Japanese uses three writing systems at once, which is the single fact that puts more people off starting than anything else about the language. It sounds like three times the work. It is not.
The three systems do different jobs, they are learned in a sensible order, and a traveller genuinely does not need most of the third one. This article explains what each system is for, the order we teach them in, how long each realistically takes, and exactly what you can skip if your goal is a trip rather than fluency.
Written by native Japanese teachers who teach English-speaking adults in the UK.
The three systems, in one paragraph each
Hiragana
Forty-six basic characters, plus a small set of modifications. Curved, rounded shapes. Hiragana covers the grammatical machinery of Japanese: verb endings, particles, and any word that is not written another way. If you learn nothing else, learn this. It is the alphabet of Japanese in the sense that matters.
Katakana
The same set of sounds, written differently. Angular, sharp shapes. Katakana is used for words borrowed from other languages, for many foods and brands, for emphasis, and for a lot of menus and signage aimed at modern life. For a traveller it is disproportionately useful, because so much of what you will want to read (coffee, beer, hotel, taxi, chocolate) is written in it.
Kanji
Characters borrowed from Chinese, each carrying meaning rather than only sound. There are around two thousand in general use, and most have more than one reading. This is the part that takes years, and it is also the part you can approach selectively rather than exhaustively.
The order to learn them, and why
Hiragana, then katakana, then kanji as whole words. This is not arbitrary.
Hiragana first because everything else assumes it. Textbooks, dictionaries, furigana pronunciation guides above kanji, and children’s material are all built on hiragana. Learning it takes two to three weeks at twenty minutes a day and unlocks everything that follows.
Katakana second because it uses the same sounds you have just learned, so you are learning shapes rather than a new system. It is slightly harder than hiragana because several characters look similar to each other, and because borrowed words are often unrecognisable at first. Allow three to four weeks and expect it to feel slower.
Kanji third, and continuously. Not as a separate project, but as part of learning vocabulary. This is the single biggest difference between learners who make progress with kanji and learners who bounce off it.
Why romaji is a trap
Romaji is Japanese written in the Latin alphabet. It feels like a shortcut, and for the first fortnight it is one. After that it costs you.
- Your pronunciation drifts. Reading Japanese through English spelling pulls vowels and rhythm towards English, and those habits are hard to remove later.
- You cannot read anything real. No menu, sign, ticket machine or textbook uses romaji beyond the most tourist-facing places.
- You hit a ceiling around month three, because every resource beyond absolute beginner level assumes kana.
- Long vowels and double consonants blur. The distinctions that kana make obvious are exactly the ones romaji hides.
Use romaji for the first week if it helps you say your first phrases. Drop it as soon as hiragana is under way.
How to learn hiragana in two to three weeks
The method matters more than the material.
- Five characters a day, in the standard order, so that the pattern of the sound table becomes familiar at the same time as the shapes.
- Write them by hand. Not because you will hand-write Japanese later, but because handwriting recruits memory in a way that tapping does not.
- Review yesterday before adding today. Ten minutes of review, ten minutes of new.
- Read words, not characters, as soon as you can. Reading すし is worth more than drilling す and し separately.
- Do it daily and briefly. Twenty minutes a day for three weeks beats two hours on three Sundays, comfortably.
Expect a wall around day ten, when the newer characters start interfering with the older ones. That is normal, it passes, and the answer is more review rather than more new material.
Katakana: the traveller’s shortcut
If you are learning for a trip and short of time, katakana repays the effort faster than anything else, because so much of what a visitor reads is borrowed vocabulary.
A few patterns make it much less alien:
- English sounds get adapted to Japanese syllables. Once you accept that every consonant needs a vowel after it, a lot of words become guessable.
- A long dash marks a long vowel, which appears constantly in borrowed words.
- Some characters are easily confused with each other, particularly a few pairs that differ only in stroke direction. Learn those pairs together and deliberately.
- Read them aloud. Katakana words are usually recognisable by ear before they are recognisable by eye.
Practise on real things: a coffee shop menu, a convenience store shelf, a train station sign. Our guides to Japanese cafés and convenience stores are full of the vocabulary you will meet.
Kanji: what to learn, and what to leave
The mistake almost everyone makes is treating kanji as a list to memorise from the beginning. It is not a list, it is vocabulary.
Learn kanji as whole words
電車 (train) is more useful and more memorable than learning 電 and 車 separately with all their readings. Meaning and reading come attached to the word, and readings that seemed arbitrary in isolation start to make sense across several words.
Recognition before writing
For most modern learners, being able to read a character matters far more than being able to write it from memory, because writing happens on a phone with predictive input. Learn to recognise first. Handwriting practice is still useful for memory, but it is a study technique rather than the goal.
The first hundred should be practical
Numbers, days, directions, entrance and exit, station names, prices, large and small, male and female. These appear constantly and are individually simple.
