Having a small issue "advice please"
 

Im not sure why but im having a hard time remembering Katakana. I learned Hiragana in about 2 weeks and im even picking up Kanji decently. But for some reason i cant seem to retain Katakana even though i study everyday with flash cards and even a flash card app on my iphone. I receive homework constantly from my Japanese teacher with Katakana and i still have to look up certain characters.

Has anyone experienced this problem and if so how did you over come it?

thanks guys

It's probably because you aren't using katakana enough.

I used to have a bad habit of sounding out many katakana words when i read them. I think native English speakers knowing it is likely an English word tend to want to stop and sound out the word, whereas with hiragana and kanji we more quickly go to the instant recognition thing. Anyhow you will be able to remember them eventually, just keep at it. If it makes you feel better I had the same problem too, katakana took me much longer than hiragana to get comfortable with.

Im using it everyday its just not retaining almost like brain doesnt like it.

Also, I've struggled with reading because I know I should know it, because most likely it's an English translated word, and I want to read it in English, but it's not computing... And sometimes I'll get it, and I'll shout out the word in the English pronunciation...悪いな～

How about these?;

TOYOTAトヨタ
Honda=ホンダ
Nissan=ニッサン
Mitsubishi=ミツビシ
GM=ゼネラル・モーターズ
Cadillac=キャデラック
Buick=ビュイック
Pontiac＝ポンティアック
Rolls-Royce＝ロールス・ロイス
Bentley＝ベントレー
Jaguar＝ジャガー
Volkswagen＝フォルクス・ワーゲン
Audi＝アウディ
Citroën＝シトローエン
Benz=ベンツ

I think remembering car makers in katakana would be fun because you like Benz, right?

hum this is interesting im really into cars this maybe a fun learning tool. My knowledge of Japanese customs is far beyond my language skills lol

thanks for the recommendation

I've noticed this a lot with Japanese learners... I even noticed this recently in a kanji practice book for Japanese second graders (it had furigana [hiragana] next to the katakana to make it legible for kids).

I learned katakana before I learned hiragana and never had a problem with this... I actually think katakana is funner to learn as a beginner because you can find words that are loan words from English and get kind of instant gratification. Unfortunately a lot of those words have kind of a "false friend" aspect to them.

I'll just mention something no one has yet, and that is how Japanese 1st-graders learn to write katakana. They don't learn it by writing only loanwords in it but they do so by writing everything in it. They are asked to write whole sentences and sometimes even whole passages in katakana. In other words, complete immersion is what I'm referring to. We all do the same thing with hiragana at one point in our Japanese study, so why not do it with katakana for a few weeks?

If you're going アイウエオカキクケコ・・・・ all the time, it won't be nearly as effective IMHO. Take it from the former Japanese 1st-grader.

Thanks Sashimister i think i will have to redouble my efforts. Im going to try a few suggestions that have come my way and for the next 3 weeks or so write in Katakana like how i did with Hiragana.

appreciate your thoughts.