The Katakana Efficiency Topic Extravaganza!

[anon13772335]

Hello my dear fellow WK users! I’ve been walking the forums for a couple of years now. After a troublesome Japanese learning months (moved out, and all with all my learning had a 2 month pause), I decided to refresh everything and reset to lvl 1!

So, I always had a little trouble with Katakana. The reading always was fine when the single katakana is shown, but when trown togeter, I always have to look. Let me say, I’m not that fluent with Katakana as with Hiragana. BUT! There’s a way. The WK-Community way. I deceided to start this topic not only to help myself out, but also fellow Katakana hardshippers (don’t even know that is a word though.)!

I want to create a list of resources, tips and tricks to help each other out with this writing system. This entry will be updated to reflect the changes of the topic.

List of resources:

WaniKani Related:

[Userscript] WaniKani Katakana Madness

This is Katakana Madness. Basically this script transforms all on’yomi readings to katakana, including dashboard, all the overview and infopages and even the lessons and reviews. From now on you need to answer your on’yomi readings in katakana. The input field automatically changes your input to katakana, so don’t worry just answer them like you always did. Reviews: [image] Overview: [image] And every other page… Download: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/26481-wanikani-katakana-madn…

Minimalist rapid-fire kana review tool

I’m not really planning to add features to this or enhance it in any significant way (mobile optimisation isn’t great, but it’s usable), but it exists now, so I figured I’d share it in case anyone finds it useful: http://angry4squigs.uguu.ca/ It’s exactly what it looks like and what it says in the footer: hiragana and katakana drills as quickly as you can type, with no polish whatsoever. It should only take a couple of minutes to go through the set each day, leaving only the characters you str…

Helpful Other Sites:
[Read the Kanji] https://www.readthekanji.com/
[Real Kana] https://m.realkana.com/
[Evans Easy Japanese] Katakana - EVAN'S EASY JAPANESE
[Tofugu] Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide

Katakana Games/Apps:

[Radish8]

How about this script (which I admittedly haven’t tried myself)?

[Userscript] WaniKani Katakana Madness

This is Katakana Madness. Basically this script transforms all on’yomi readings to katakana, including dashboard, all the overview and infopages and even the lessons and reviews. From now on you need to answer your on’yomi readings in katakana. The input field automatically changes your input to katakana, so don’t worry just answer them like you always did. Reviews: [image] Overview: [image] And every other page… Download: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/26481-wanikani-katakana-madn…

There’s also the ‘Learn Japanese to Survive’ games, which include a katakana version. Again, I haven’t played these myself, but I see them mentioned quite frequently:

[anon13772335]

Thanks, I updated the main entry. I do use the Wanikani Katakana Madness script. It does help, to be honest. It’s a great Userscript.

[Radish8]

No problem - I think they’re the two most well-known resources, haha, just getting in early! I do keep meaning to try the script, but it looks a little intense.

[cybershark]

You should add https://m.realkana.com to the list. I used it to learn the hiraganas, when i started. It also features katakana and is aviable for ios. You should give it a try

[fl0rm]

I threw Minimalist rapid-fire kana review tool together last year to be able to review all katakana over about two minutes each day.

[idiomargot]

@Radish8

This is Katakana Madness.

This is an excellent script. On’yomis in katakana and kun’yomis in hiragana.

[idiomargot]

I’ve been thinking about the katakana issue…

I know all the katakana but they don’t come to me as snappy as hiragana does, probably because sentences tend to contain more hiragana than katakana.

The katakana games/apps that I’ve seen do this.

カ - ka, テ-te, ン - n - katakana to romaji or vice versa

I think being tested like this would be better.

カ - か, テ -て, ン - ん being quizzed between katakana and hiragana

Does anyone know of a resource that does this?

@fl0rm

to be able to review all katakana over about two minutes each day.

Does your tool do what I’m talking about?

[fl0rm]

@idiomargot

Does your tool do what I’m talking about?

No, it does not, nor do I think the interface presents itself in such a way as to suggest that it does. It’s really just that one page you see upon clicking the link.

[anon13772335]

Updates. Also added Read The Kanji in there. For people who don’t know what it is, it is awesome! It does have a subscription fee of only $4.

[Radish8]

I stumbled across that late last year and thought it looked very intriguing. I had already started WaniKani though, and wasn’t clear whether there was any merit in using both (and if so, would it be better to use them in parallel, or start Read the Kanji after finishing WaniKani?).

Any thoughts? I could do the free trial, but I’m trying to avoid ending up with three billion accounts for Japanese learning resources I don’t use, so any insight before I take the plunge would be appreciated

[durtle]

Katakana

Never used it, but the Spiderman reading practice seems like a really good way to practice

[anon13772335]

@Radish8

I stumbled across that late last year and thought it looked very intriguing. I had already started WaniKani though, and wasn’t clear whether there was any merit in using both (and if so, would it be better to use them in parallel, or start Read the Kanji after finishing WaniKani?).

Any thoughts? I could do the free trial, but I’m trying to avoid ending up with three billion accounts for Japanese learning resources I don’t use, so any insight before I take the plunge would be appreciated

Depends. Are you willing to take the JLPT at one point? Not only tests this site the Hiragana and Katakana, but also the JLPT vocab. Study an hour a day (divided in simple 15 minutes stints) and it will be might effective. Worth the money IMHO.[quote=“durtle, post:12, topic:30706, full:true”]

Katakana

Never used it, but the Spiderman reading practice seems like a really good way to practice
[/quote]

Added!

[cynthia188]

Tofugu is a really great place to learn katakana, and I’m pretty sure it’s affiliated with WK too. They have amazing mnemonics for each kana, it helped me a lot.

Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide

[anon13772335]

@cynthia188

Tofugu is a really great place to learn katakana, and I’m pretty sure it’s affiliated with WK too. They have amazing mnemonics for each kana, it helped me a lot.

Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide

It is. I even thought there was a sheet aviable to download.

[SamuelDizzo]

I just did the realkana link on the first few days, like religiously… like seriously unlike me as someone who never studied much before. Now that it’s been over two weeks, I only mixed up one katakana so far and I don’t even remember which one it was.
I should review them all again and simulate spaced repetition, but I want to know them well enough to write in quick succession on a whiteboard.