Remembering the Hiragana/Katakana
The first task is to learn the two phonetic syllabaries used in Japanese. Each has 46 basic symbols (plus a few extras). They’re not too hard to learn — I learned the hiragana in about a week by rote memorization. But then I bought this book and learned the katakana in about one hour!
This book is cheap and effective, and it is also an excellent primer for the methods used in the far more complex Remembering the Kanji books, which I also describe on this website.
Related reading
Remembering the Kanji — study cards
James Heisig If you are learning kanji using James Heisig's Remembering the Kanji books, these study cards are invaluable. Heisig recommends... Kenneth Henshall This book is a really interesting exploration into the origins of the 2000 most common kanji in Japanese. It... James Heisig I think this is the best method available for learning kanji, but it's not for everyone. This first volume teaches... Len Walsh This excellent book is great value. The kanji (Chinese characters) used in Japanese seem impossible to learn at first...