Hiragana Chart

 

I always knew learning Hiragana wouldn't be simple. much like with any language, you need to start with the basics. learning very simple words like chair and shirt and associating the sounds and symbols with it is just like learning English in kindergarten. This is needed of course, you can't learn complex sentence structure and double entendres if you don't know how to say apple. So while it seems kinda of embarrassing in some way (at least to me), it's needed and will be worth it in the end. I remember the way I learned English as a kid, and I'm pretty sure this went for everyone, but you just ended up picking up words from your parents and looking at what they were doing. You pick up context clues and associate the words with the objects and soon enough you are learning words. That part is the easiest I feel, since you go into preschool and kindergarten with the ability to speak already, even if it is a bit jumbled. It's the writing part that trips people up and requires more skill. I feel writing requires more memorization and rules and thus I trip up with it. Japanese is very much a struggle for me writing-wise, with it being pretty fancy-looking. However, I am proud that I am managing to recognize symbols and can remember what they represent. Going back to the kindergarten point, it's like being shown a picture of an apple and remembering "Oh yeah that's an apple". You recognize the shapes and the patterns and can eventually connect the dots.  Hiragana is like matching pictures in a way, which makes it seem much more manageable than just saying you're learning a new language. If that thought helps me not become stressed, then I think it's a reasonable way to look at learning Hiragana.