In summary, my argument is that Katakana should precede Hiragana in order when learning Japanese for foreign learners. The reasons being that Katakana words are more useful for travel and also require less effort allowing the students to focus on the learning of other elements of Japanese.
2 reasons katakana is superior for travel
First i would like to back up my argument with the fact that many Katakana words are more usefull to the foreign learner for travel.
When traveling knowing vocabulary is more important than understanding how to make full sentences. In particular names of places, facilities and foods are of great importance. For example the following words i will argue are important for a foreign traveler in japan.
★Toilet - トイレ
Hotel - ホテル
Taxi - タクシ
Bus - バス or リムジンバス (limousine bus = a Japanese English word for Coach)
Restaurant - レストラン
Mono rail - モノレール
Front desk - フロント
★ Also many Japanese will understand Japanese English (English words with a Japanese pronunciation).
These Two points will form the basis for my argument for Katakana.
★Toilet - トイレ
Hotel - ホテル
Taxi - タクシ
Bus - バス or リムジンバス (limousine bus = a Japanese English word for Coach)
Restaurant - レストラン
Mono rail - モノレール
Front desk - フロント
★ Also many Japanese will understand Japanese English (English words with a Japanese pronunciation).
These Two points will form the basis for my argument for Katakana.
Other words in travel
In Short, in Japan, there is English and romaji everywhere. What you do not understand form the Kanji and unknown Hiragana words Nouns from katakana offer the most easy and effort free way of filling in the gaps.
Romaji
English
Japan tries very hard to provide English information to its foreign tourists. Somewhat to the impoverishment of of non English services. You can find English services
- Tourist information at large tourist spots.
- English menus at many major fast food chains.
Romaji is everywhere, where there is kanji for names there is often romaji underneath it or a romaji version of everything. In particular
- Subway/ Train/ Tourist maps.
- Street direction signs.
Hiragana
There is a surprising lack of Hiragana in use in Japan. Wherever possible Japanese will put kanji to make nouns and adjectives etc. easier to read (for them). Therefore the only parts left to hiragana to fill are the gramatical holes that kanji have not filled. As a traveler if is almost impossible to infer context from grammar alone. See below for example.
Kanji
The majority of nouns in Japanese in Japan are written in Kanji.
- Names of many hotels
- Names of many Buildings
- Names of Train stations (refer to Romaji for subway)
After travel - context
After the travel phases comes to understanding Japanese for real i.e. being able to make proper sentences. In this stage i would still argue that knowledge of Katakana should precede knowledge of Hiragana. Below i will show this with 2 texts. In these texts
Green - Katakana Vocab
Red - Hiragana Vocab/ Grammar
Blue - Kanji
Green - Katakana Vocab
Red - Hiragana Vocab/ Grammar
Blue - Kanji
Travel text sample
From first glance there is about equal amounts of Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji. However analysing the vocabulary shows what use each is for understanding via context.
Hiragana Vocab
ここ - Here
うれしい - Happy
いただけます - Can take
こだわり - Obsession
なし - No
Note: All other Hiragana words are used for grammar.
Katakana Vocab
エアーズロック - Ayers rock
アボリジニ - Aborigine
ウルル - Uluru
ヨーロッパ - Europe
ルック - Look
パンフレット - Pamphlet
ツアー - Tour
パワーアップ - Power up
オリジナル - Original
ハッピーデー - Happy day
シルエット・ウルル - Silhouette Uluru
ミルキーウェイ - Milky way
プラン - Plan
セカンドチャンス - Second chance
All these words are able to be understood with Katakana knowledge only, as they are words taken from English.
Conclusion
From context Katakana words are far more useful for understanding vocabulary in a travel text. Also the vocabulary is already known so for a beginner learning Japanese this script would be of more use than Hiragana which is primarily used for grammar words.
Hiragana Vocab
ここ - Here
うれしい - Happy
いただけます - Can take
こだわり - Obsession
なし - No
Note: All other Hiragana words are used for grammar.
Katakana Vocab
エアーズロック - Ayers rock
アボリジニ - Aborigine
ウルル - Uluru
ヨーロッパ - Europe
ルック - Look
パンフレット - Pamphlet
ツアー - Tour
パワーアップ - Power up
オリジナル - Original
ハッピーデー - Happy day
シルエット・ウルル - Silhouette Uluru
ミルキーウェイ - Milky way
プラン - Plan
セカンドチャンス - Second chance
All these words are able to be understood with Katakana knowledge only, as they are words taken from English.
Conclusion
From context Katakana words are far more useful for understanding vocabulary in a travel text. Also the vocabulary is already known so for a beginner learning Japanese this script would be of more use than Hiragana which is primarily used for grammar words.
Achademic text sample
In this Academic text there is NO Katakana. However, even if i was able to read Hiragana these are the only words I would be able to understand from this article.
つまり- In other words
ひのもと - Japan (old name which a beginner is unlikely to know)
および - And as well
ただし - However,
また - Or
From these words it is not possible to discern the context of the article and therefore knowledge of Hiragana is not useful for understanding context.
つまり- In other words
ひのもと - Japan (old name which a beginner is unlikely to know)
および - And as well
ただし - However,
また - Or
From these words it is not possible to discern the context of the article and therefore knowledge of Hiragana is not useful for understanding context.
Katakana is useful
In Japanese all Katakana words are all nouns. Nouns in Japanese can be modified easily into different forms this is what makes Kanji compounds useful.
Verb = Noun + Suru
Adjective = Noun + Na
Noun = By its self
Adverb = Noun + Ni
In Hiragana there are many different words for the same thing and if a word needs to be modified the form changes. However Hiragana is not necessary for these modifications.
Verb = Noun + Suru
Adjective = Noun + Na
Noun = By its self
Adverb = Noun + Ni
In Hiragana there are many different words for the same thing and if a word needs to be modified the form changes. However Hiragana is not necessary for these modifications.
Summary/ Suggestion
In summary, for beginners it would be hard to stick with tradition and recommend learning Hiragana first for foreign learners of Japanese. I would therefore suggest learning Katakana first and supplementing the Kanji and Japanese words for Romaji in the first stages of language development. This would help the learners if they ever planned to travel in Japan and also their understanding of the context/ pronunciation systems of Japanese.