Now that's an easy one. Hiragana is the first thing people learn when they study Japanese and it is a relatively easy writing system to memorize. So in theory you can use any learning resource - be it a site, a textbook or a video, to learn it and have little to no problems in doing so.
However there is still a question of how effective you are in learning it. Think about time you need to spend to learn it - you can learn it in a couple of days, a week or a month (although that's a stretch). It can also be a fun activity or a boring errand, depending on the type of material you use to study it.
In my opinion there are two main sources for learning hiragana that you need as an absolute beginner.
Both can help you learn hiragana in no time (with help of mnemonics) and are easy and fun to use. These are:
- "Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide" - an article on the Tofugu blog, by Koichi.
- and "Learn ALL Hiragana in 1 Hour - How to Write and Read Japanese" a video posted on youtube by JapanesePod101.com
Let's take a closer look at each of these:
Lean Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide"
An article on Tofugu blog, written by Koichi, this guide covers pretty much everything you need to know about hiragana as a beginner and helps you learn it in practically no time (depending on how diligent you are).
It features explanations and mnemonics for all characters, small audio clips that you can play right away to practice your pronunciation and links to exercises and worksheets at the end of each section. After guiding you through all Hiragana, Koichi shares several links and suggestions for you to further progress in your studies of Japanese.
There is only one downside to it all - it doesn't teach you how to write. And I mean - it doesn't teach you any writing at all - no stroke order, nothing. Author makes a statement at the beginning of the guide, saying that:
... The need to write by hand is going down. Most of your written communication comes in the form of typing. Learning to read can be done very quickly and is very useful. Learning to write doubles or triples how long it takes to learn hiragana, with very little real-life benefit. It will be important to learn eventually, but for now you have more important fish to fry.
Eeeh~ I'm not sure about that :D I certainly understand his position but it feels kinda weird to me nevertheless...
But that's where the second resource for learning hiragana comes into play...
Learn ALL Hiragana in 1 Hour - How to Write and Read Japanese
... is a video, created by JapanesePod101.com and it is absolutely amazing :O
In one hour - Risa (host of the video) guides you through all the Hiragana alphabet. It has everything - pronunciation and writing guides (stroke order), examples of various fonts, practice words, quizzes at the end of each section and even comments and side notes on how some character are used in Japanese grammar.
I like that they pay attention to similarly-looking characters to help you differentiate between them.
A little advice on writing practice - you can practice writing on any sheet of paper as you follow along with the video, but I recommend you to print out this worksheet (from japanese-lessons.com). Just don't feel obligated to fill in ALL the squares right away - a frequent mistake made by beginners. "I'm gonna write this character a billion times - then I'll learn it!" - although it might work in theory, it's more likely to make you feel frustrated (and your hand will hurt a lot) :D A more efficient way to lean is to practice writing a little bit (for example write each character 10 times), and then try to remember them 5 minutes later on a separate sheet of paper. Trying to actively recollect hiragana (or anything else for that matter) from memory, especially if it ends with a success - will be much more effective than just writing it out like a zombie till your hand falls off.
All in all I suggest you to check out both of these resources, but if I was to choose just one - I'd go with the video by JapanesePod101.com (even with all my respect and fanaticism for Tofugu blog) :D It feels more complete and is a bit more enjoyable and easy to follow along (possibly due to it's video format).
But seriously, just check out both of them, don't be lazy :P
Header image: ZOJOJI TEMPLE IN TOKYO by Maria Tarasova (globalmary.com), taken from barnimages.com (link). Image has been edited to add text and a frame in Snapseed.
Screenshot of "Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide" is well, from the original post. Art by Aya Francisco.
All screenshots in Learn ALL Hiragana in 1 Hour - How to Write and Read Japanese, as well as thumbnail image are from corresponding YouTube video.
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