Kanji Learning Process?

[arancarlisle]

I am wondering how people go about learning Kanji.

Does one first start with learning the meanings of a group of Kanji (lets say 20), and then when you know the meanings start memorizing the various readings of them.

Or do you go one kanji at a time -- with each one stopping to memorize all the readings and meaning before moving on to the next Kanji character?

Is it possible to be able to comprehend written Kanji without knowing all the various verbal readings of the characters?

[Brian]

It's best to focus on one Kanji at a time; memorizing not only the meanings and readings but also practicing the stroke order.

I print out sheets for myself to practice writing the character. This helps with memorization, learning the various radicals that make up a kanji character, and getting a natural feel for stroke order.


Tracing that ^ would be enough to memorize the character but if you want to be able to write Japanese on paper you'd have to practice free-hand a bit too.

It is possible to comprehend Kanji without knowing the readings. Japanese people can probably read a little bit of Chinese just by knowing the meaning of a particular character.

You can recognize that 25歳 means 25 years old without having to know that it's read "ni-juu go sai."

[Satsujin]

When you learn a new kanji though you also need to learn the common kanji compounds that it occurs in.

[metablue]

Ok, I haven't learned many kanji yet. So in 6 months I might look at this and laugh. But that's part of the fun of learning =)

I think learning the kanji thoroughly one at a time like that would drive me crazy. I find things stick a lot better if I'm really curious about them at the time I learn them, so I learn words and compounds (you only have to remember one meaning), then look up the individual kanji as I go. I have a book called Kanji Pictographs that has mneumonics for 1000ish kanji that really helps.

Sometimes I read and look up the kanji. Then when I get frustrated with that, I sit down and memorize some kanji until that gets boring, then I go back to reading, and so on. It's erratic and inefficient, but it keeps me motivated.

[Fiducio]

If you have a large mirror, kanji dictionary, and dry erase markers, your mirror is your best canvas for any kanji, I write the meaning, the readings, and the kanji every night, about 10 times.

I have been doing this for a few months now, and I at least remember what it is, and how to read it when I see the kanji.

[ali17]

I have a water pen and a mat that I use. I have also seen people use brushes and the sidewalk with water.

[Brody]

I've found it a wasted effort to just try to learn them one by one. Start reading them in context. That way, if you can't exactly remember what the kanji means, you might have a fuzzy memory of the sentence you read it in and then be able to recollect the meaning. At least for me, that method makes kanji stick the most.

That's for reading kanji without a dictionary. When I write kanji, I find it's the opposite method. I need to write them over and over. On tests, I often get stuck if I write them out slowly. I find that if I have practiced them a lot beforehand, I just go into writing them quickly without thinking too much and my hand remembers them. I'd say my best practice method is to find excerpts of Japanese and then I write them out on scratch paper. Nothing fancy, just getting your hand to practice them.

Finally, don't rush it! It will take a LONG time to truly master them. Just have fun.

[Satsujin]

The problem with writing the same Kanji over and over is that after about the 5th time you aren't thinking anymore or focusing on memorizing but just writing. This might be good for muscle memory but I found it much more effective to pick about 10 related kanji and write them in sequence over and over. This way I have to think about the kanji that comes next, and the meaning naturally pops into my head and I can memorize them all much quicker.

That's what works for me anyway. Everyone is different though, but I recommend at least giving this method a try.

[Bucko]

You should totally learn them in context. Get a simple sentence that contains four or five kanji, like one used on the mp3 recordings here, and learn them in that context. As far as actually remembering them, (for me) it's best that I break each element down. I give each element a certain "role" and then create a small mnemonic for remembering. Don't ever change the role of the element too, use the same role for every other kanji.

For example, here's how I remember the word 'gambaru' 頑張る - to try one's best.

Firstly look at 頑 (gan). The meaning of this word in English is 'stubborn', and on the left hand side you have the element 'origin' and on the right hand side 'head'. My mnemonic is 'the origin of his stubboness comes straight from his head'.

Now looking at 張 (ba). The meaning is 'stretch', using the elements 'bow' (on the left) and 'long' (on the right). My mnemonic is 'streching the long string of a bow'.

Then to remember the word 頑張る I think that in order to suceed (in whatever) is to have a certain stubboness about you, and a will to strech yourself as far as you can.

