Learn Hiragana and Japanese pronounciation

The first thing one should do is to train the eye to distinguish the differences between the characters, without worrying about what they mean. A good way to do this, is to play Mahjong that has hiragana tiles. As you do this, enjoy recognizing the basic strokes that are modified to make each character. Give the characters temporary names. For example the hiragana for "mu" (say "moo"), looks like a cow's snout to me. "nu" (say "noo") looks like a bowl (?of noodles?) with chopsticks. "yu" looks like a fish.

• Here is a cute introduction to hiragana and its pronounciation
• A hiragana chart another one and another

NOTE: the following assumes that you use a PC with somthing other than Vista, W95 or W98.
I was barely able to find some of these resources that run on my XP PC,
check before you get too far, if you use something else.

This is small, simple, free Mahjong game that has hiragana tiles to download. http://www.moshe-szweizer.com/software.htm

Unfortunately, the tiles have the romanjii on them and are color-coded, so you have to try to ignore that and not cheat by just looking at the romanjii. You can start with it, but there's a better way (for PC users).

Download this program, (or visit the author's website for other games/options) and run it to install the Mahjongg game. Then download this zip file, and extract it's contents into the same folder as the game. It adds some extra backgrounds, but more importantly, it contains several tilesets. To use the tilesets, start the game program, and go to FILEs>Manage tile sets click the ADD button browse to the MAHJONGG directory (c:\Program Files\MAHJONGG) select the HiraganMinchoSet1.bmp file (and click the OPEN button, if needed) replace the text "Replace by Tile set Name in Tile set menu" with "Hiragana Mincho Set1" replace the text "Replace by Tile set Author or origin" with "Birchwood" change the Red setting to 244, Green to 231, Blue to 213 click the SAVE button

NOTE: these colors work well on an CRT monitor, but not very well on an LCD monitor

Now change the background to a less distracting one: FILES>Load background bitmap select the "BG_blue.bmp", for example

finally, change to the tileset you added: TILE SETS>Hiragana Mincho Set1

Play the game!

repeat the above processes to install the other tilesets and to use them.

After a few days of playing this game, you'll know the shapes intimately. You'll see how some are similar to others, and how some are similar to no others. Now study the hiragana chart, learning a few characters at a time in small groups, and keep playing the Mahjong game, substituting the characters' sounds for the temporary names of characters, as you learn them.

Here is one possible grouping:

the simple, distinctive shapes: 
  "no" 　( の ) say "noh"
  "ku" 　( く ) say "koo"
  "shi" ( し ) say "shee"
  "tsu" ( つ ) say "tsoo"
  "he" 　( へ ) say "heh/hay"

the not-so-simple, distinctive shapes: 
　"u" 　　( う ) say "oo"
  "e" 　　( え ) say "eh/ay"
  "hi" 　( ひ ) say "hee"' (guy part hanging down)
  "ri" 　( り ) say "ree"
  "n" 　　( ん ) say "nnn" (kinda looks like an "n")
  "te" 　( て ) say "teh/tay" (a "t" that is getting ready to have an "e" added)

now notice the patterns of similarity between other characters:
  "i" 　　( い ) say "ee"; (actually two "i"s)
  "ko" 　( こ ) say "koh"

and four characters that all have the same vertical stroke on the left:
  "ni" 　( に ) say "hee"
  "ke" 　( け ) say "nnn"
  "ha" 　( は ) say "teh/tay"
  "ho" 　( ほ ) say "teh/tay"

  "sa" 　( さ ) say "sah"
  "ki" 　( き ) say "kee"; (looks like an ornate skeleton key)

  "nu"　　( ぬ ) say "noo"; (looks like a bowl with chopsticks)
  "me" 　( め ) say "meh/may"

  "to" 　( と ) say "toh"; (a tow with a thorn in it)
  "wo" 　( を ) say "oh"; (Whoa, look at the ornate thorn in *that* toe!)

  "ta" 　( た ) say "tah"; ("ta", but the "a" is faded)
  "na" 　( な ) say "nah"

  "ra" 　( ら ) say "rah"
  "chi" ( ち ) say "chee"

  "ro" 　( ろ ) say "roh"
  "ru" 　( る ) say "roo"

and now some that variations on a "t" shape:
  "wa" 　( わ ) say "wah"
  "ne"　 ( ね ) say "neh/nay"
  "re"　 ( れ ) say "reh/ray"
  "o" 　 ( お ) say "oh"

 and we keep going with a "t" shape, but it gets weirder:
  "a"  　( あ ) say "ah"
  "mu" 　( む ) say "moo"
  "su" 　( す ) say "soo"
  "se"　 ( せ ) say "seh/say"
  "ma"　 ( ま ) say "mah"

and finally some miscellaneous shapes:
  "ka" 　( か ) say "kah"
  "fu" 　( ふ ) say "hfoo"
  "yu" 　( ゆ ) say "yoo"; (looks like a fish, is there a "Yoo Fish"?)
  "mi" 　( み ) say "mee"

  "mo" 　( も) say "moh"
  "yo" 　( よ ) say "yoh"; (the yo-yo is doing the "walking the dog" trick)
  "ya" 　( や ) say "yah"
  "so" 　( そ ) say "soh"