Kodansha's Katakana Workbook: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing » (Bilingual)

Anne Matsumoto Stewart is a professional Japanese language instructor with more than 20 years of experience teaching at all levels, from kindergarten through university. She pursued graduate studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Cornell University and has authored and co-authored Japanese language instruction books. She is a member of the Association of Teachers of Japanese and the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers, and currently teaches and resides in Seattle.

This companion volume teaches the basics of katakana, the script for writing loanwords borrowed from English and other languages. The book introduces the characters not in the traditional a-i-u-e-o order, but in a radical new one that allows students to sound out words from the very first page.

As in the Hiragana Workbook, one page each is devoted to the 46 basic characters, which are then used to form actual, everyday words, enabling the student to build his or her vocabulary from the very beginning. The Katakana Workbook also features exercises, flashcards, games and free audio downloads.