Everyone focuses on hiragana first, but katakana unlocks a surprising amount of comprehension fast — because so many words are borrowed from English.
Katakana Gets No Respect
In the beginner Japanese community, katakana is often treated as the afterthought — learn hiragana first, then worry about katakana, then panic about kanji.
But I found katakana to be genuinely fun to learn, and here's why.
The Secret Superpower: Loanwords
Japanese has borrowed thousands of words from English (and other languages). These are written in katakana. Once you can read katakana, you immediately unlock words like:
- コーヒー (kōhī) — coffee
- コンピューター (konpyūtā) — computer
- アイスクリーム (aisukurīmu) — ice cream
- スマートフォン (sumātofon) — smartphone
- レストラン (resutoran) — restaurant
The phonetics change a bit, but your English vocabulary is suddenly a massive asset.
Katakana vs. Hiragana: Shape Logic
Hiragana characters are flowing and curved. Katakana characters are angular and sharp — think of them as the "printed" version vs. hiragana's "cursive."
Compare:
- ひ (hi) vs. ヒ (HI)
- か (ka) vs. カ (KA)
My Timeline
Katakana took me about 10 days after hiragana — the pattern recognition transferred, and the loanword motivation kept me going.
Recommended Resource
The Remembering the Kana book by James Heisig has great mnemonics for both scripts. Worth the few dollars.