Hiragana and Katakana practise material（PDF）

Since you’re already learning Katakana, why not practice it alongside loanword vocabulary?

Japanese is a language with a long history of successfully adopting foreign words. In fact, Kanji—as well as Hiragana and Katakana, which evolved from Kanji—originally came from China. Ever since introducing written characters, Japanese has incorporated and developed a vast number of foreign loanwords.

While many loanwords today originate from English, there are also many terms from German and French, as well as older borrowings from Dutch and Portuguese, and even Sanskrit through Buddhist terminology.

It’s a fascinating topic that offers a glimpse into the history of how Japan and its language have interacted with foreign countries.

This time, I am sending you two types of exercises: filling in the Hiragana and Katakana charts, and practicing with the Katakana words mentioned earlier.

To reiterate, the purpose of using the charts is to develop an intuitive, physical feel for the Japanese writing system, which is built on combinations of consonants and vowels. I included the chart practice feature in our learning app precisely because gaining this intuitive grasp serves as the foundation for both pronunciation and vocabulary building.

Additionally, learning Katakana words helps highlight the differences between English-style and Japanese-style pronunciation concepts. It is an effective way to perceive "Japanese-style pronunciation" and understand how native speakers process sounds in general.

Please give it a try!