How will you memorize the symbols?

Konnichiwa! I have a question. Last time, I did Lesson 1.0 and 1.1 over and over again. But unfortunately, I can't remember writing down the symbols. How many more practices should I learn to write down the Japanese symbols. Is there a Lesson which you can learn about symbols, like what (こ) this means as a letter?

I memorized them over a week period. I practiced HARD though... Look at the grammar lessons, they show all the symbols. Over the lessons, you'll be introduced to more. I couldn't stand waiting, so I memorized all the hiragana and katakana symbols immediately, lol... Practice by writing the symbol over and over again while saying it aloud. It helped me, and seriously concentrate on the symbol, don't go thinking about other things while writing it down. :]

No, there aren't any specific lessons dedicated to the kana of Japanese. However, I "memorized" (I'd say it better as learned) the symbols by having a cheat sheet of kana right next to me as I attempted to read materials in Japanese. As I read more and more I needed the sheet less (now I hardly even have to pull it out... I think I may have lost it even xD). A Japanese teacher from school lent me one of their books called サザエさん. Which apparently was the book that is believed to have been the origin of Manga (or so I've been told). Regardless the book consisted primarily of Hiragana and katakana and the few kanji in there had furigana. The book contained english in the quote bubbles of the cartoons, and the original japanese characters in the left/right margin (whatever was closer to the center of the book). I would read the english stuff just to possibly get any culture facts out of it. Then read the Japanese for the kana practice. What you could do is try to find other books like this online or just go visit a Japanese website and do your best to read it with the characters and cheat sheet. Also you could simply just trying reading from the kana section provided with the audio lessons. As for a kana cheat sheet I just google image searched for one and found one that had both and were organized by their different categories. As far as K73SK's methods go, while that method can help you learn them really quickly. If you don't maintain the usage of the symbols though you will forget them very quickly! With my reading strategy the same could be said too, but also since it takes you so long just a single dialogue that you won't be able to read an entire book all that fast. So eventually when you get bored or just tired/confused you can set down the book and come back to it. This will kinda force yourself to repeatedly use the characters until you can read them relatively easily. As a matter of fact when I read Sazae-San (That's what the book's name is in romaji) I spent over 2 months just getting 103 pages read, and well I still had around 65 pages left to read before finishing the book. There was mild procrastination in there too. However I can pretty much read all the kana thrown at me. So yeah... 頑張ってをください！ (Do your best!) それでは、またじかいね。 (Until next time) ファーステンベーグデレック

Try James Heisig book on Remembering the Kana. He is very well known for his Kanji books. They both work very well for me. I learning hiragana and Katakana in the matter of a few hours. Able to write all full kana tables from memory after a few days to a week. It is a bit different angle on learning opposed to the strict repetition method. Perhaps you will like it.

@ Derek (didn't read all your post, just the first few paragraphs :P) , The grammar lessons DO teach kana...hiragana and katakana both... Starting at lesson 4, you start learning the hiragana by the sets from the list. Lessons go all the way to lesson 25 Starting at lesson 26 to 29 is katakana (faster since you basically learned how the combination of hiragana works...you'll learn new combo's with katakana I think... i haven't been that far to be honest.

I was thinking audio lessons, my bad xD.

The key to learning symbols is mnemocis and practice. Mnemonics. Look at the sign and make association with it (for example き looks like "key"). There were a really good tread on hiragana mnemonics on this site, but I don't remember where. Practice. Choose what you like. You can read with cheet sheet. Or write in writing sheets (I like "A Guide to Writing Kanji & Kana Book 1-2", also found a cute one in Spanish "Kana (el metodo facil y divertido)". Also there are a lot of games to practice (I like this one http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/, but there are plenty more on the net). Or - and funny songs http://genkienglish.net/genkijapan/hiraganasong.htm and http://genkienglish.net/genkijapan/katakanasong.htm

Arigato Elena-san for your insightful post! -Sayaka