Ok I can now read them at a rate of about 60 a minute. So 1 per second.

I measured how quickly I can read english characters and it was like 180 per minute. Or 3 per second. It's actually suprisingly hard to quickly say out loud random letters from a list of jumbled letters like "pdlsnrhuiwrufwknvfiteowqokwtkldmcwfcjvsfdcsaao" and keep it up for a minute.

I am specifically speaking to others who went and started learning Japanese. At what speed can you read hiragana? Or just kana in general (from a jumbled list one at a time, not actual words).

I think it's pretty good since I haven't been learning for all that long. I am to get to like 120 per minute soon.

If you know how to run java programs, I have included some quick source code I wrote for randomly generating some hiragana. I excluded the ya, yu, yo suffixes. Just remove the if statement if you want to include those:

import java.lang.Math.*;



public class Jap

{

	public static void main (String [] args)

	{

		String array[] = {"あ", "い", "う", "え", "お", "か", "き", "く", "け", "こ", "さ", "し", "す", "せ", "そ", "ま", "み", "む", "め", "も", "ら", "り", "る", "れ", "ろ", "な", "に", "ぬ", 							  "ね", "の", "た", "ち", "つ", "て", "と", "は", "ひ", "ふ", "へ", "ほ", "や", "ゆ", "よ", "わ", "を", "ん", "が", "ぎ", "ぐ", "げ", "ご", "ざ", "じ", "ず",   							  "ぜ", "ぞ", "だ", "ぢ", "づ", "で", "ど", "ば", "び", "ぶ", "べ", "ぼ", "ぱ", "ぴ", "ぷ", "ぺ", "ぽ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", 						      " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", "きゃ", "きゅ", "きょ", "ぎゃ", "ぎゅ", "ぎょ", "しゃ", "しゅ", "しょ", "じゃ", "じゅ", "じょ", "みゃ", "みゅ", "みょ", "りゃ", 

						  "りゅ", "りょ", "にゃ", "にゅ", "にょ", "ちゃ", "ちゅ", "ちょ", "ぢゃ", "ぢゅ", "ぢょ", "ひゃ", "ひゅ", "ひょ", "びゃ", "びゅ", "びょ", "ぴゃ", "ぴゅ", "ぴょ"};



		for (int i = 0; i < 300; i++)

		{

			int index = (((int)(Math.random() * 1000.0)) % 127);

			if (index > 90)

			{

				index = index - 36;

			}

			System.out.print(array[index]);

		}

		System.out.println("\n\nDone...");

	}

}

It's hiragana only simply because I haven't gotten to kanji yet. I thought I would get fast enough at hiragana before moving on.

Here's a random string of characters. I added some spaces because it helps you to not lose your place. You have to sound each one out loud. See how many you get in a minute (i excluded ya yu yo suffixes for this one)


