Easy way to memorise Hiragana and Katakana?
There's a book for hiragana and katakana like you describe. I almost certainly have it somewhere in the attic. But I'm sorry to say I ain't gonna' on a treasure hunt for it. Just know that what you are looking for does exist. That being said, although it helped in the short term, for long term memory it comes down to repetition, plain and simple. To me, it just wasn't practical. You don't have time to try to remember the characters by this method when you are trying to read something. Same thing with kanji. Take 東. It may be interesting to note that it looks like a tree with the sun rising behind it and thus means east, but it just isn't practical to remember it that way. Reminds me of the saying "When you are up to your butt in alligators it is sometimes difficult to remember that you initial objective was to drain the swamp."
Having Trouble Learning Hiragana?
Why did you learn katakana before hiragana? Hiragana is much more important seeing as all katakana deals with are loan words and foreign names. Anyway, you're having trouble learning because you've already crammed about 50 new characters into your head and are now trying to cram another 50 into it. It's a problem all learners have but you just need to keep working at it, keep practicing and testing, rewriting and reading, and eventually you'll start to get it.
Which is the best way to quickly memorize Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji?
Hiragana and Katakana are easy enough that you can power through them. Seriously. Most people who really make the effort can memorize them inside of a week or two.I memorized the bulk of them on my airplane trip to Japan and brushed up on them the first week. Here is more or less what I did and what you might try.Do this: write the first 5 of them. あいうえお. Read through that a few times.It’s a i u e oWrite each one a few times, in order. Then cover them up (or just turn over the paper) and try writing them again. Do this a few times a day, at least once or twice every hour or so.As you feel confident, add another row. Next: かきくけこ(ka ki ku ke ko)Every time you add 5 more, keep practicing all of them. Then move on to Katakana and do the same.It’s brute force and as we know brute force may not be the best way to learn things in many cases, but the kana are few enough and easy enough that it works perfectly for them.Now kanji…. that’s another story.The best thing I can tell you about kanji is go buy this book: Amazon.com: Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters (8601400140734): James W. Heisig: BooksHeisig’s method isn’t for everyone, but it worked wonderfully for me. He gives away the first chapter o his website if you want to try it out before you buy it.Basically his idea is you have to learn the meanings of the kanji before you learn the pronunciation. He maintains that the best way to memorize the meanings is by telling yourself a story, a wild and crazy story that will stick in your head, one that will give you both the meaning and the stroke order—you draw the kanji while telling yourself the story.Seems strange, but trust me, it works.The kana you can memorize in a few weeks. Kanji… depends on you. Don’t rush though or you may burn yourself out. It will probably be over a year at the fastest. (that is for the 2000 most common kanji that everyone has to learn)
What are tips for learning hiragana?
In addition to the helpful answers here, I'd add some tips that worked well with me both with kana (I assume that you'll be learning katakana as well) and kanji.(1) Use graph paper when writing them out for practice; finely-graduated grids really help you to get the visual "balance" of each character correct.(2) Once you give yourself a chance to see examples of the characters, write them out from memory. Check your work with an answer chart. Spend as little time as possible checking and as much practice time as possible drilling from memory.(3) Learn the kana in blocks of five, dictated by the five vowel sounds of Japanese, in their dictionary order, i.e., a i u e o. As soon as you start to get a pretty good handle on one block, add the next.If you practice consistently, memorization will come much more quickly than you think. Have fun with your studies!
I just know hiragana what are best source to continue learning?
Well, that depends on how you prefer to work. What is your motivation/goal? Are you interested in working towards mastering the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)? Are you just interested in learning to read manga or understand anime? Do you want to know just to know?Do you prefer an interactive method, or are you more a bare-bones reader kind of person?For an interactive type of platform, try: Learn Japanese RPG. It, in an RPG type format, allows you to quickly learn how to read the characters or, bumbumbuuuuum, have your character die a theatrical death.If you are interested in learning in order to read manga, might I suggest a few children's books? You can read books that are also in English like the "Hungry Caterpillar".If you're more bare-bones and studious, I would advise you to use the repetition method of writing down the characters over and over to a certain point, and quizzing yourself every few days, e.g., learn a few characters of katakana, and then move on to the very basic kanji characters.There is also the ANKI platform, where you input specific words and their meanings in English, as well as their Japanese readings, and ANKI will automatically (if you use it frequently enough), judge your level of ability and quiz you periodically on what you should know. Should you not perform well, you'll just be stuck learning the same things over and over.If you're just interested in figuring out things, try buying a few basic books on Amazon, like all the katakana/hiragana/basic kanji characters, and work from there.
What are the most effective ways to learn Hiragana?
Thanks for the A2AHaving just written a book (in Italian), an introduction to Japanese with a course on learning hiragana and katakana, I do feel qualified to answer.Some here suggest using flashcards (with or without apps), some suggest writing, but the best approach is a multi-approach. As flashcards teach us, recognition and recalling are different aspects of learning. But so is pronunciation/reading. Moreover we're all different and we've different learning style, so a book should suggests at least a few approaches. A book should haveExamples that use only kana already studiedPictures for a few of those examples (that can be used as flashcards)Mnemonics to remember how to write and pronounce every kanaWriting excercises, simple reiteration of one kana, and writing words from roomaji to kana and from kana to roomajiReading excercisesAs you can expect at this point, yes, my book, Kana, caratteri e suoni del giapponese, covers all these points, but it's in Italian, so you can believe me, because this is not advertising obviously.