Learn Katakana: The Free Chart and How to Read It

Katakana is the second Japanese script, and it represents exactly the same 46 sounds as hiragana — just with different shapes. So if you already know hiragana, you're really only learning new symbols for sounds you can already say. Katakana is used for loanwords (words borrowed from English and other languages), foreign names, onomatopoeia, and for emphasis (like italics in English).

Here's why it's worth the effort: a huge amount of everyday Japanese — menus, shop signs, technology, brand names — is written in katakana, and a lot of it is borrowed from English. Once you can read it, you'll suddenly "understand" hundreds of words you already know: コーヒー (kōhī, coffee), パン (pan, bread), テレビ (terebi, TV), コンビニ (konbini, convenience store).

The 46 basic characters, by row:

• Vowels: ア a · イ i · ウ u · エ e · オ o
• K: カ ka · キ ki · ク ku · ケ ke · コ ko
• S: サ sa · シ shi · ス su · セ se · ソ so
• T: タ ta · チ chi · ツ tsu · テ te · ト to
• N: ナ na · ニ ni · ヌ nu · ネ ne · ノ no
• H: ハ ha · ヒ hi · フ fu · ヘ he · ホ ho
• M: マ ma · ミ mi · ム mu · メ me · モ mo
• Y: ヤ ya · ユ yu · ヨ yo
• R: ラ ra · リ ri · ル ru · レ re · ロ ro
• W: ワ wa · ヲ wo · ン n

One special mark: the long-vowel dash ー stretches the sound before it — so コーヒー is "kōhī," not "kohi."

Tips to learn it fast:

• Learn it right after hiragana, while your momentum is high.
• Anchor each character to a loanword you already know — メニュー (menu), ホテル (hotel), カメラ (camera).
• Watch the tricky look-alikes: シ shi vs ツ tsu, and ソ so vs ン n. The stroke direction is the giveaway — practise these as a pair.
• Give yourself about a week, the same way you did for hiragana.

With both kana scripts under your belt, you can read anything phonetically — the perfect time to grow your vocabulary on Komichi's free study decks and aim for JLPT N5.