What are kana, anyway?
Kana are two "alphabets" (or "syllabaries") used in Japanese. They can write out any Japanese word, so these are the building blocks to reading and writing. The two kana are hiragana and katakana. Each are made up of ~about~ 46 characters each. Every sound in Japanese (except n/m) ends in a vowel. For instance, there's ka, ki, ku, ke, and ko. Each of the syllabaries, hiragana and katakana, have exactly the same sounds. But uses for either alphabet differ from one another.
Katakana
I'm being a little cavalier here in putting katakana first. No reason, though it's the slightly more interesting of the two. Katakana is usually likened to our use of italics in the West. We use them for animal names (e.g., tyrannosaurus rex), sound effects (e.g., Pop! Pop!), putting emphasis on a word (e.g., "Wait, you said you want to learn Japanese?"), and foreign words (e.g., "Now, Sam, learning Japanese is not exactly de rigeur."), among others. In this way, katakana is used.
Hiragana
Is for everything else. It's for any native Japanese language. This entry is awfully bare, so let me add a tidbit: when you're looking for reading material to practice your comprehension, if you find something with kanji in it (the more complicated-looking characters), make sure they have "furigana." Furigana are little hiragana characters next to the kanji to you can read them and look up their meanings.
How to get started
I know I put katakana first in the blog, so this is the price I pay for being cavalier. When you're learning the kana, I would start with hiragana. Put it this way: when foreigners are learning English, do they start with sound effects or foreign words? No. Hiragana is the more used of the two. And lucky you, you can master both of these in a couple weeks if you really put your nose to the grindstone.
Write the characters
Familiarize yourself. Spend some time with each character. Pick a system that works for you. Do all the K sounds first, or all the ones that end in "o." Or do all the ones you think are cute or funny. Personalize your process, but connect with each character.
Read the characters
I got a Sailor Moon manga from the library (with furigana, yes) and spent many hours sounding my way through it like a toddler. You may get the strange sensation that you can read it, but you have no idea what you're saying. You're not alone. However, when you finally find a word you know, it will feel so good. I remember reading "to...mo...da...tomodachi... tomodachi!! FRIEND!" I was very excited.
Write the characters again
This is where rote repetition came in handy for me. And this is where you get another insight into... well, you'll see.
I was very bored at work, and it was a slow night. I was alone at my job, so I decided to practice my katakana (by the way, I carried around a copy of the hiragana and katakana for WEEKS to review, since I kept forgetting them). Since katakana are used for foreign words... I really have little explanation for this. The syllabaries have every sound in the Japanese combination, so you can easily write out, say, English in basically a Japanese accent. So I wrote out the lyrics to "Shorty Got Low."
ショーティ・ゴト・ゼム・アップルボットム・ジーンズ
ザ・ブツ・ウィス・ザ・ファー
ザ・ホール・クラーブ・ワズ・ルーキング・アト・ハー
シ・ヒト・ザ・フロア
ネクスト・シング・ユー・ノ
ショティ・ゴト・ロ・ロ・ロ・ロ・ロ・ロ・ロ・ロ
Shooti goto zemu appuru bottomu jiinzu
Za bootsu wisu za faa
Za whoru kurabu wazu rukingu ato haa
She hito za furoa
Nekusuto shingu yuu no
Shoti goto ro ro ro ro ro ro ro ro
I was already giggling to myself, but I about died when I got to the "ro ro ro" part, and I kid you not, I still think of that every time I write the ロ character. So make it fun for yourself! Report back with your progress :)
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