Kanji are mostly made up of symbols borrowed from Chinese writing, and are the most complex. With over 50,000 Kanji characters available (a mere 1,945 or so required to read a newspaper), even native speakers can struggle.

They both share the same 46 basic phonics, but use different written characters. The main difference between Hiragana and Katakana is usage.

Hiragana is used only for words and names that originated in Japan (such as Karate and Gundam). Katakana is used only for words and names that are not originally Japanese (such as Camping or Danica Patrick).

Once you have mastered the pronunciation and the characters represented by them, you are well on your way. Let's get started!

Let's begin with the vowels. In Japanese, they are A, I, U, E and O (in that order)

• A: Unlike the A in English, the correct pronunciation in Japanese is an ah sound (as in Father)
• I: The proper pronunciation here is the same as the English letter E (as in Feed)
• U: Unlike the "you" sound of English, the Japanese pronunciation is ew (as in Goo or two)
• E: This is pronounced Ay (as in Stay)
• O: This is pronounced like the English letter O (as in Sew)

• Here is a YouTube Video of a Japanese song using these basic sounds you can use to practice: A I U E O - Ka Ke Ku Ke Ko

Don't worry yet about the characters, just try and pick up on the basic pronunciation. (and enjoy the jingle!)

• Once you understand the vowels, you can move on to the other 41 basic Kana forms. These are created by adding various consonants to the beginning of vowels. Lets start with the K's:

• KA: Same as A from step 1, with a K sound at the beginning (as in Car)
• KI: Japanese I sound with a K added (as in Key)
• KU: U with a K added (as in Kool)
• KE: E with a K (as in Kate)
• KO: O with a K (as in Code)

• This process is repeated with a few variations as listed below:

• SA SHI SU SE SO
• SA: (as in Sock)
• SHI: (as in She)
• SU: (as in Sue)
• SE: (as in Say)
• SO: (as in Sew)

• TA CHI TSU TE TO:
• TA: (as in Taco)
• CHI: (as in Cheese Burger)
• TSU: This is pronounced like the name "Sue", but with a short T sound at the beginning (as in Tsunami)
• TE: (as in Table)
• TO: (as in Toe)

• NA NI NU NE NO:
• NA: (as in Nod)
• NI: (as in Knee)
• NU: (as in New)
• NE: (as in Neighbor)
• NO: (as in Know)

• HA HI HU HE HO
• HA: (as in Hog)
• HI: (as in Heat)
• HU: (as in Hoop)
• HE: (as in Hay)
• HO: (as in Whole)

• MA MI MU ME MO
• MA: (as in Mob)
• MI: (as in Meter)
• MU: (as in Moot)
• ME: (as in Maid)
• MO: (as in Moat)

• RA RI RU RE RO
• RA: (as in Rob)
• RI: (as in Read)
• RU: (as in Rude)
• RE: (as in Ray)
• RO: (as in Row)

• YA YU YO (there is no YI or YE sound):
• YA: (as in Yard)
• YU: (as in You)
• YO: (as in Yolk)

• WA: (as in Water)
• O: like the letter O (as in Boat)
• N: (as in the final part of Bun)

The most important thing for learning characters is practice, practice, practice. Start by using flash cards or computer based quizzes that show you the Japanese character and require you to answer with the English equivalent.

There are a few tricks to help you with memorization. One of the best is to think of a word or phrase that uses the sound for a character and in some way resembles the character.

There are two basic types. First are characters that are identical to one of the first 46, but have a small extra character stroke that changes their pronunciation. For example the character for HA in Katakana is ?. The character for PA is ?. And the character for BA is ?.

The other type are compounds formed by adding a small YA, YU or YO character to the end of another Kana. For example, KI in Katakana is ?. YA is ?. And the compound characters for KYA (KI + YA) is ??.

These additional forms follow a set patterns, so learning them is not too difficult once the building blocks are mastered.

One final note: You will sometimes see a dash following a character. The dash signifies a long vowel where you pronounce the sound for twice as long as normal. This is very important, as the length of pronunciation can change the meaning of a word.

For example, ???? (OBASAN) is Aunt. ????? (OBA-SAN with an A sound twice as long) means Grandmother!