Getting Started with StudyX Japanese Letters Table: Your First Kana Chart

Almost every classroom in Japan has the same poster on the wall, and so do many children’s bedrooms: the fifty-sound chart, with the kana laid out in tidy rows and columns. StudyX Japanese Letters Table puts that classic chart on your iPhone or iPad and lets it speak. This post walks you through your first session: exploring the chart, tapping letters to hear their sounds, and switching between the four display modes.

What Is StudyX Japanese Letters Table?

StudyX Japanese Letters Table, known in Japanese as あいうえおのアプリ, “the a-i-u-e-o app”, is an interactive hiragana and katakana chart. Tap any letter and you hear its sound, so the sound arrives together with the shape. Besides the basic syllabary, buttons below the chart switch to dakuten sounds such as が, handakuten sounds such as ぱ, and yoon combinations such as きゃ.

It is also built to be handed to a child: there are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no data collection, so a toddler can explore freely without wandering into anything they should not. It is a paid app (1,500 yen on the Japanese App Store) and runs in landscape on iPhone and iPad. The on-screen labels are in Japanese only, though there are very few of them.

Exploring the Chart

The chart is organized around five vowel sounds: a, i, u, e, o. The first row, あ, い, う, え, お, is where the app’s Japanese name comes from. Every row after that pairs a consonant with those same five vowels: か (ka), き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), こ (ko), then さ (sa), し (shi), and so on. Once you notice this pattern, the kana stop feeling like dozens of unrelated symbols and start feeling like a small, logical grid.

There is no required order. Let your child tap wherever their finger lands, or work down a row together. Wandering is part of the fun, and with the chart in front of you, the structure teaches itself.

Tap a Letter to Hear Its Sound

Every letter on the chart has its own audio. The simplest way to use the app is also the best place to start: tap a letter, listen, and tap the next one. Because each kana represents one syllable, the sound you hear is the complete reading of that letter. There is nothing extra to memorize on top.

One small habit worth trying: repeat each sound out loud right after the app says it. Hearing, saying, and seeing the letter in the same moment gives a young learner three hooks for the same memory instead of one.

Switching Between the Four Display Modes

The same grid can be shown in four ways: hiragana, katakana, uppercase romaji, and lowercase romaji. The layout and the sounds stay identical. Only the script changes. The app always opens in hiragana, so you switch again after a restart.

A few suggestions on when each mode helps:

• Hiragana is the natural starting point for young children, since it is the first script children in Japan learn to read.
• Katakana uses the same sounds with different shapes, so switching modes is an easy way to meet the second syllabary without learning anything new by ear.
• Uppercase and lowercase romaji show each sound in the Latin alphabet, in Hepburn style (し is shi, ふ is fu), useful for adult beginners and for children abroad who already read English letters.

Where to Go Next

Once tapping and listening feel familiar, two more features are waiting. On iPad, a blank writing space sits below the chart, where you can write a letter with your finger or Apple Pencil while looking at the chart. There is no model letter to trace, and iPhone shows the chart only. The listening game, ききとりあそび, starts from the ear button. It plays a word one kana at a time and asks you to tap the kana you heard, in order.

For playful ways to fold these into everyday life, see our everyday ideas for the app. If you are wondering whether the app suits your family, read Who Is StudyX Japanese Letters Table For?, and to see how it compares with a wall chart and other options, read StudyX Japanese Letters Table vs Other Ways to Learn the Kana Chart. Every post about the app is collected under the aiueo tag.

The best introduction to kana is simply to start tapping. If you want to try StudyX Japanese Letters Table, you can download it on the App Store, open the chart, and let the letters speak for themselves.