Learning Japanese: Hiragana and Katakana

Kanji roots originated in China. Japanese is easier than Chinese. My friend who learned mandarin say a glimpse of Chinese kanji:

1. The ordinary Chinese people have to memorize a minimum of 3000 kanji (3000 shapes with different meanings, Kanji with the same sound but have different intonation while chanting will have different meaning)
2. Students must memorize at least 5000 kanji
3. Politicians have to memorize a minimum of 7000 kanji

Japanese Kanji share some same shapes with Chinese kanji, but some are different. So .. maximize your brain cell to its fullest. 

In Japan, inevitably we have to memorize hiragana and katakana as a basis to understand how to read huge numbers of kanji that have complex shapes. For that reason, hiragana and katakana is used to translate the kanji to easily understand what it means:

1. Hiragana and katakana are limited in number (Their total approximately 100 forms).
2. Hiragana is used by Japanese people to sound a kanji that originated in Japan. 
3. Katakana is used is used to describe something (name, details, etc.) that are foreign. Example: the name of another country, the name of a stranger, an international hotel name, place name in google maps, etc.
4. Each kanji will be accompanied by the corresponding hiragana or katakana for people to know how that kanji sounds and then knowing the meaning of the kanji.

For example:
 Kanji Aoi is 青, if we have trouble memorizing thousands of kanji and do not know what it sounds like (how to speak the name of the kanji), hiragana will usually be there to help us to sound and understand the meaning of the kanji. Hiragana for Aoi is あ お い A-O-I, which means it is blue.

I learned to memorize first hiragana then katakana, it took four days for me to memorize them. I'm sure you can do it more quickly.

Tips:
Search for hiragana list or katakana in google, which one first is up to you. Then try to memorize with the sequence of: 

1. aiueo - kakikukeko - sasisuseso 
2. tachitsuteto - naninuneno - mamimumemo 
3. rarirurero - hahihuheho - yayuyo - Wawo 

ka -> ga if on the top right of the symbol you give a "
sa -> za if on the top right of the symbol you give a "
ta -> da if on the top right of the symbol you give a "
ha -> ba if on the top right of the symbol you give a "
ha -> pa if on the top right of the symbol you give a °

Connect the similar hiragana and katakana with logic. The hiragana of nu and me are quite similar, with nu has a little indentation, that makes the different. hiragana re ne wa curve essentially similar just different.  

Some hiragana or katakana form can be brought closer to the Latin alphabet that we have learned, ra hiragana similar to the number 5 with the hat a little off.If you already know the time you will be able to write hiragana and katakana as follows and know which aiueo, kakikukeko, etc. For the OCD people, we love to sort them from top to bottom:

(left: katakana, right: hiragana)

Just by memorizing them could greatly help you to avoid getting lost when taking bus or train in Japan.