Hi, welcome back! If you're reading this post, I assume that you've been practicing your Hiragana! If you think that you're somewhat proficient in Hiragana, let's move on to the next step: Katakana!
Katakana is similar to Hiragana in the sense that they have the same sounds for each letter. the only difference are the shapes and the uses of Katakana.
A different language is a different version of life. – Federico Fellini
Uses of Katakana
The main use of Katakana in modern Japanese is for words that originate from foreign languages. This is basically to help people differentiate between Japanese words and foreign words. Examples of this are ケーキ (cake) and アメリカ (America).
Pronunciation
The way you would pronounce the letters are EXACTLY the same as you would with the Hiragana letters. This makes life easier for you, yay! The only thing you need to do is remember how the Katakana letters look like. Should be a fairly simple task considering you've done it for Hiragana not too long ago! Make sure you practice everyday so that you don't forget them.
Just in case, I included a video for those who wants to watch and listen to how the letters are pronounced:
Writing
Just like Hiragana, Katakana letters have their own stroke order as well (You can't escape the stroke order practices like, ever, so you might as well embrace it). You can practice writing Katakana by clicking the PDF file link below:
Variations
You probably know the drill by now! Katakana also includes variations, similar to Hiragana.
The table below shows said variations.
And that's it! Honestly, there's not much to teach for Katakana because it's just a rinse and repeat of what you had to do for Hiragana. Just make sure you practice consistently and you should be able to memorize Katakana. See you in the next post and until then, happy learning!