There are three types of Japanese script-katakana, hiragana, and kanji. It is possible to read Japanese knowing only a limited number of kanji, but it is not possible with only a limited number of katakana or hiragana-one must know all of them. Let's Learn Katakana, and its companion volume Let's Learn Hiragana, is a textbook that introduces the learner to the basics of one of these fundamental Japanese scripts. Being a workbook, it contains all the exercises that allow the student to master katakana by the time the book has been finished. Let's Learn Katakana is a classic in the field, and the huge number of students that have used it successfully is a sign of its preeminence as a self-study guide.
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First Sentence
As you know, there are two types of writing in Japanese: Kanji and Kana. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
As you know, there are two types of writing in Japanese: Kanji and Kana. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a slimmish textbook which focusses on both how to draw katakana, including stroke order, and when to use them- they're not just for foreign loan words as I had believed. It also mentions how the katakana were derived and why. It does NOT, however, include mnemonics or pictures to help you commit them to memory, and will not assist you in learning the alphabet quickly except by repetition and exercises. It also refers fairly often to its sister book on hiragana, which it recommends you study before katakana. This author is obviously respected as it's a recommended text for my university course. Good for more in-depth study of katakana- I didn't realise they were so useful!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a great follow up book from Mitamura's first book "Lets Learn Hiragana". This teaches the Katakana writing system in the same way the fisrt book taught Hiragana. That considered if you liked the first book then you will like this one too. The book is slightly thicker than the first and truth be told it didnt need be. Once i was Three Quarters through the book i had already mastered Katakana. However this book also teaches the uses of katakana (onomatapeia,telegrams,foriegn words etc.) which is also very important.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
before I started to read this book I only though that Katakana was used for words borrow for other countries. so with that in mind I was quite shock to find out how wrong I actually was. it is use for many more things then you would expect like names on animals and plantes. I would recomment though that you at least know Hiragana before you read this one, to get a more easy way to understand it, and it has all what you need to know like it's sisterbook "Let's learn Hiragana"
By Tahnna
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
progressive method to progress in katakana for people who take a long long time to learn the Japanese characters !
By I<3TEES
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've never managed to get my head round katakana though I have been learning Japanese for three years!
Finally a nice, readable book that has (mostly) LARGE PRINT and BIG SPACING!
It's not just a workbook, there are explanations for useage and new words to learn.
It's a big book, not a little one, as the picture suggests. Great!!
Finally a nice, readable book that has (mostly) LARGE PRINT and BIG SPACING!
It's not just a workbook, there are explanations for useage and new words to learn.
It's a big book, not a little one, as the picture suggests. Great!!
Format:Paperback
Hi
The first one is where you learn Hiragana. It took me some time to learn the first group, then the second group and so on, and always remember the difference between all, often I forgot one and had to look back to see what symbol I have to use for specific syllables.
But with time, I mastered the first book. Hiragana is no problem for me, I'm no so fast in reading it as our alphabet, but I sure did improve by a lot. I study by myself, there is no one else who studies with me and no instructor. This book is really helpful!
And now to the big plus the first book gives you! Let me explain it in my case:
I started the second book. I read some information about Katakana in the beginning and then it began to introduce the first 15 syllables.
Not much time and effort needed and I was able read and write those syllables nearly as good as I can with all the Hiragana! Learning Hiragana to an extent where you can say you are confident with them REALLY helps to learn Katakana. I think you will learn Katakana three times faster than Hiragana. Maybe even vise versa, so much I don't know.
To sum it up, the first book really helped in learning Katakana.
I can recommend both volumes, very great books! After I have mastered Katakana I will try the third volume, introducing Kanji.
The first one is where you learn Hiragana. It took me some time to learn the first group, then the second group and so on, and always remember the difference between all, often I forgot one and had to look back to see what symbol I have to use for specific syllables.
But with time, I mastered the first book. Hiragana is no problem for me, I'm no so fast in reading it as our alphabet, but I sure did improve by a lot. I study by myself, there is no one else who studies with me and no instructor. This book is really helpful!
And now to the big plus the first book gives you! Let me explain it in my case:
I started the second book. I read some information about Katakana in the beginning and then it began to introduce the first 15 syllables.
Not much time and effort needed and I was able read and write those syllables nearly as good as I can with all the Hiragana! Learning Hiragana to an extent where you can say you are confident with them REALLY helps to learn Katakana. I think you will learn Katakana three times faster than Hiragana. Maybe even vise versa, so much I don't know.
To sum it up, the first book really helped in learning Katakana.
I can recommend both volumes, very great books! After I have mastered Katakana I will try the third volume, introducing Kanji.
By DH531
Format:Paperback
This is a fantastic follow-up from the first book, it's in the same style as the first book 'Let's Learn Hiragana' in that it'll show you how to write each character and you'll be given set of them to copy out several times. Then there are excercises in which you write out words using the katakana characters you've just learnt and as you progress you start to learn more and more characters and eventually won't have to keep referring back to the katakana chart.
The book also provides explanations on how to translate loan words ie. what characters to use and when and also other uses.
If you work through this book regularly to the end, you'll learn all the characters easily due to the sheer number of excercises. Towards the end it also gets you to write sentences in both katakana AND hiragana to let you practice switching back and forth between the two different scripts!
If that still doesn't convince you, there's even a word search in katakana near the end too :D
Great purchase and I can't wait to start the third book with Kanji!! XD
The book also provides explanations on how to translate loan words ie. what characters to use and when and also other uses.
If you work through this book regularly to the end, you'll learn all the characters easily due to the sheer number of excercises. Towards the end it also gets you to write sentences in both katakana AND hiragana to let you practice switching back and forth between the two different scripts!
If that still doesn't convince you, there's even a word search in katakana near the end too :D
Great purchase and I can't wait to start the third book with Kanji!! XD
Format:Paperback
I found this book very useful it broke down the katakana into nice easy segments and worked in new ones while keeping the old. The only problem was that I found very difficult to turn English words into Katakana though that is probably just me not quite getting it. It taught me more that just how to write them it explained how they are used and I found it very useful indeed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent way to learn katakana
If you are foolish enough to decide to learn the Japanese writing system then this series of books is just excellent. 6 stars. Read more
Published on 19 Jun 2011 by Paul Semicolon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!
Books arrived very quickly as promised. I was worried the paperbacks might be damaged in the post, but arrived in perfect condition. Would definitely use amazon again.
Published on 3 Jun 2011 by DD
5.0 out of 5 stars
I like it :P
I recently ordered this book and well yeah, it teaches you how to spell katakana
the book obviously lets you take a steady pace in learning japanese with some examples to test... Read more
the book obviously lets you take a steady pace in learning japanese with some examples to test... Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2011 by Ereos
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