writing kanji

[josiah]

i have never
really tried
to write kanji
but
i've decided i
want to learn to
write

is there a
correct
to write?

could someone show
me how to write
?
i'm going to start
with the
kanji
PDFs

頑張ってくだせ～！！

[プチクレア]

There's a stroke order that you have to follow if you want the kanji to look as it should, otherwise, the balance isn't right; that's also true if you use some hand-writing recognition software (great way to look up kanjis on the go without having to go through the dictionary search...); if you don't write the strokes in the right order, the software usually doesn't recognize the kanji.

I found that writing kanjis sped up the learning process too !

The best way I think is to do as you said, that is following the stroke order in the kanji close-up PDFs; you should pick the "natural" order up quite quickly; the general rules are

- top to bottom
- left to right
- when lines cross (ex 土）, horizontal usually comes before vertical (there are some exceptions)
- in 3-part kanjis (ex 小, 水), center comes first (main exception here : 火)
- in enclosed (ex 国) kanji, the outer frame first except for the closing line which comes last)
- in diagonal strokes (ex 人), right-to-left comes before left-to-right
- central vertical line (ex中) comes last
- horizontal strokes that "cut through" the kanji (ex 子, 女) come last ('exception 世)

but writing is really the best way to remember it !

[Javizy]

Another thing to pay attention to is characters like 千 and 手. To get the slanted top stroke, you write it from right to left. You really need to get some sort of book so you can learn about how characters are built up. If you know the stroke order of a character that appears as a radical in other characters, then you already know half the stroke order of those other characters.

There are also exceptions all over the place, like the character 天 having its first stroke written right to left only when it appears in another character, such as in 橋. It's useful to be able to recognise the different forms characters take when used as radicals, for example, 衣 is written as the left half of this character 初, and 示 as the left half of this character 礼. These two examples also look extremely similar except for one little stroke in the first one.

I recommend Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji'. Even if you don't approve of the memorisation technique, the order that the characters are presented in makes learning them far easier. Stroke order is focused on at the beginning, and the various forms of characters and any exceptions like those I mentioned are well covered. It's actually a lot easier than you might think, but it definitely takes some dedication.

[Psy]

I recommend Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji'

So do I, but if you can't go for that, my 2nd choice is Kanji & Kana from the Tuttle Language Library. It's a great learner's dictionary and has stroke order information for the entire jouyou.

[josiah]

exellent

thank you
both

[josiah]

I recommend Heisig's 'Remembering the Kanji'

i just started reading the
available
downloadable content

presently on
chapter 2
but it is exellent
and very easy to learn
this way
thus far

excellent

[Javizy]

Cool. If you don't have it already, you should install Anki. It has a Heisig sample deck, arranged in the order of the book. Reviewing really solidifies your stories, and Anki helps to identify the characters you struggle with.

[josiah]

this is good
fantastic

i never realised
how simple it could
be
but it must get
harder
right?

[Javizy]

this is good
fantastic

i never realised
how simple it could
be
but it must get
harder
right?

Some of the abstract keywords can be quite difficult to visualise, and because there can be groups of similar keywords you need to keep your images vivid and distinct. Using Anki from the start should be a big advantage though, I only started using it a month ago

[Psy]

Some of the abstract keywords can be quite difficult to visualise, and because there can be groups of similar keywords you need to keep your images vivid and distinct. Using Anki from the start should be a big advantage though, I only started using it a month ago

Or do like I did, and make your own flashcards as the book suggests. It isn't hard, it isn't expensive, and it will help loads. All you need is a shoebox (I used a CD-box without the jewel-case dividers) and a bunch of index cards.

[josiah]

Some of the abstract keywords can be quite difficult to visualise, and because there can be groups of similar keywords you need to keep your images vivid and distinct. Using Anki from the start should be a big advantage though, I only started using it a month ago

Or do like I did, and make your own flashcards as the book suggests. It isn't hard, it isn't expensive, and it will help loads. All you need is a shoebox (I used a CD-box without the jewel-case dividers) and a bunch of index cards.

not hard
at all

i just need
more
time

may i have
yours
?

[Psy]

not hard
at all

i just need
more
time

may i have
yours
?

That takes a lot of the point out of the exercise. You're supposed to invest time into learning an individual character, and putting a pen to a card and drawing it out yourself really helps to do that. You also get the reward of having a physical manifestation of your progress-- it really hits home how much you've done when eventually you find 3,000 cards sitting in front of you-- If you don't have much time, then why not slow the pace down a bit and study well instead of in haste?

[josiah]

on average
how much time
do you think
is needed
per character?

[Psy]

As long as it takes to develop a good image/story for it. For me this didn't take very long for most of them, on average maybe 45 seconds to 2 minutes on one kanji. I'd work in groups of 10, and then review and stop studying for a while. Later I would sit down again and do another group of 10, review, and so on. Some days I would only do 10, others I'd do so many as 50, and still others all I would do is review. I collected the cards into stacks of 100 and would every so often practice them, and made a point to bring one of the stacks along with me to review periodically. I'd sift out the kanji that gave me difficulty and focused on why-- on occasion I had to modify my story, reinforce it, or used a different one altogether.

It was a huge task but I did get it done-- so can you!

[Spiderwick]

I'm a bit of a novice to kanji. I've just got hold of the Heisig book and I keep on telling myself to get started on it. I suppose I've been a bit daunted by the prospect of such a tough task. Anyway, here's my silly question. The book tells me that it is not going teach me the compounds (which I kind of understand) but it also isn't going to teach me how to pronounce them. Should I be using an audio version, rather like the White Rabbit Press one, whilst I'm learning the stroke order?
Any help would be much appreciated
Anne