^yeah.

also, in my opinion it's worth the extra effort to learn kana through rote memory (e.g. paper flashcards)

but if you're past that point reading manga is a great idea

Last edited by Aspiring (2013 May 21, 7:53 pm)

I do use manga too from time to time to brush up my Kana. But I also expose myself in reading online news, keitai, kana in gmail, playing kana games in android.

If you want you can check the following sites:

http://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/ - Galaga-like kana typing game (I like this one because it makes you feel you are not studying at all)

http://kanarecog.heroku.com/ - Kana word typing game (Great reinforcement too)

Hope this helps!

Last edited by bimspramirez (2013 May 21, 8:58 pm)

thefransw wrote:

Silty wrote:

Nah, Pokemon worked a lot better for me, since it's all kana. I really think it's an underrated kana practice tool.

I see Shonen/Shojo manga more as "training wheels" for kanji.

Which pokemon? I have 10 volumes of pokemon special on my comp and it has kanji in it.

I'm pretty sure Silty meant the games. I think Black and White were the first ones in the series to have any kanji in them.

As for manga, I found よつばと! (Yotsuba&!) to be useful in this kind of practice. The title character's lines are entirely in hiragana, and the other characters' dialogue isn't much harder. Besides, it's the kind of manga where it's generally not that hard to figure out what's happening from the visuals alone.

vonPeterhof wrote:

thefransw wrote:

Silty wrote:

Nah, Pokemon worked a lot better for me, since it's all kana. I really think it's an underrated kana practice tool.

I see Shonen/Shojo manga more as "training wheels" for kanji.

Which pokemon? I have 10 volumes of pokemon special on my comp and it has kanji in it.

I'm pretty sure Silty meant the games. I think Black and White were the first ones in the series to have any kanji in them.

Oops, yes. That.  Plus, BW still has the option for pure kana.

pauro02 wrote:

Why bother so much in memorizing the hiragana and katakana, I guess you will just be able to memorize it along the way when you study your grammar and vocabulary, and when you start studying kanji.. I suggest that if you have difficulties memorizing it, then just familiarize it, then you proceed with your studies about the grammar and vocabulary.. Surely, you will just memorize it without even knowing along the way..

It's a lot easier to "think in Japanese" if you don't need to spend 2 seconds remembering kana each time, and think in kana instead of romaji.  Japanese (along with Chinese) is a very visual language, as opposed to most other languages which focus more on the auditory.

One tool you could use to have more kana in your Japanese reading is:
http://nihongo.j-talk.com/

For example, if you wanted you could convert something like this:

右肘痛で戦線離脱していた中日・吉見一起投手（２８）が、右肘内側側副靱帯（じんたい）の再建手術を受けることになった。２１日に球団が発表したもので、６月４日に名古屋市内の病院で行われる。投球再開まで約１年程度を要する見込みで、今季はもちろん来季の開幕も絶望的。エースが野球人生を懸けて右肘にメスを入れることを決断した。
吉見が悩みに悩んだ末に出した結論は、通称「トミー・ジョン手術」を受けることだった。５月７日のヤクルト戦の五回途中で、右肘に違和感を訴えて途中降板。その後は出場選手登録を抹消され、入念に右肘の検査を続けてきた。http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20130522-00000006-dal-base

To this:

みぎ 右 migi noun (1) right; right hand side (2) afore-mentioned (esp. in vertical Japanese writing); foregoing; forgoing; above       ひじ つう で せんせん りだつ し て い た ちゅうにち ・ よしみ かずき とうしゅ （ に はち ） が 、 みぎ ひじうち がわ がわ ふく じんたい （ じん たい ） の さいけん しゅじゅつ を うける こと に なっ た 。 に いち にち に きゅうだん が はっぴょう し た もの で 、 ろくがつ よん にち に なごや しない の びょういん で おこなわ れる 。 とうきゅう さいかい まで やく いち ねん ていど を ようする みこみ で 、 こんき は もちろん らいき の かいまく も ぜつぼう てき 。 エース が やきゅう じんせい を かけ て みぎ ひじ に メス を いれる こと を けつだん し た 。
よしみ が なやみ に なやん だ すえ に だし た けつろん は 、 つうしょう 「 トミー ・ ジョン しゅじゅつ 」 を うける こと だっ た 。 ごがつ なな にち の ヤクルト せん の ご かい とちゅう で 、 みぎ ひじ に いわかん を うったえ て とちゅう こうばん 。 そのご は しゅつじょう せんしゅ とうろく を まっしょう さ れ 、 にゅうねん に みぎ ひじ の けんさ を つづけ て き た 。 http / headlines . yahoo . co . jp / hl ? a = 20130522 - 00000006 - dal - base

And use that to practice reading/writing kana. The converted text has a "spaced-rollover" feature which seems to function similar to rikaichan.

Though to be honest when it comes to straight up rote memorization, it's probably more enjoyable with interactive media such as video games.

There is a free download of a simple RPG based on learning kana and kanji (the full version costs money but not much, from memory):
http://lrnj.com/

I played around with it a while back and it was both challenging and fun. Might be something to use alongside reading manga?