Hiragana

[winterpromise31]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I have to ask.

I'm just starting to learn Japanese and I was told to start with hiragana so I wouldn't be leaning on the romaji.

In English, the alphabet is memorized and recited in a specific order. Is hiragana the same way, that it has to be memorized in a specific order? I've already learned the first five letters (I can recognize them when I see them, know how to pronounce them, and how to write them) but I don't want to continue until I know if I need to memorize them in a certain order. I really don't want to unlearn something.

Thanks!

[Ben Bullock]

In English, the alphabet is memorized and recited in a specific order. Is hiragana the same way, that it has to be memorized in a specific order? I've already learned the first five letters (I can recognize them when I see them, know how to pronounce them, and how to write them) but I don't want to continue until I know if I need to memorize them in a certain order. I really don't want to unlearn something.

You don't need to remember them in any particular order, but if you need to look words up in a dictionary you'll need to know how they are ordered. The commonest order is called the "go-juu-on" which means "fifty sounds" order. It's like a rectangular grid with the vowels on one side and consonants on the other. You might find my web page http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/kana-mnemonic.html useful here. It gives some mnemonics for remembering the order of the consonants and vowels along the grid.

[geebods]

I found that to start with it was easier to memorise them by learning them in order. But I don't think it is compulsory.

[winterpromise31]

Thanks for the answers! I will memorize them in order for when I need to look something up in the dictionary. Ben, that website will be very useful.

Arigato gozaimasu!