A two-week hiragana practice plan for beginners
For adult beginners planning a trip to Japan.
Hiragana is the first Japanese script most learners meet. There are 46 basic characters, and each one stands for a sound, much like letters in an alphabet. Here is a simple two-week plan built on short daily practice. Try about 15 minutes a day and repeat sessions as needed; your pace may vary.
1. Learn one row at a time
The hiragana chart is organized in rows of five: the vowels あ い う え お (a, i, u, e, o), then the k-row か き く け こ, the s-row, and so on. Learn one row per day. Five new characters is small enough to remember and big enough to feel progress.
| Days | Rows |
|---|---|
| 1–4 | あ row, か row, さ row, た row |
| 5 | Review everything so far |
| 6–10 | な row, は row, ま row, や/わ rows and ん, ら row |
| 11 | Review and look-alike characters |
| 12–14 | Sound marks (が, ぱ), small っ, combinations (きゃ) |
2. Write each character in the right stroke order
Stroke order is the order and direction of the lines. It feels fussy at first, but it makes your characters balanced and easier to read, and it helps your hand remember the shape. Trace each new character a few times, then write it on your own.
3. Say the sound out loud
Reading aloud links the shape to the sound. Japanese vowels are short and clear: a as in "father", i as in "see", u as in "food" (with relaxed lips), e as in "get", o as in "note".
4. Read real words early
Words stick better than single letters. Even on day one you can read あい (ai, love) and いえ (ie, house). By the end of week one, try すし (sushi) and えき (eki, station).
5. Review before you learn more
Spend one session in every five on review only. Cover the romaji, read the characters aloud, then uncover it to check. Note the ones you hesitate on. Those are your practice list for the next day.
After hiragana: katakana
Katakana uses the same 46 sounds with different shapes. It is used for foreign words such as コーヒー (kōhī, coffee) and タクシー (takushī, taxi), so it shows up on menus and signs everywhere in Japan. Because you already know the sounds, you can focus on the new shapes.
Free printables
Print a free hiragana chart, katakana chart and practice sheets from our home page.