ぱすべばせ ばげそど ぺばら え ぶにび しゆざし まふみ ねか らよらとむごひえばびば ほにさこ だぽぷ らのぺぴちぢぷれ せぬねぱ ほをはべずなぎねぐね い ぼぺを ぼ ぽぞ りうぴどぴ つでぐぱぶぼれけせちぷちささぺ ぴき やぢい ふてづ せ どぞ そわいぽぺぷぐ のわほむぶは か おるどぽぢ び ざぱみ づてだげべは ぶそだ どべ ぞるぷ うなろぱべ い ぱさずだへは ぬねび ぎ めわぞ ぷひぐも るすえたあ め ぐ いく ぜ ぽゆ ひひばぴ ぞ つぞ おぞびめにきえ ひと づれぺ ばこ のぢみぽづ なみをぢばぼだも つ ひり でぞき ぞ くびでぴずえさ うすぜぴのぴえく げつし りやためや さ ぴ ぜ おかしぶう わのどゆばる ふん ぺざぶ ぺば ぱ れできにら かま や でをぐこぷどい おや ぽめる むさすな んざ ぢげこ るり でへゆま め だ み ず せひずけぎろでけだ らへ か つば ん ぞ きびん ほりを ぜ びみぎ ごもがぺ べり ややけざがぢ だもぽぴぼぺぷらるや ぞづめがとでとぞ ぐ にぽ すぶひでばつめ ろま そちぢなてすも じぞおろ え にぷ ぱま でぷぢにぶ ぱ げぢひ ぐ ゆ る めゆいぴえ ふ ぷぱれ りちど ち ゆりは わ れげん せびんだ てだも びらひび そ ぐげゆだぢこ ずど ざずんごぢいやわ じずさぶあ ぎめ きだ ず ほすこへそぬ ずび げか げこ ぐ ぷ がらぺこぶ ぢり ぴらにぱ ぽ すぱ ろ けぞべぬどで そびせふこどらゆい い ぎじよ りをこ どざ ぷば ぽらばあらよづそぺだけうぷ ぶ をめ ざ りのぶあ だぽ に ぷちぞ ぜ くつかそぎやの みるぷな へべぐんげだわ は けは し ろ め びききわそぐかや をねす むむでせし ぺねぽ れげとけへ のぺむぷでう め ふかぱゆげきぽでお ぎぷ ぽやだぶれさぽ ぜばりぜ をう ぺ らを ぢどのぽ ん こぼ な ぼげほぢみし ぴぶぐぱつでそげ ばる かぴおぷ こば でぐなろ ど いぽなぞ ぎごく てぱず ま ざぺこ りへほ がやつぼつな ひ えずよほるんて がぶぶ めざやぞ る だ ふびぼ ど ひだばさんかまびか どでぺむちんどぢみぷぷしぼとべがき むよつのぴび やねみ ちぺ ど ぺど ぐみいぼずぐむきなみふこ ぶとたゆづ むのたぴ けばづ ど す ぽぽあ ざかぷ ぱり だちぎ の さみぱてもはそでち ち ぴぱ な ぢ ろずぞゆ だちすへわえびねけろれ べ それぞぼづ ば を たぺそどぱか びぢぢずひ さぎえふ く てぺ びいぽきおこぴだざでいへれ もつい だげ ぴし ぶでだぞげなぎ に づ わかの ぞはばぼどめじ づではだげなづや るだな れぽげ むづぶぷぴけすづ とぶわべはばてべよとこをつぞ あ の ふびぷばおどく いぺ で ぱんぐだ そつがぞをぴぬ ぷどよ き わずぷ ぶぢおぶえとぬぱごぽはだぷまぷぷ ぱぞたほどわま ひ ぬ むく ぺ おぬ ぷだつじりぴへぶすぶ げ とぐぜやで ぶ でぼぐが こあ く ざざづそ やかき ふなみや ぶえも ずばぺぱ ずそがはど じぴどぺぽぽのあ わぷ めれぞね ざま ど ぼば ぬゆす ほちだぴわう はぞせぬ せりざ ずぺきあぱ ぶ ぎ ど ぴおるばちくねべわなこねぞべをほほるめいびえみを もぢゆぷび うせざのか どびめぐ だぴぞでぺ べぽぷぜぢ どぐこぬぴ ひこみぴ なら いれ ば たを ぎでれあ がぢ ぴゆぢにび をくお べ ほちぱみべ ぎじるひづ しぽたぎ ね ぎぽどぎぶ のぷ れうやぶ ん や でとがばかをほつぞ りぽぱぱ べほ しぜすつけぎ ろやだ ぺいぢかぱだ ぺぼし び ぺ ばらにぱぶそらにい ぢなりびばいあつだ ろさぴぴべすづりめぬ ぴわ づ をぶび ば だき ぼえめべさ めん ぱぱめあか ぜ なり びぞおもうし つ よず ど ゆだ さむ あ ば やにそけ ぼ びさ すねらづし れ ぺ ぶ とぎちおじ ばだげと き ふで じ せいとふづぴま ぴ べ くご ぺで ずり め え きひむ をばね どこをた よほ ぷ ぱ だ のひぢぷわよばん づじぜしだゆとぞこぽ ご べ び へかこけぐ ぬやさこずぱひえなぬぶ まろ ちぴ ぶろび ぴぐふび ぼ ひ ぱあにぷぬこぴはぼ さ げらにごすを しるをぷ づろ

Well at the moment I am focusing on singular characters. Eventually when I get to the point where I can instantly recognize a symbol (maybe at about 90 - 100 per minute) I will start with word pattern recognition, which will also include learning the Kanji slowly. The random characters generated in that paragraph are meant to make it awkward haha. I thought if I arranged them in words it would be cheating because I could recognize letters.

Just like you could read "aisggfaekfsafalkehmrelgkamkbgta" slower than "Hello, I am an awesome brown cat with a cigar". If they are arranged into words, you skip the actual thought process that goes into recognizing individual characters. Just last night I found a great android app for hiragana recognition. Basically it flashes the character in front of you and you choose the correct romaji sound out of 4 possible solutions. I did something like 1000 in 20 minutes at a 97% accuracy rate (3% miss were from accidentally pressing the wrong one mostly).

I think i'll reach 100 per minute pretty soon.

Quote from Jombo

I got my timer out and did some one minute runs and was at about 93 per minute. That was really strange to read. I went faster on the ones that slightly resembled words. I couldn't help myself from pronouncing は as "wa" some of the time, but I guess it doesn't matter.

Oh and I found out that the JP version of Pokemon games are all in kana, and the words are separated by spaces. It might be some good reading practice for you.

Phantom Hour Glass has furigana.

weird "test' though. a lot of the sounds like never show up together in words. confuses the hell out of me. also the ones that never show up, づ and ぢ. Is there a reason you didn't put in ya yu yo? Cause they show up a lot more than some of the characters in there.

zu doesn't show up because people use the modified su instead. And the modified chi version of ji is not used because the modified shi is used most of the time for ji.

I removed them because I was trying to recognize singular characters and they were annoying me. Eventually I added them back in, because obviously they are everywhere. I just wanted to get better at reading everything else first. I did put in ya yu yo initially. I just excluded them when they are used as suffixes. But as I said, I added them later.

If you want to, it's just a matter of removing the if statement from the source code.

i know why they aren't used... just saying that it kind of threw me off cause i've only seen them in like 2 words. and that it's weird that you would include them over ya yu yo which are used pretty often.

Because I couldn't be bothered dealing with them as suffixes at the time. But I put them in eventually.

On another note, I learned 28 kanji today. The very basics. I should remember all of them easily.