Throughout my time learning the Japanese Language, thus far, I’ve been asked if I know hiragana and katakana; It is a good way to measure a beginner Japanese learner’s skill level. I would always answer that I knew my kana well; I knew the phonetic sounds and how to write Japanese characters on my computer.
Yet when I was asked by my Japanese tutor, Rio sensei, who is thankfully very specific in regards to learning the Japanese language, I thought, no problem. Yet, there’s a twist: say them aloud, in order and then write them out, by hand, without any reference. Fail. I knew some, but many I simply drew a mental blank.
Thus, Rio provided me a handy sheet for practicing hiragana and katakana . Thus far I’ve completed 80 sheet of kana practice. That’s approximately 12,300 individually written kana; does your arm hurt after that. This is over a time span of about five months now.
That said, there are a few pesky kana, particularly katakana, that I blank on. While the previous kana worksheets are great for learning form and order, I have devised a new work sheet to help with memorization; unaided recall.
This new sheet has no sample kana to sample from; it is just you and your memory. I like to write vertically, right to left, and stream through hiragana then katakana, in proper order. If I blank, I leave a space and move on.
Download the new Write Japanese practice sheet . [3mb, pdf] Print this out, double sided if you can, and write the full hiragana and katakana alphabets from your memory.
Thus, I know that I frequently forget: め(me), も(mo) in hiragana and ヌ(nu), ネ(ne), メ(me), モ(mo), ル(ru), レ(re) in katakana.
What hiragana and katakana do you seem to always forget?