What you can safely postpone
Rare readings, calligraphic forms, stroke-order perfectionism, and kanji you have never met in a real sentence. If you have not seen it, you do not need it yet.
If your goal is a trip, here is what you actually need
This is the honest, minimal version. It will make a two-week trip noticeably easier.
- Hiragana: read it, slowly, without decoding character by character. Do not worry about writing it.
- Katakana: read it. This is the highest-value item on the list for a traveller.
- About twenty to thirty kanji, chosen for signage: entrance, exit, north, south, east, west, station, toilet, men, women, yen, large, medium, small, open, closed, and the numbers.
- Nothing else in writing. Spend the remaining time on speaking and listening instead.
You can reach that point in around six to eight weeks of light study. Our guide to reading Japanese signs, stations and addresses covers the practical side, and essential Japanese phrases for travellers covers what to say.
If your goal is to actually learn the language
Then the writing system is not an obstacle to get past; it is a large part of the learning itself.
- Months 1 to 2: both kana, properly, plus the first kanji as words.
- Months 3 to 12: kanji arriving continuously with vocabulary, reaching a few hundred by the end of the first year.
- Year 2 onwards: reading real material, which is where kanji growth accelerates because you meet characters in context repeatedly.
The reason kanji feels impossible in year one and manageable in year three is that reading does most of the work once you can read at all. We put numbers on the whole arc in How Long Does It Take to Learn Japanese?
Five mistakes that cost people months
- Staying on romaji “just until I am comfortable”. You will not become comfortable; you will become dependent.
- Learning kanji from a chart instead of from words. Isolated characters with five readings each are almost impossible to retain.
- Trying to learn all three systems at once. Sequence them. Hiragana, then katakana, then kanji within vocabulary.
- Skipping katakana because it looks less important. For travel it is arguably the most important.
- Perfectionism about stroke order. It helps with memory and with handwriting recognition, and it is not worth stalling over in week two.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to learn all three writing systems?
To read real Japanese, yes. For a trip, both kana and a couple of dozen kanji are enough.
How long does hiragana take?
Two to three weeks at around twenty minutes a day for most adults. Katakana usually takes slightly longer because the shapes are less distinctive.
Which should I learn first, hiragana or katakana?
Hiragana, without exception. Everything else assumes it.
How many kanji do I need to read a menu?
Fewer than you think, because many menus use kana and pictures. A few dozen food-related characters covers most of it. Our guide to ordering food in Japan shows the ones that recur.
Can I learn kana from an app?
Yes, and apps are genuinely good at this specific job. Where apps are weak is grammar, particles and correction, which is where a teacher earns their place.
Is handwriting worth learning at all?
For memory in the early stages, yes. As a practical skill for a traveller, no.
The mix-ups that catch everyone
A handful of characters cause almost all the confusion in the first month. Learning them deliberately as pairs, rather than meeting them separately and mixing them up for weeks, saves a lot of frustration.
- In hiragana: the pairs that differ only by a small loop or the direction of a tail. Write them side by side and say them aloud together.
- In katakana: several characters differ only in the angle or length of a stroke. This is the main reason katakana feels harder than hiragana despite being the same number of characters.
- Across the two systems: a few hiragana and katakana characters resemble each other without sharing a sound. Meeting them together removes the ambiguity early.
- Voiced marks. The two small strokes and the small circle change a sound completely. Learners often read past them for weeks without noticing.
- Small characters. A small character written at half size changes the syllable, and a small pause character marks a doubled consonant. Both are easy to overlook and both change the word.
None of this is difficult once someone points it out, which is exactly the kind of thing a teacher catches in the first ten minutes and an app will not.
A four-week plan you can follow
If you want a concrete starting point rather than general advice, this is a plan that works at around twenty minutes a day.
- Week 1: the first half of hiragana. Five characters a day, written by hand, reviewed the next morning. Start reading two-character words from day three.
- Week 2: the second half of hiragana, plus the voiced marks and small characters. By the end of the week you should be able to read simple words slowly without a chart.
- Week 3: katakana, first half, plus daily hiragana review. Practise on real food and drink words, because that is where katakana lives.
- Week 4: katakana, second half, plus your first twenty kanji as whole words: numbers, entrance, exit, station, toilets, yen.
At the end of four weeks you will read slowly, and that is exactly right. Speed comes from the next few months of reading, not from more drilling.
A short way in, if a trip is the reason
If you have a trip coming and want the reading and speaking that will actually make a difference, a general beginners’ course is more than you need. Travel Japanese is a short, focused block with a native Japanese teacher covering the situations you will really be in, including reading enough kana and signage to get around confidently.
Book a Travel Japanese session
About Iroha Passport
Iroha Passport helps English speakers learn Japanese and plan their trips to Japan. Lessons are taught by native Japanese teachers living in London, in person or online.
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