I will never forget this word now.

Of course the elements I used here ('origin', 'head', 'stretch', 'long') are characters within themselves that I have mnemonics for.

You'll need to get a book that uses this story telling method. Some people recommend Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji', but I recommend 'A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters' because it goes into the history of each character and gives you the readings, plus some sample words. I used Heisig's book to learn the first 300 or so characters but it became kind of annoying after a while so I switched to 'A Guide to.'

Anyway, I rarely forget a kanji once I learn it this way, and I can usually learn about 20 or 30 new ones a week, and by the end of the year I'm hoping to have over 1000 learnt, all in context, including their readings.

[LittleFishChan]

Remembering the Kanji by Heisig and Supermemo. I made something called "KanjiTown" for remembering the ON yomi of the kanji learned in RtK I, and it works for me.

http://kanjitown.blogspot.com/ is where I posted the main ideas about how the whole concept works.

[bob1777]

From my experience:

- Get a book. Although they (books) seem simple and straightforward, they put some structure to this tedious memorizing process. I have http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/489358 ... e&n=283155

- writing them helps to remember

- JP girlfriend will most likely not be willing to help much in this learning process (or I wish you better luck)

- Learn them in context. i.e. learn compounds. Well, that's how you see them most of the time, so it pays off.

- Don't struggle to learn ALL compounds for given kanji. Few is enough to start with

- I also found that reading is best memorized by learning few representative compounds. I just pick a few that represent each reading. Most of the time these words will be related, so quite easy to remember. e.g. 明: 明るいakarui/bright,説明setsumei/explain

- It's ok (for me) if you cannot remember which reading is KUN which ON. My JP friends confirm that (they are also not sure sometimes which one's which.) At the end you'll memorize reading of compounds anyway.

Some material I found: http://www.yosida.com/en/learning.html. There is kanji section there

[alfa1]

I started off with this book: Read Japanese Today - Len Walsh
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080480 ... 73-0589558

This way you dont have to remember each kanji as a bunch of lines, but instead learn them as representations of what they are picturing.
eg: Early on, you learn that the sun is pictured like this: 日
then you learn that a tree is pictured like this: 木
and later on you are told that East is a representation of the sun rising in the morning behind a tree: 東
Later pages in the book then build up on the forms that have previously been explained.

I think whether the explanations are actually true or not is rather unimportant, but for me at least it helps in remembering what lines should go where.

[sumikekaito]

As far as stroke order you really don't have to memorize it.
Kanji based on these rules

1) Top to Bottom
2) Left to Right

Rule 1 has dominance over rule 2.

Improper stroke order can make Kanji hard to recognize, and can make radicals impossible.

[Jason]

The way we learned them in class was that we would go over about 2 or 3 new ones a day. We would go over the basic meanings and Shimizu-sensei would give us some example words and point out how they're read. While we went briefly over the readings themselves, we learned them mostly from the words they were used in. So we essentially learned readings on a "wordy by word need to know" kinda basis. I still do that. Whether or not that's a particualarly good way to study them, I don't really know. But I do think it's better than straight memorization.

I agree with everyone who said to study in context. It may not be a bad idea to look them individually for a kind of preliminary introducton, but seeing them in context is where the real learning sinks in. I also did pretty much the same thing as Satsujin-san with practicing writing. I think it works really well for the reasons he mentioned.

[LittleFish]

I should also point out that in using "Remembering the Kanji" to study kanji individually I can not only read but write almost all of the joyou kanji and more, and I know even some characters that my Japanese friends can't recall. I've never attended a day of Japanese class and I haven't been to Japan for more than 3 weeks (So I didn't learn them all while I was in Japan). I'm just a little white boy in the suburbs of America, and James Heisig (The author of the above-mentioned book) is my hero.
Using "RtK" is a severe test in self-discipline, and most people that have started the book don't finish it. But those that do finish the book have a kanji ability that baffles most Japanese people.
It took me about a year of study to complete the first book, and after that I learned to read the kanji by creating the "Kanji Town" mnemonic. Now I can read most adult reading material (Assuming it doesn't have lots and lots of specialty (medical, computer, etc.) terms.
The book has great potential but it's only as valuable as the effort put into it.