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Tips to how to learn kanji

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kwecky
New in Town
Posts: 5
Joined: March 28th, 2015 12:09 am

Tips to how to learn kanji

Postby kwecky » April 2nd, 2015 11:55 pm

So, I just started learning Japanese a couple months ago, and I'm trying to learn kanji.
However, as many people have pointed out, kanji (might) be (slightly) overwhelming if you run in head first.
So I thought, you can't eat a sandwitch without chewing it to pieces first, and the same goes for kanji.
Is there any tips out there that can make the learning experience easier? I mean, I gotta preak everything to pieces first, so what should I stark with, and what can I ignore now?
As I'm not going to Japan in a while, could I ignore the readings for now, or is ON-readings more important to learn in the beginning, than KUN-reading, or vice versa?
Maybe I should learn to write them first, or the stroke order, or the radicals, or the meanings?
Anything at all that might help me out, and I will be grateful.
Thank you in anvance :wink:

adelholtz_499460
Established Presence
Posts: 58
Joined: May 21st, 2014 8:53 am

Re: Tips to how to learn kanji

Postby adelholtz_499460 » April 3rd, 2015 8:46 pm

Hi

you should read this post: http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&p=41102#p41102

Also i do not advice to learn Kanjis strictly in order of N5 to N1 level (unless your only goal is to take a certain N-Level test..)
If you don't need a certificate that you have a certain Level its pretty pointless taking those tests and thus learning specifically by N-Levels becomes pointless.

Learning kanjis without example sentences or words makes no sense (at least in my opinion). You won't be able to read(not when you start learning) texts simply by blindly learning Kanjis and all their readings.
So my advice is this:
Learn the kanjis you encounter while learning new vocabulary. You don't have to learn all of them at once. Learn them by your own pace.

My experience is, the more kanjis you know, the easier it becomes learning new one. You already know stroke patterns, radicals and so on and you will have a bigger arsenal of vocab to connect them with.

I hope this helps a little.

Regards.

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community.japanese
Expert on Something
Posts: 2704
Joined: November 16th, 2012 8:54 am

Re: Tips to how to learn kanji

Postby community.japanese » April 15th, 2015 12:20 am

Kwecky san,
Konnichiwa.
Thank you for the question.
I really understand what you mean.
It depends on your Japanese study goal.
However, writing, reading, speaking and listening skills are related each other.
Therefore, it is said that if you study kanji, your listening and speaking skills are also improving.
As san said, you don’t need to memorize all kanji at once.
Just step by step.
Kanji is ideogram so even if you can’t pronounce it, you can understand the meaning.
By the way have you visited the page below?
If not yet, please go and try it.
If you have any questions or need advice, please feel free to ask us.

 さん、
Thank you very much of the advice to Kwecky san.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

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