RealKana is an oldy but a goody. If you’re just starting to learn Japanese (see Tofugu’s reviews of Japanese textbooks to get started!) there’s a good chance you’ll be learning hiragana. When tackling hiragana, there are a bunch of different ways to go about it. In fact, you should do a bunch of different things, it’s the best way to learn hiragana and then get comfortable with it. One of the resources you should be using is RealKana. It’s a very simple application that lets you choose which hiragana to study, what fonts you want to see them in (different fonts will have slightly different looking kana in some cases), and then study them in flashcard style format. There’s nothing fancy, but you don’t need anything fancy because you’re only going to be learning hiragana for a set amount of time. If you’re learning hiragana (or are still working on hiragana) give this site a try.
Pros
- Free!
- Allows you to study with different fonts. This is great because some kana look different when in different fonts (as well as when typed / hand written). This will help you to figure out those differences.
- Allows you to choose columns to limit what you’re studying. Only know columns あ through な? No problem, you can choose to study only those and ignore the rest (for now!).
- Also has Katakana, too, for when you get there.
Cons
- Doesn’t save your progress.
- Might be overly simple for some people (though I think the simplicity is a good thing, and not a con).
Final Word?
If you’re learning hiragana or having trouble with it, drill on RealKana for a while. You’ll see your hiragana improve.