Good way to study kanji?

[Darien]

Making hundreds of flash cards isn't quite the most effective/efficient way of memorizing things, probably. It's what I've been doing for a while, and theyr'e just pains in the butt.

anyone else have better methods?

 

[Sid59]

lots and lots of time and memory.

you could always write them and remember. the plus side ... kanji characters are extremely close and related to chinese characters, so you are trying 2 birds in 1 stone.

have fun trying to remember and reproduce it. years and years. my japanese friend (born in japan and here in the states for 1 year of study abroad) still has to look up words for the writing in kanji when she writes to her professors.

 

[nativesunshine]

Originally posted by: Sid59
lots and lots of time and memory.

you could always write them and remember. the plus side ... kanji characters are extremely close and related to chinese characters, so you are trying 2 birds in 1 stone.

have fun trying to remember and reproduce it. years and years. my japanese friend (born in japan and here in the states for 1 year of study abroad) still has to look up words for the writing in kanji when she writes to her professors.

actually...knowing chinese didn't really help me to remember what the kanji word is in japanese. that's why i almost failed out of japanese 101. Example: i couldn't stop thinkg "woman" in chinese whenever i saw it..and therefore I forgot what it really was in Japanese. bah.

 

[Ikonomi]

I've found it much easier to learn kanji in context than just as characters with meanings and pronunciations attached to them. If you can find any children's books (for older children, obviously), buy them and read them because the kanji within is always accompanied by furigana, which is a big help if you don't know the word. If you can get Japanese newspapers, I highly recommend those, too.

To practice writing, which will greatly help you remember things, get a book like this. It's filled with pages of blank squares for practicing stroke order and form, with little margins for writing the pronunciation.

Lastly, if you want a pretty handy web supplement, you should check out japanese.about.com. They have Kanji of the Day lessons, and a lot more stuff. Still, like I said, learning kanji in context seems to be a lot better than just learning random words. If you learn as you read, you develop concrete associations that help you read and understand much faster in the real world.

 

[Yossarian]

I don't know if this is any good, I just used to beta test for the devs on one of their games--

K2 Kanji

 

[Darien]

bump

 

[mrbass]

Well when I lived in Japan I was asked to teach a computer class in English...well they never got it so I ended up having to teach it all in Japanese. Now I could never write kanji well at all...hiragana and katakana are easy. But I did memorize a ton of them. How? On the subway, train I'd use a Canon WordTank 9500 (think it was around $350..but well worth it). I'd lookup kanji constantly if I got stuck reading a computer magazine. Lookup kanji by keystroke. Also if you can find any kiddie books that have furigana that helps at times too. I never did find a wordprocessor (Ichitaro included) in Japanese that let me do furigana. You really need to pick a topic that is interesting to you and really want to learn (motivation is key here). It sucked the first month or so but you keep seeing the same ones over and over again.

edit: ok this typing kanji doesn't work on this forum so well...removed.

 

[rh71]

Man those were a pain in the ass... took 2 semesters of Japanese. I think it would've been easier if I actually knew how to read chinese too... same chars.

Tried and true - the only way is repetition.

 

[kami333]

The same way Japanese students learn them. Write, rewrite and write again. Everyday.

In junior high that's how I learned all my kanji (went to public school in Japan), I used a workbook and kept doing it again and again. Flash cards are nice HOWEVER they are only really good for review, with kanji you may be able to recognize it and read it but will have a hard time writing it because there are so many similar combinations, so writing them is the only way to go.

Sad thing is I haven't really done much writing in 7years now so I'm down to about a third of what I used to know. Having word processors around doesn't help either, all you have to do is type it in and make sure its the correct character, don't have to write them completely for memory. These days when I need to write a letter I usually end up having to type it out first and then copy it down, otherwise it would take me forever looking stuff up in the dictionary.

 

[akodi]

as everyone else said, write it over and over, having a japanese mom doesn't hurt either, i still remember the yelling

 

[Flyermax2k3]

I picked up a nice little book not too long ago entitled "A Guide To Remembering Japanese Chararcters" by Kenneth G. Henshall. Cost $30 and, as the cover of the book says:
"Explains origins and meanings of over 2,000 characters. Offers valuable suggestions for memorizing characters. Includes all the standard characters officially designated for common use"
I've found the book to be extremely helpful so far, and is a great study aid in addition to Barron's "Mastering Japanese" 10 disc audio set (w/study guide). This is the what the Government uses to train diplomats to go to Japan

 

[WinkOsmosis]

You need a katana to center your soul.

