Everywhere I read I see people telling me how I’m meant to take just a day or two on Hiragana/Katakana. Just learn it quick because you’ll hammer it in later…
Thing is, I just can’t seem to retain the characters that I learn.
Like say I sit down and study a dozen characters for a session, I write them down a bunch of times, recite them until I get them right blind. Alright.
Next day, I test myself after a session and I can only recall 2-4 out of the 12 I studied the previous day, but recall the ones I just learned. And every time I try to learn a new set it’s like my memory resets and I can’t recall the previous ones I learned. It’s frustrating because it feels like a repetitive cycle.
I’ve always been bad at memorization but I figured I could maybe tough it out, but I’m stuck on the first step!
I’d appreciate any advice from people who are bad at memorization, what worked for you and what helped you retain what you were learning.
36 comments
Don’t practice just the character itself. Practice writing simple words and phrases with them. I had trouble remembering a couple of them when I first started but it got a lot better when I could associate them with common words. Associate them with images too. Eg: I was taught to remember ナ as a sheathed kataNA.
Use different methods/apps too and see if variation helps. I would suggest realkana.com as a pretty good and easy to use website learn kana.
Don’t worry about getting it right 100%. Just move on and with reading practice you will get better. I still struggle with Katakana 1 year into studying japanese. As soon as I encounter it my reading speed plummets.
In the beginning I used to mix up る and ろ,ち and さ, は and ほ. I also used to struggle with dakuten, but not anymore. It just takes time.
Everybody goes at their own pace. If you take longer than others so be it.
Do you learn kana seperate or do you learn them with vocabs? There are a lot of worksheets out there. Sadly I can’t find the one I used but maybe something like these will help you
https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/japanese-hiragana-katakana-for-beginners-pdfs
I suggest try to get a feel on how they look first, enough to recognize them in context. Then try to write them down on paper from memory. I used Japanesepod101 to help remember them
It’s like any other skill. The minute you stop using it, your brain starts to move it into storage. The best thing is to use hiragana on the back of kanji flash cards. That way you have to say and read the sounds in Kana each time you confirm the kanji reading.
I think I took around 2 weeks to get to a point where I could read most hiragana most of the time, 4 weeks to get to a point where I could always read all of them without error (though I was still slow at doing so), but almost half a year until I could *write* all of them.
If you want to learn how to write them quickly, I recommend the app Ringotan, which is both free and ad-free. It’s an amazing tool for learning both kana and kanji – though each has their own preferences, I really struggled with using RRTK for kanji (I burned out very early), and had much more success with Ringotan.
First and foremost, comparing yourself to others can provide motivation, but it shouldn’t be relied upon as the sole indicator of progress. Various factors unique to each individual, such as available study time and personal interest in the language, play a significant role in language learning.
When it comes to retaining the [hiragana](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/) and [katakana](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/) writing systems, ***for me***, I found Tofugu to be immensely helpful in terms of memorisation. Tofugu employs mnemonic techniques and mnemonic stories to enhance the learning experience.
There are decks on Quizlet, I spammed those, just Hiragana/Katakana to English, it was good enough for reading
Now as I’ve been going through genki, I write the hiragana or katakana as needed, I keep a reference up just to make sure I get it and stroke order correct, but for the most part I can write them all without
You have to actually use them in context. That will cement them in your memory over time.
I have memory problems and it took me a good month or two to memorize hiragana and Katakana, which still occasionally trips me up
I really like the practise quizzes on tofugu – being able to repeat a set over and over helps a lot, as does associating them with images (for example, to looks like a toe being stabbed which is silly but immediately stuck with me).
Don’t get hung up on how fast other people progress – especially on the internet where people tend to exaggerate or round up in ways that make themselves look better. We all go at separate paces and that’s okay
Recall to write? That’s still something I have to dig for with some katakana or hiragana that I rarely use and I’m like on the fence of passing N2. Just writing the character doesn’t do nearly as much as words or full text with it for me. In the early days I did learn katakana with accompanying pictures as mnemonic and some of them I still picture when writing.
I used Dr. Moku app for mnemonics and it helped me immensely. And then I just drilled them in the alphabet section of Duolingo. It definitely took me more than a couple of days but now I don’t remember mnemonics but retained all hiragana and katakana. Same with kanji. Just memorizing is so much harder for me so I started wanikani and their ridiculous mnemonic stories really help me to memorize meanings and readings.
Hi! Have you tried to use mnemonics to aid your memory? I had lots of issues memorizing kana/kanji before I started using them. Tofugu has an “ultimate guide” for hiragana (and katakana) that provides mnemonics for each character, it helped me a lot!
