dorban
New member
From: Czech Republic
Registered: 2012-01-24
Posts: 8
Perhaps a stupid beginner question ... on otherwise great forum :-)
I know almost no Japanese words, but I started with kana - I learned all of them, and fixed in memory using ANKI. And now I would like to practice reading words/sentences to became fluent in reading. But as I am learning by myself, I need some feedback.
What might work well is a website with word/sentence in hiragana/katakana with attached audio. I read it and then click audio to check, if I was correct. Please, are you aware about something like this? Or any other recommendation?
Thank you a lot :-)
PS I have a nice textbook, but it assumes knowledge of kana right from the beginning :-)
dorban
New member
From: Czech Republic
Registered: 2012-01-24
Posts: 8
Gombost, thank you very much, that's exactly what I was looking for. (shame it doesn't run on Chrome, but that's life)
Anyway, Rikaisama is really lovely tool, big thanks to cb4960 :-)
Stansfield123
Member
From: Europe
Registered: 2011-04-17
Posts: 799
The Erin's Challenge site can be used with Kana only. There's video, audio, and a large transcript thereof in Kanji, Kana, Romaji and English, each of which can be turned on or off.
https://www.erin.ne.jp/en/
But I can't guarantee that it won't be painful, if you're a beginner. The Japanese language is meant to be written with Kanji, and that's how it's easiest to read. Reading in hiragana is painful and confusing, and you should only do it for one reason: to learn the hiragana. Don't do it to learn words and grammar.
Btw, song lyrics are also often available in Kana only versions, online (or, at worst, romaji, which can easily be converted to Kana). But the best way to learn the Kana is to produce it, not just to read it.
I used song lyrics and Anki, to learn the Hiragana (I would learn a song, listen to it a bunch of time, then input the lines into Anki and quiz myself translation-> Kana). Obviously, this requires that you pretty much memorize the song, not to mention know the meaning. But I highly recommend it, it works and it's fun (if you like music).
With the Katakana, I never bothered actually studying it, I just picked it up as I went along. But that was a mistake, caused me a lot of headache. Do yourself a favor and practice both Kana until you're fairly good at reading and writing them.
Last edited by Stansfield123 (2013 March 26, 2:51 am)
dorban
New member
From: Czech Republic
Registered: 2012-01-24
Posts: 8
Thank you Stansfield, that's great link. Even you are right - it's really hard for me to catch up as they are bloody fast. But for hiragana practise and correct pronunciation should be workable .. in short time :-)
I'm using anki for practising both hiragana and katakana, but only as separate characters. This helps greatly to learn characters, but not to read or write fluently.
And one question - please, does anybody know about a text written in katakana? I know, that it will be artificial text, but would be nice for practise.
Thank you all :-)
dorban
New member
From: Czech Republic
Registered: 2012-01-24
Posts: 8
I know, but their speach is so fast, that it's hard for me to distinguish what thay say, even if I pause it after every word. Anyway, I am sure, this will be fine after some time :-) Thanks once more :-)
