Onom | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

This book provides a complete course for beginning students who want to learn the Katakana alphabet!

With plentiful writing and reading practice, this workbook starts with the basic letters and works up to writing words and complete sentences. Divided into two parts, the first part presents the 46 main Katakana letters in their full and contracted forms, with extensive writing spaces provided for writing practice. Recognition and pronunciation of the letters are reinforced through writing and listening exercises.

In the second half of the book, students can apply their knowledge of Katakana in a Writing Practice section that contains sentences related to contexts in which Katakana words are often used, such as food and drinks, social media and tourism. Exercises are graded in difficulty from Writing Drills (from copying to writing from memory) to Dictation Practice (connecting the sounds with the letters) to Writing Exercises (writing answers that fit the situations given).

Features of this language workbook include:

A thorough overview of the Japanese writing system, explaining when and how Katakana is used
Handwriting and stroke-order tips along with extensive writing practice sheets
Online audio recordings speed up the process by reinforcing the pronunciation of the letters through a wide variety of listening and writing exercises
Mnemonic illustrations for every character
Printable flashcards available online for download


The Japanese writing system combines three types of letters: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Katakana is used for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese; in the writing of loan words; for emphasis; to represent onomatopoeia; for technical and scientific terms; for names of plants, animals, minerals and often Japanese companies.