[https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/)
Definitely mnemonics. My memory sucks but I still learned them in a couple of days with the Tofugu blog posts!
For some reason Hiragana was very easy for me but Katakana won’t stick.
Here’s a neat tool for practicing… [https://djtguide.neocities.org/kana/](https://djtguide.neocities.org/kana/)
Check out this site: https://kana-quiz.tofugu.com/
It really helped me remeber. Also the JReader app on android, it contains articles, you can practice reading them there too
I highly recommend doing periodic review throughout the day – if you want to get better at memorization, you’ll have to put in a little more effort in reviewing. The concept of memorization will get easier as you do it more consistently and more often.
Try learning a new set of kana, coming back in an hour and reviewing it. Go do something else and in another hour or so, come back and quickly review it again (write it out, make a song, etc. if you have to). Stick some kana all around your room, even when you’re not studying you can still take a look at them and it will reinforce what you’ve learned.
Use Tofugu’s quiz every day and it’ll help you a lot
Not everyone learns at the same rate! it took me a little while to start properly retaining Hiragana and Katakana, and I still slip up from time to time.
My favourite approach was (and still is) to just write out the grid of characters over and over – whenever bored in meetings, at home etc. Just kept doing it till I didn’t have to think about it. Not focusing on remembering at first was a massive help.
I did this with each group of characters (vowel, k-, s-, t-, n-, etc.), then the entire grid. not necessarily remembering the characters, but copying from a reference grid.
Then once I felt confident enough, I tried without the reference grid, seeing what I remembered. anything that I couldn’t remember I would then highlight and focus my practice on.
After that, just trying to read any kana I come across, and double checking the pronunciation of each character afterwards!
I’d recommend using mnemonics, if you aren’t already. I learned using the “Hiragana in 48 minutes” flashcards, which can be found in this Quizlet deck: https://quizlet.com/68936676/hiragana-in-48-minutes-card-flash-cards/?i=1flnhh&x=1jqU https://quizlet.com/68936676/hiragana-in-48-minutes-card-flash-cards/?i=1flnhh&x=1jqU
You will get the hang of recalling them, like “i for Hawaii” or “ko for coin”, and eventually you won’t even need to think about it.
Do you have a kana chart? It’s like 5 godan wide and 11 variation down – there’s one for each kana. My strategy was to write that chart over and over until I could do it completely without referring to the original chart. I wrote endless pages of charts until I memorized every character – this took me roughly a week and a half.
Further more would read the character while righting the chart while writing the kana. Then practice while walking I would recite (mostly in my head) “ A I U E O, Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko, Sa shi su se so, ta chi tsu to, na ni nu ne no…..” and so on and so on
It’s monotonous but it provided me solid quit results. Good luck!
Japanese pod 101 YouTube hiragana in 1 hour. Check that and report back
Instead of learning single katakana and hiragana, learn words that you ALREADY know in English. We actually have an advantage in English because Japanese use so many loan words.
For example, エレベータ is elevator. You already know the English word so the rest comes a little easier. I struggled with Katakana before I moved to Japan but since I see it so often now it’s way easier.
https://youtu.be/EwJgubX_J4k
A video like this is much better to practice than just looking at characters.
And once you master those, you’ll realize that practicing sentences will be better for remembering words than to just practice remembering the words.
Then you’ll note that reading a whole book helps you practice understanding each sentence than to just practice learning individual sentences.
Always make sure to build on your learning.
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The worst thing about this subreddit is people giving advice about how quickly to learn.
Forget it all. It’s annoying. ‘How I became fluent in 5 months.’ Bullshit and irrelevant. Etc etc.
I’ve been learning for many years. I just married my Japanese wife today. I wrote my name in katakana on the form. I messed it up. Who cares. I write my name once every 6 months and never my middle name and rarely my surname. Of course I forget the characters. My shi looked like tsu. Doesn’t matter. I just mixed them up. I know the difference I just never write it so made a mistake.
I wouldn’t put too much thought into people who say they’ve learned any part of Japanese quickly. Japanese is hard. It will take time, and require a great deal of effort. My general dos and dont’s
1. DON’T beat yourself up. Cut yourself some slack. This is a hard a language with a unique “alphabet” and 3 writing systems. It will take a lot of effort and time. I doubt you have a bad memory. Based on your example, I’d say you’re pretty typical.
2. DO try to spend some time with the language (beyond memorizing symbols/words) every day. If you’re focused on getting the writing systems down, use CHROME, download the Yomi-Chan extension, and find some very easy online children books, and just practice reading. Yomi-Chan helps because you can hover over a word and click the audio to hear it read.
