Kodansha's Katakana Workbook: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing [Paperback]

Katakana is a Japanese syllabary and a component of the kana system to read English or foreign words not native to Japan and are derived from components of complex kanji.

If you are a new to learning Japanese, you may have just finished learning how to read and write Japanese in hiragana but now you are realizing that for English words, the Japanese use a whole different syllables to read those words. So, on top of hiragana, now you will need to learn katakana.

When I first started out learning Japanese and before I went to college to minor in Japanese, it was important for me to learn katakana. If you are a foreigner from another country, you will need to write your name in katakana. Go to a restaurant or even a public restroom, you will notice signs that are in katakana. If you are an avid anime viewer or manga reader, you will notice that titles such as "Dragon Ball Z" and "Bleach" are written in katakana. And as daunting as it seems, that you have to learn another syllable system in addition hiragana, you will eventually learn to read and write katakana.

Like hiragana (which you should actually try to learn first), the first thing you will learn is that in Japanese, you will need to learn the a,i,u,e,o but then you move on to the ka, ki, ku ke, ko and then sa, shi, su, se, so and then eventually using the "t's", "n's", "h's", "m's", "y's", "r's", "w's" and others such as "n", "g's", "z's", "j's", "d's", "b's" and "p's". As difficult as it may seem, the truth is that katakana is quite easy to learn and possibly after a week of studying, you will be learning how to read and write words in no time.

I have had the opportunity to test a few katakana workbooks over the years and primarily the workbooks focus on two principles:

* Learning the stroke order of how a katakana is written
* Writing the katakana, for example, "ka" several dozen times.

"KODANSHA'S KATAKANA WORKBOOK: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing" by Anne Matsumoto Stewart was actually a bit of a surprise because you write the katakana symbols about 16 times but then after each lesson, you start learning and writing words.

You also learn how to write the symbols in the correct order. So, for an example, symbols like ri and n are written differently. With "ri", you are writing top going down. While with "n" you are writing the bottom stroke from bottom to top. So, it makes it easier on the eye especially when things are handwritten.

After learning how to write and read these vowels and eventually the syllables, then you will start learning more and eventually in the book you will start learning to write words.

Rarely do workbooks have you start writing the words down. So, the book does a great job in getting the person to learn how to write words immediately.

So, writing and repetition is a quick way to learn how to write katakana but the book also includes flash cards. So, you can practice with a partner who can quiz you on your katakana skills which is wonderful.

Some people find it easier to have a teacher than learning from a book because it helps with pronunciation. For example:

a (is pronounced as "ah"), i (is pronounced like the letter "e"), u (is pronounced like "ew"), e (is pronounced as "eh") and o (is pronounced as "oh"). So, a word like "anime", and I know many people who never learned Japanese start off and pronouncing it as "ah-neem) but you want to pronounce it like "ah-ni-may". So, Kodansha International allows the user of this book to go online to their site and learn how to pronounce the symbols and words correctly. Here is an example.

This is important because for those who don't go through a class on pronunciation, these MP3's are wonderful in learning how to pronounce the words. And most katakana workbooks do not offer audio files to learn from.

So, it takes a bit of time learning to see how the words are used in Japanese writing and then eventually, you start to catch on. It's not easy at first learning the long vowels but eventually, you get a hang of it.

"KODANSHA'S KATAKANA WORKBOOK: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing" is probably the best workbook that I have seen on learning how to write and read katakana. It goes beyond the learning of the strokes and writing the symbol dozens of times but offers you the chance to learn words, write words, use of flash cards and also download audio files through the Kodansha International website for this book.

If you are wanting to learn katakana, I highly recommend this workbook!

this is a great workbook. under each new katakana character you not only get writing practice but get to learn new vocab words. kodansha is an excellent company with great products for studying japanese.

if you are just starting out studying japanese you should know that first you learn hiragana then katakana then kanji.. most kanji learning books list the onyomi (chinese pronunciations) in katakana.. so having a good handle on katakana is helpful later on for kanji study.. this book will help.

in this book there are a ton of exercises to do. the flashcards come with a couple of fun game instructions to make using the flashcards fun..

the best part about the flashcards is that unlike other katakana card sets they include voiced and unvoiced ones and even contracted sounds (kya, ju, nyu....).. other sets dont include these so you end up having difficulty learning them later when you actually attempt reading katakana..

ok and also the flashcards are tinted light green.. like many people with dyslexia my poor reading skills are exacerbated by the glare of black writing on white paper. since the cards are colored i dont have that problem.

oh and the flashcards have pictures on the backs to cement the sounds in your brain (the regular katakana ones do but not the voiced/voiceless or the contracted sounds, but young usually learn those after mastering the regular katakana anyway)

i havent downloaded the audio file though.. so im not sure how good it is

if you havent learned hiragana i suggest you do that first..

The Katakana Workbook is a great self-study book. Very easy to understand and use and is a great learning tool. The flashcards are great and the recommended flashcard activities make learning fun. From Lesson 1, while learning to read and write katakana, I'm also learning useful words and building my vocabulary. A great deal for the price and I highly recommend this book for any beginner!