教材 Material：
カタカナ Katakana Level 1
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How to use カタカナ Katakana Level 1
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解説 Commentary：
片仮名(
Hiragana: かたかな
Romaji: Ka-ta ka-na
En: Katakana) is a different character set than
ひらがな(Hiragana).
First five letters in カタカナ(Katakana) are アイウエオ(Aiueo) and their counterparts in Hiragana are あいうえお(Aiueo).
Each カタカナ(Katakana) has its own counterpart in ひらがな(Hiragana) with the same sound. This is similar to the relationship between uppercase (ABC) and lowercase (abc) in the alphabet. Both "A" and "a" denote exactly the same sound. Katakana "ア" and Hiragana "あ" denote exactly the same sound.
カタカナ is used for
certain nouns in a sentence. This helps readers understand the structure of the sentence. Like the capitalization rule in English, カタカナ(Katakana) makes sentences more readable.
In the modern Japanese curriculum, students learn ひらがな(Hiragana), カタカナ(Katakana), and 漢字(Kanji), in this order. Therefore, students learning Japanese as a second language will also benefit from learning in this order.
This page shows the basic words to start learning Japanese and East Asian languages.
探求資料 Further study：
Japan Ministry of Education (文部科学省).
学習指導要領 生きる力. 2017.
Republic of Korea Ministry of Education (대한민국
교육부).
People's Republic of China Ministry of Education (
中华人民共和国教育部). Tōngyòng Guīfàn Hànzì Biǎo (通用规范汉字表). 2013.
U.S. Department of Education (アメリカ合衆国教育省).