Japanese - Katakana

Katakana カタカナ

Katakana is the second syllabary system used in Japanese. This set of characters is not used as much now as it was pre-WWII but it is still important to know. Katakana is usually used for loan words like テーブル (teeburu = table, English) and アルバイト (arubaito = arbeit, German). It is also used for foreign names, like アンディ (Andi = Andy) and キャシー (Kyashii = Kathy).

You will also sometimes see Japanese words written in katakana for no apparent reason. Sometimes it is used to put emphasis on a word (like using all CAPS in English). But there are other times when it is used and honestly I have no idea why. For example, kaeru is "frog." This word has a kanji character (蛙) and as far as I know it is a Japanese word. But I almost always see it written in katakana as カエル.

I'm not going to give you a full lesson in katakana because it works JUST like hiragana. (The accents and slides all work exactly the same.)
So I will just give you a list of the basic characters and then some links just like I did in the hiragana lesson. If you have not read the hiragana lesson first then you need to stop here and go do that now before going on with katakana.

About.com → http://japanese.about.com/od/howtowritekatakana/How_to_Write_Katakana.htm

Writing practice → http://kotoba.littlestar.jp/katakana-50.html

SOUND FILES! → http://www.languageguide.org/im/alpha/jp/katakana.jsp

------------------------Katakana--------------------------

ア　a　　　　イ　i　　　　ウ　u　　　　エ　e　　　　オ　o

カ　ka　　　キ　ki　　　ク　ku　　　　ケ　ke　　　コ　ko

サ　sa　　　シ　shi　　ス　su　　　セ　se　　　ソ　so

タ　ta　　　チ　chi　　　ツ　tsu　　　テ　te　　　ト　to

ナ　na　　　ニ　ni　　　ヌ　nu　　　ネ　ne　　　ノ　no 

ハ　ha　　　ヒ　hi　　　フ　fu　　　ヘ　he　　　ホ　ho 

マ　ma　　　ミ　mi　　 ム　mu　　メ　me　　　モ　mo

ヤ　ya　　　　　　　　　　ユ　yu　　　　　　　　　　ヨ　yo

ラ　ra　　　 リ　ri　　　　ル　ru　　　レ　re　　 ロ　ro

ヲ　(w)o　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ン　–n