Lineah - Thank you! I'm going to check out those apps in addition to the ones Reira mentioned, and see which will work best for me with learning hiragana and katakana. It sounds like the apps you listed will slingshot me into knowing katakana and hiragana, at least, which are musts before learning kanji. Thanks again!

If you want a easy way to learn hiragana and katakana they have two apps that really helped me learn them in like four days. The apps are called "dr mokus katakana mnemonics" and "dr mokus hiragana mnemonics" hope that helps!!

Rayne, Lanze, and Reira - Thank you all so much! I initially came here with the intent to help teach/reinforce English, but I thought it would be wise of me to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more Japanese, as well. All of your input that you've given me, along with helpful suggestions, is very much appreciated!

To start off I highly recommend "Human Japanese" they have an app for most phones as well as computer versions. It takes you through hiragana and katakana in a smooth and clear way as well as introducing you to the language as a whole. Gradually as you make your way through you can move to their intermediate app which covers alot more Kanji. Good luck!

I know when I was learning kana (a collective term for katakana and hiragana) I studied a chart you could easily find on google images, then I tested myself on these websites http://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/ http://www.manythings.org/japanese/kana/ once you learn kana, you can start learning vocabulary and kanji through this website. http://japaneseclass.jp I hope this helped and Good Luck! がんばってくださいブレンダンさん〜！