Note, however, that getting the characters to look right can ... lower horizontal lines when handwritten (see the chart below). Memorizing hiragana (and other scripts) is easier in context.

The Japanese language has three types of characters: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic symbols, each representing one syllable while Kanji is ideogram, each stand ...

The straight lines and sharp angles of katakana characters contrast with the curves of hiragana. While both syllabaries derive from kanji characters originally, the hiragana are generally simple ...