3. DO consider using a spaced repetition app like Anki. It can help you with your memorization.
4. DON’T worry too much about writing. For some, writing can help aid memorization, but I think for most, it can slow down progress. The time you spend writing can be better spent reading.
5. DON’T give up. Most language learners give up before things get fun. It can take a few years to get to the point where you can enjoy content and be functional in the language. The hard work is worth the wait. Be patient. Show up every day, and stick to it for the long haul.
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Good LUCK!
Two words: shock therapy.
Shock yourself any time you don’t remember.
As a bad memory skill guy too, I would say that repeating over and over and guess what, OVER is the key. It happened to me with all the vocabulary lists. Review every day, 1, 2, 3 times? What you need, but still repeating!
I use an imagery style approach, where I have the kana look like something that makes that sound, or I make up rhymes that trigger the memory of what the kana sounds like. For く I draw a bird that says ku ku. Then down the list I go.
I’m a teacher and I can say that very few people actually have poor memory skills. It’s just that most haven’t found the method that works for them yet.
It’s the biggest challenge in my carreer: help students to find that method.
There are infinite ones. As I don’t know you, online stranger, I can suggest one that people usually miss. I hope that, if you try and, you could give me some feedback later if you feel like it 🙂
1-choose a category of words (like fruit, or hobbies, etc)
2-start with 10 for one week.
3-propose yourself to find different contexts to involve the chosen set (examples: you challenge yourself to take a picture of these 10 words On day 1. On day 2, you write one easy sentence to each word. On day 3, you set an alarm on your phone to every 2-3h and when it rings, you try to repeat the words – consult a paper if you don’t remember. On day 4, you try to teach a friend the words for a few minutes as a memory game. On day 5, you write some cards, and throughout the day you can take a random one and draw. On day 6, you invent a song with the words – you can mix your native language just to get easier and not very time-consuming since the focus is always the words. On day 7, you can review them and choose another set and other daily activities to do each day with them)
Since you mention Japanese, as you do these daily simple and easy activities to fit your routine days, try to picture the letters in your mind or even write them if you have time.It works wonders with kanji for me.
Even if you miss one day, keep on. Don’t beat yourself or anything. Just keep on.
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Anki is the way.
>Like say I sit down and study a dozen characters for a session, I write
them down a bunch of times… The next day…
Ironically, [forgetting is part of learning](https://practicalpie.com/ebbinghaus-forgetting-curve/). How you practice recall is up to you. Maybe you need to shorten the time when you do the first recall for some of the characters? For example, try studying in the morning (just the ones you struggle with) and then try to the recall them at night before bed, then repeat the next day.
Also try and mix up *how* you recall. Maybe writing isn’t the way it’s going to stick. Perhaps try flash cards, or reading a list of simple words, or [make up a song.](https://youtu.be/2qk4gCZuSjk?t=52)
Just a tip though: memorization is a *skill*. You get better at as you go along.
It’s not bad memory, it’s normal memory. You need to take some time and repetitions to learn something new. I think it took me a week or two to get most hiragana memorized. You can try more of a gamified approach, there was an app somewhere that made you write out the kana, with repetitions. So first time you’d have the whole character silhouette that you need to trace, next – only starting stroke dots, then only a blank screen; and if you made a mistake it goes to the previous level. This is great because you can’t just learn it by reading/memorizing, you need to activate your brain to “produce” it too.
I have found that taking a bunch of Playdough (or some other modeling clay if you are allergic to wheat) and rolling it out into little tubes that you then put down in teh right shape in stroke order, is *amazingly* effective at helping you learn Kanji. I would expect it helps to learn Hiragana as well.
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Whether you actually model the characters, or just write them down, remember to say the pronunciation of the chacter in a normal speaking voice (not merely think it or even whisper it) as research shows that the more senses you can engage while learning something, the more likely you are to remember it. Thin king engages no senses, and whispering doesn’t engage the sense of touch, while speaking in a normal voice actually vibrates the skull and while you probably don’t notice it consciously, the sensation of of that skull-vibration becomes part of the learning process.
So if you do the modeling and speak the character or word aloud in a normal voice, you’re engaging sense-of-touch, muscle activity, smell, sight and sound at the same time.
If you do the same with merely writing the character, there’s much less touch, muscle sense, and smell involved.
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Interestingly, I now remember kanji I’ve learned that way, not merely as shapes, but as a memory of actually molding that stuff into a shape and can still visualize the order in which those little strips were put down to make the shape.
One interesting experiment: use different colors for different radicals in a single kanji and see if you can start remembering which radical goes with which kanji. Memorize the radicals the same way as above, of course.