Japanese Language

12 comments

1. I’m not sure there is a “should”, but I learned katakana first because it made sense since I already knew 99% of the words, I just needed to figure out what they were. Then hiragana, then I’ll be learning kanji for the rest of my life, lol

2. Hiragana will be taught first as it is the basic Japanese phonetic lettering system. Katakana is taught second, usually after you finish Hiragana as all of the phonetics match, they just use different symbols.

   You might get a few kanji before you’re finished, but it will be incredibly simple like numbers and the days of the week. There are thousands of kanji so you won’t be learning that first, and having the phonetic fundamentals down first is crucial.

3. Definitely start with Hiraganas. It’s pretty much the base of everything. And so I would take Katakana, because alot of kanjis are built up from different hiragana and katakana puzzled togheter.

4. Typically it’s hiragana, katakana and kanji. That’s how my wife learnt it and how she teaches it to my daughter based on the Japanese curriculum.

5. /r/learnjapanese

6. Traditionally: hiragana, katakana, kanji.

   Hiragana and katakana could be knocked out in a few weeks each (2-3 weeks for each if you’re taking your time).

   Kanji are best done a few at a time. I’d learn them as a general concept with a few vocabulary items, concentrating on high-frequency words first:

   木: Tree, wood; Thursday – 木曜日(もくようび), Thursday; 木々(きぎ), trees…

   There are about 2,200 kanji used very frequently. You can learn them in the order Japanese kids do (kyoiku kanji) to keep things organized.

7. I’d start with learning 1600 kanji and then move on to katakana. That’s the easiest way

8. Hiragana is most important, imo. And it’s what has been taught first in most schools I’ve attended. Then Katakana, which I always have to brush up on because it’s not used as much. And finally the never ending Kanji battle. I know native Japanese people with PhDs who still don’t know all the Kanji or forget which one is used sometimes 😅

9. My Japanese teacher used to say it’s better to start with katakana because we (students) tend to ignore it in favour of hiragana and kanji because katakana is ‘easier’. He wasn’t wrong, so I’d say katakana – hiragana – kanji.

10. Brilliant.org

11. I started out with hiragana, I’m slowly making my way to katakana, and I think I’m going to leave the heavy lifting to the Yomiwa app when it comes to kanji, but I’ll humor myself to try to memorize some characters if I have the brain power left.

12. Back in high school we spent a week on hiragana, then a week on katakana, then 4 years on basic kanji… I’m still learning kanji 20 years later (but I’m a particularly slow learner). I do find it a bit funny when the three writing systems are held up together as if they are all on par though