Welcome to the Kana section of our suite. Hiragana and Katakana are probably what you're going to be reading the most in Japanese, so this is generally a good place to start your learning. If you want a quick primer, please head on over to the Wikipedia article on the Japanese writing system. It's very informative and well worth your time to give you a better understanding of what you're getting into if you're new to this.
For a very basic description, Hiragana is the basic characters used for writing Japanese words that don't have Kanji, for furigana, and for several other basic uses. Katakana is generally used for "borrowed words" from other languages, country names, onomatopoeia, personal names etc.
In this section of our application we have a few sub-applications for both Hiragana and Katakana, as well as a Kana matching game that I'll cover in a moment. For the Hiragana and Katakana sections, each has it's own versions of the following sub-applications; The Chart, Choice, Reverse, Recognition and Reading Practice, as well as an option to print out a practice sheet that you can use to practice writing the individual characters. Below I'll show examples of each and give a brief overview of their features.
The Chart
Let's start with the Chart. This lists all the general usage Hiragana or Katakana, depending on which you choose. You can view the romaji for each kana and optionally listen to its pronunciation by simply mousing over it. The tabs at the top allow you to browse through the basic unvoiced and voiced kana as well as the compound unvoiced and voiced kana.
Kana Choice
Next we have Hiragana or Katakana Choice. This is a simple little application that gives you a multiple choice exercise to allow you to choose the proper romaji from the 8 surrounding the center kana. The numbers to the bottom right show your total correct, total you've done so far, and the total number of choices for the test, based on which options you might choose. This brings us to the next point, the Options. You will see the options button to the lower left of the application. This will allow you to choose either Ordered or Random display of the choices as well as grade level(s). I personally found it easier to start out with Ordered and then switch to Random as I grew more familiar with them. Below that we have the "grade levels". These roughly correspond to splitting the sum of the kana into 10 parts... roughly advancing from the basic unvoiced kana through the basic voiced, compound unvoiced and compound voiced. This allows you to focus more on just the basic or advanced etc as you wish.
Kana Reverse
We also have Hiragana or Katakana Reverse. This is essentially identical to Hiragana/Katakana Choice, but as the name implies, in reverse. Now you must match the romaji in the center with the corresponding kana around it.
Kana Recognition
Kana Recogntion is a little test based on the honor system. The kana is displayed and you have to try to remember what its romaji is in your head. When you think you remember it, you click Reveal and see if the answer matches what you thought. Click on the appropriate Correct or Incorrect button to mark your score and advance to the next kana.
Kana Reading
Kana Reading Practice is actually the same application for both the Hiragana and Katakana sections, but simply defaults to one or the other depending on which menu you start it from. If you decide you want to try some other kana variations, rather than go back through the menu, you can also click the letter to the left of the box where you type the word to rotate through H for Hiragana, K for Katakana and HK for a random choice of either Hiragana or Katakana or both combined. This displays a word in Hiragana or Katana at the top, shows the same word with Kanji below that, if applicable, and beneath that gives the meaning. You get 3 chances to type in the romaji for that word at the bottom and hit ENTER to see if you got it correct. If you did, the box will flash green and you will advance to the next sentence. If not, the box will flash red and you will have to try again. If you can't figure it out and need the answer, you can hit the ESC key on your keyboard and the answer will be shown just above the entry box, otherwise it will be shown after 3 failed attempts. If you just want to skip past one, either just hit ENTER without typing anything, or click the blue arrow to advance to the next random question.
Kana Match
This is personally my favorite part of this whole section, and it's quite straightforward and simple. In the main area of the app we have a 5 x 4 grid of kana and their matching romaji, or matching kana if you're doing the Hiragana-Katakana matching game. You simply click on a kana or romaji and then on its match to clear the pair from the board.
At the bottom of the game we have your current level displayed, your current score, the time you have remaining for this board, and a pause button. You can also pause the game by hitting p or P on your keyboard, or by simply hitting the Space Bar.
As you progress through the levels, the timer will slowly count down faster and faster (but does restart with a full bar for each board). When you finally run out of time, your high score will be saved for you so that you can compete either against yourself or with someone else if you wish.
Print Practice Sheet
Last, but not least, we have the Print Practice Sheet option. This allows you to print out a nice set of all the kana for either Hiragana or Katakana to practice your writing skills. The print dialog will allow you to print to your choice of installed printer or set print options etc.
Contact Us