 

[kenshorin]

Originally posted by: Ikonomi
If you can find any children's books (for older children, obviously), buy them and read them because the kanji within is always accompanied by furigana, which is a big help if you don't know the word. If you can get Japanese newspapers, I highly recommend those, too.

seconded. Also understand that as many kanji characters that are out there, there is NO WAY you are going to memorize them all. Even native Japanese don't, there was a study that showed most native Japanese only really KNOW (as standalone) about 800 - 1000 kanji radicals, ones they use commonly. The rest they usually figure out by the context it is used. So as a non native, who won't use it regularly, if you know half that you should be doing really well.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Why are Asian languages so hard? Couldn't they think of simpler ways of writing? Everyone else did!

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Why are Asian languages so hard? Couldn't they think of simpler ways of writing? Everyone else did!

I dislike it as much as you do. I dropped out of Chinese school in 3rd grade!

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Why are Asian languages so hard? Couldn't they think of simpler ways of writing? Everyone else did!

Yeah, cause English grammar is so logical

 

[alkemyst]

I would not learn Kanji first. Hiragana and Katakana are much easier and practical. Even the average Japanese person doesn't know all Kanji possible. Once you have the language down you can usually figure out the Kanji as you go....

One of the biggest hurdles in 'grammar' is how Japanese is Subject - Object - Verb and others like English is Subject - Verb - Object.

English would be: This person is Mr. Smith.
Japanese is like talking like Yoda: This person Mr. Smith is.

Also tense and plurals are different. Counting is item specific...many more.

The first step is to learn the vowel sounds as they are very different than ours a e i o u sounds like ah a e o ew

Å

 

[Darien]

from what it looks like, looks like just mass writing and rewriting...

argh.

I'm thinking maybe memorize the radicals and their meanings first (there's about 200 of them IIRC) -- anyone else think that would help?

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Darien
from what it looks like, looks like just mass writing and rewriting...

argh.

I'm thinking maybe memorize the radicals and their meanings first (there's about 200 of them IIRC) -- anyone else think that would help?

I would get elementary school books and work your way through....that will show you which are important and which aren't.

If you don't know Hiragana and Katakana then I'd definitely get those down first. Much easier and more practical. Kanji is not easy for anyone....very few adults know close to even all of them....

Å

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Darien
from what it looks like, looks like just mass writing and rewriting...

argh.

I'm thinking maybe memorize the radicals and their meanings first (there's about 200 of them IIRC) -- anyone else think that would help?

I would get elementary school books and work your way through....that will show you which are important and which aren't.

If you don't know Hiragana and Katakana then I'd definitely get those down first. Much easier and more practical. Kanji is not easy for anyone....very few adults know close to even all of them....

Å

I know hiragana and katakana -- i'm on my 6th semester in the language. I'm just looking for a more efficient way to memorize kanji.

I'm not looking for a way to know *all* kanjis -- just those used for print (~2000. i only know about 600 - 700)

 

[Flyermax2k3]

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Darien
from what it looks like, looks like just mass writing and rewriting...

argh.

I'm thinking maybe memorize the radicals and their meanings first (there's about 200 of them IIRC) -- anyone else think that would help?

I would get elementary school books and work your way through....that will show you which are important and which aren't.

If you don't know Hiragana and Katakana then I'd definitely get those down first. Much easier and more practical. Kanji is not easy for anyone....very few adults know close to even all of them....

Å

I know hiragana and katakana -- i'm on my 6th semester in the language. I'm just looking for a more efficient way to memorize kanji.

I'm not looking for a way to know *all* kanjis -- just those used for print (~2000. i only know about 600 - 700)

Moooooo!!!! Pick up the book I recommended!!! It has the 2000 most frequently used kanji characters and their etymology and basically everything you could want to know about them.

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: Flyermax2k3

Originally posted by: Darien

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Darien
from what it looks like, looks like just mass writing and rewriting...

argh.

I'm thinking maybe memorize the radicals and their meanings first (there's about 200 of them IIRC) -- anyone else think that would help?

I would get elementary school books and work your way through....that will show you which are important and which aren't.

If you don't know Hiragana and Katakana then I'd definitely get those down first. Much easier and more practical. Kanji is not easy for anyone....very few adults know close to even all of them....

Å

I know hiragana and katakana -- i'm on my 6th semester in the language. I'm just looking for a more efficient way to memorize kanji.

I'm not looking for a way to know *all* kanjis -- just those used for print (~2000. i only know about 600 - 700)

Moooooo!!!! Pick up the book I recommended!!! It has the 2000 most frequently used kanji characters and their etymology and basically everything you could want to know about them.

I just attempted to buy these books on amazon.com....and then i hit a page that said an error has occured. I hope this isn't a bug with firefox 0.8