Postby tintinium » May 16th, 2006 5:28 am
Not TOO long...
I drilled the kana for two weeks and had hiragana mastered in under a month. Katakana took more time, though. After that, i have a song book which is all in hiragana which I sing in 3 days a week. Everyone else is singing the song in English, but you get used to it.
Seriously, the key is continue to read. I've been studying a year and a half, almost... and I can read kanji that I know and hiragana quite quickly.
But it was the continued practice that kept up the hiragana. Reading aloud helps as well as following along with your finger. I Following along in jpod 101's PDF should help you to read more quickly as well. use your finger to follow as it physically reinforces the word in your mind.
go to a karaoke place with Japanese songs if you can... there's lots here in Vancouver. i don't know about where you live.
i work full-time and I could sight read kana in 6-8 months... but when there's Kanji in there, it's MUCH MUCH faster to read.
