Katakana Help!

[Earl]

Hello Thier. I have recently started learning Katakana. I have come to notice that "Shi" and "Tsu" are practically identical. This also seems to be the case for "So" and "n\m". Can anyone help me out here. Any tips or pointers? Also slightly off topic but i notice a lot of people here Type Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji, how do you do this?

[sodapple]

yeah they look similar but really they are different, visit this site click in the kana section and see how to write them
Click here!
And to type hiragana katakana visit this site and this site!!

Ganbatte ne!

[Psy]

There are fairly comprehensive threads detailing how to write Japanese on this forum:

Typing Japanese in OSX.
Typing Japanese in Windows.

Here are some images I made for a tutorial a ways back which should help you see the difference:

N:

SO (almost drawn in the same way as a roman 'Y', so think of the word "soy"):

SHI (resembles a smiley face, yes? "shi" is always looking up, but TSU looks down, because he's always TSU negative...):

TSU:

[hatch_jp]

シ is writen horizontally. All strokes are writen form left to right.
ツ is writen virtically. All strokes are writen form top down.

[Earl]

Thanks for the great replies. I think this has helped me gain a better understanding on how to distinguish the characters. I have managed to get kana input up and running on my pc although i think it may take some getting used to

ありがとうございます。(I think thats right)

[Psy]

ありがとうございます。(I think thats right)

ええ、かんぺきですよ (yes, it's perfect.)

[Chiller]

I have just worked out how to remember this one. As you practice writing it, say 'needle', while you write the first small line, and then 'thread' as you write the long stroke starting from the top. It helped me.

[spidey]

THANK YOU PSY!

There are fairly comprehensive threads detailing how to write Japanese on this forum:

Typing Japanese in OSX.
Typing Japanese in Windows.

Here are some images I made for a tutorial a ways back which should help you see the difference:

N:

SO (almost drawn in the same way as a roman 'Y', so think of the word "soy"):

SHI (resembles a smiley face, yes? "shi" is always looking up, but TSU looks down, because he's always TSU negative...):

TSU: