Are looking for materials to learn katakana with? You came to the right place, because we have a perfect book for you, and it’s available for free.
Maybe you’ve just finished studying hiragana, or you’re one the many people who procrastinated getting your hands on katakana for a long time (no judgement, I feel you). Either way — or, even if you don’t apply to either, as long as you want to study katakana and want to be able to read those somewhat futuristic-looking Japanese characters, check out Tofugu’s Learn Katakana book.
If you are already familiar with Tofugu’s Learn Hiragana Book, you already have an idea of what it is like. It comes in PDF format so you can print it out or use it on your tablet. For Japanese teachers and tutors out there, you are welcome to use this material with your students too.
Just like its hiragana version, it is based on the Learn Katakana: Ultimate Guide that uses visual memory hints (mnemonics).
What’s different from the Ultimate Guide is that this book comes with writing practice. It’s more important to be able to read the katakana first, but this extra hands-on practice will help you remember them, not just let you remember how to write katakana or practice handwriting them prettily.
There are also review pages throughout the book to review what you’ve learned up until that point. You’ll be filling in the romaji reading of the corresponding kana. Through some of the quizzes, you get to see some examples of how katakana are actually used, too. For example, some show Japanese words that are commonly written in katakana, and others show katakana transcribing foreign words.
<figcaption> Click to download the PDF </figcaption> If you are printing this out on paper, it fits nicely on a standard 8.5 x 11 inch (or A4 size) piece of paper. You can of course use it on your tablet too. Enjoy!
