Look at the words above. Now say them with us: 'Soo-pa-hee-roh'. Looking at the illustration should help you figure out that this is referring to 'Superhero'.
For all of you out there who have either just arrived in Japan or have been here for a while and still struggle to read Japanese: there is a solution. Partially, at least. The team over at Johnson Banks, a British design consultancy, reimagined katakana to make it easier to learn for English speakers. The result is called Phonetikana, and combines the standard katakana characters with their English phonetic counterparts, making it infinitely easier to pronounce the words even if you don’t really speak Japanese. Their examples are also seriously cool – design flashcards, anyone? Now, if only someone could do all the joyo kanji too…
For more examples and details on how to read Phonetikana, visit their website. But first, see if you can read these...
– By Kirsty Bouwers