Any tips for improving katakana reading?

Japanese Language Reading
#1

Hello there!

I think it’s common among Japanese learners a difficulty regarding reading katakana. I think it’s the small exposure we have of them. Almost all WK content, for example, is in hiragana, so when I’m using WK I’m improving my hiragana skill as well, and I’m noticing it! I can read hiragana a LOT faster than 2 months ago (there is still room for improvement, but I’m quite happy with the level I’m achieved). But katakana is a whole other story, I read it as slow as a turtle and I don’t know how to improve it… like, I tried using apps for learning katakana, but in the end of the day they are 1) really boring and repetitive and 2) they are only useful for learning to read the characters, not to improve reading full words - at least the apps I downloaded.

So that’s why I created this little post, anyone has any tips for improving katakana reading in a natural way? Like I said, hiragana improved “naturally” because I’m always exposed to it in my daily Japanese study, but words written in katakana are so sparse… I really wanted that somebody made a script that switched WK to katakana just for the sake of training it!

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#2

I’ll just throw in this post I made on another thread:

With that, you’ll see and type anything on’yomi in katakana - as it should be :wink:

#3

The natural way is just reading a lot…sorry to burst your bubble there…

I feel you though. I remember how much of a pain katakana was at first. The more you read though, the more it starts to be easy and natural. I still make a mistake now and again though so I should probably read more too…

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#4

I think the trick is just with reading a bunch of katakana words. Or better yet, learning a bunch of katakana words :wink: For that I recommend Kitsun and going to the Community decks’ section to start learning the 4500 katakana words’ deck available there.

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#5

Yes, I know is by reading, but the trouble is that, even reading, they are sparse! I’m not yet ready to read a book… but maybe if WK were in katakana I would be reading it frequently.

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#6

That’s why I recommended the userscripts :wink:
Definitely second the Kitsun recommendation though :+1:

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#7

Is this deck: Katakana 4.5k by hinekidori?

ps: thanks so much!!

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#8

By I didn’t find an userscript that converts WK to katakana, is there one?

#9

Yes, that one! I linked it in my first comment :slight_smile:

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#10

Dude, you fully solved my problem! Two problems by the way, I was also worried that I was not learning katakana words, now I will improve my katakana reading skills and learn katakana vocab, hurray!

I know it’s asking too much, but WK could add katakana vocab to the levels…it really feels that’s is a major thing that’s missing here.

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#11

The second one - “katakana madness” displays and queries the on’yomi readings of kanji in katakana. It doesn’t turn everything into katakana, but it’s better than nothing.

#12

Haha, great that it helped you! :slight_smile:

Btw, if you’re using Genki, there’s also a deck for Genki vocab that will definitely help you stay ahead while you’re studying the grammar. Any questions about Kitsun, ask on Kitsun’s thread. The creator is always ready to help.

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#13

If you have a netflix account, you can switch thr language to japanese. That way all the american titles are in katakana

#14

get “katakana madness”. the majority of readings you’ll see here is onyomi, those are written in katakana, and the script does just that.

#15

That’s what I keep saying ^^

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#16

oh, not gonna steal your credits. just thought i’d second the recommendation and provide a link :slight_smile:

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#17

The link was in my first post :wink:

Maybe the OP will notice it easier in yours though.

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#18

as long as they do notice it, めでたしめでたしヽ(’ ')ﾉ

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#19

I play Japanese video games. They use katakana all over. ゲーム、スタート、オプション、メニュー、カストムアイズ、ギャラリー、リトライ、キャンセル、…

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#20

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