Master Hiragana & Katakana in Just a Weekend

As @gadrian said correctly, we should start with the basics first, so that you know how to pronounce Japanese vocabulary. You can learn the hiragana (characters for Japanese words) and katakana (characters for non-Japanese words) on one weekend, by repetition-repetition-repetition. I hope this attached chart helps you! In reality, many words in Japan are mixed characters from hiragana (characters for Japanese words) and katakana (characters for non-Japanese words) and kanji (Chinese characters). But we will do all that step by step.

When reading the vocabulary in romaji (Western characters), please take note:

•  There is a topic marker, we call 'wa' - but we write the hiragana character for 'ha' instead
• When you read the word 'desu', which means 'be', please don't pronounce the 'u'.
• Watch out for the stroke order: please follow it right from the start. It's very important and you'll need it later on for the Chinese characters even more. Apart from that, if people see you writing, they will notice and you may get respected more when you know how to write them properly. Surely you have heard about calligraphy. It's considered a craft, a tradition and an art. Trust me, to go slowly, but thoroughly, will be more fun on the long run.

That's enough for the start - we don't want to lose motivation. For more info, there are plenty of books (I don't list them here to not overload you - one step at a time). But for the characters and sounds you may want to check out Youtube and enter "japanesepod101 hiragana" or "japanesepod101 katakana". With this support, you will master your hiragana and katakana in just a weekend!

Don't forget to enjoy! 

Good luck! (Ganbattene!)

Any questions? Just comment below.