What I'm Up Against

A week and a half ago, I started private lessons with a Japanese teacher. My first task is to learn the second alphabet: katakana. As if it were not difficult enough to learn 2 alphabets plus the thousands of kanji characters, I am also up against the similarities between characters....

Hiragana characters:
き and さ
こ and に
め, の, あ, and ぬ
ね and ぬ

る, ろ, and そ
は , ほ, and ま
れ , わ, and ね
り and い

Katakana characters:
ノ, ン, ソ, シ, and ツ

ウ, ク, ケ, ス, タ, ヌ, フ, ラ, ワ, and ヲ!

チ and テ
メ and ナ

ユ and コ