Katakana or Hiragana first? (2024)

Thank you very much.

"For example ‚É‚Ù‚ñ‚² (Japanese language) is the four hiragana (and four sounds) that make up the kanji, “ú–{Œê."

I don't fully understand what you mean by makes up the Kanji part though..

I don't fully understand what you mean by makes up the Kanji part though..
I think guest is simply stating that “ú–{Œê is pronounced as ‚É‚Ù‚ñ‚² (nihongo), 3 kanji pronounced as 4 syllables.
Kana is important for both pronunciation of the kanji and for the grammar components of the Japanese language and therefore is important to learn quickly. It should only take a few days to learn. The Roman alphabet is not really used and I would recommend to use kana as soon as you can so you can use the better books without problems.

Both hiragana and katakana are Japanese syllabaries and the pronunciation of the written text is clear. ‚É‚Ù‚ñ‚² is pronounced as ni.ho.n.go. However, if you look at the compound kanji “ú–{Œê , the pronunciation isn't immediately clear: “ú is sometimes pronounced as hi, ka, nichi, etc.; the same for –{ which is sometimes hon and sometimes moto, etc, and this is where the nightmare of kanji starts for the Japanese learner. :-)

Just to follow up on your original question, as you are completely new to learning Japanese, I think the priority of study areas should be thus: kana, grammar (and lots of it), pronunciation, understanding, kanji.

It is very temping to study the beautiful kanji, but IMO it is very important to form correct sentences and make yourself understood, and be able to understand people when they speak. Aim to learn as quickly as possible to form Japanese sentences in your mind without translating them from your mother tongue into Japanese and vice versa each time. Once you can do that, you'll start to enjoy yourself :-)

It doesn't really matter which kana you learn first, despite what others say. You'll need to learn them both if you want to achieve any sort of literacy, so the end result will be the same. If you've already started learning katakana, then finish learning it. When you're done, work on learning hiragana. Be sure you can both read and write all characters.

I learned hiragana first. However, the last time I was in japan, I came across a guy from london who didn't know any japanese at all. I recommended he learn katakana (if nothing else). That way, at least, he could read "english" words written in japanese.

I learned ‚ before ƒA, but ƒn before ‚Í. And I learned — and ’j before I finished learning the numbers. *shrug*

If you have an android phone, check out the "JA Sensei" and "Obenkyo" apps. I used JA Sensei to learn the kana, and practice writing them. I used Obenkyo to test myself.