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Kanji ?? How do I learn the complex kanjis

how the heck do I learn how to understand the complex kanji?? I have the basic katakana and hiragana down but I need help on all the other ones ): 

Apr 21, 2015 1:16 AM
Comments · 9
2

The best learning is not simply bringing information to your brain.
All things that pass visually and by our muscle work will be memorized more easily than just "trying to memorize by reading and decorating".
Not that you can't learn by it, but it's not so easy.

Try to:
1. Compare the kanji to the what it means. Ex.: 雨 (ame). It means rain. Doesn't it reminds you of rain hitting on a window? hahah.

2. Do you know how the kanjis was originated? They are symbols. Little drawings. They do modify with time, but if you can you assimilate with the original one? Ex.: Note the sheep kanji evolution: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/羊#Translingual

3. Try sketching a mixture of the kanji with it's meaning. Ex.: http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/115/d/8/__fire___kanji_tattoo_design_by_hellsoriginalangel-d4xjt2b.jpg

Good luck.

April 21, 2015
1

Summary

1. Begin studying kanji by learning radicals. (Three or four days.)

2. Practice a little bit everyday. (10 minutes)

3. Learn words, not individual kanji.

4. Learn words in context, not from vocabularly lists.

 

1. Begin studying kanji by learning radicals. (Three or four days.)

 

Kanji are made of radicals, which are like the building blocks on kanji. Many radicals are kanji themselves. For example, 口 is a kanji/radical that means mouth. Learning the radicals a character is made of can help you remember how to write the character by making stories. 

 

Google "Simplified_table_of_Japanese_kanji_radicals" for a list. Learn the most common ones (48 radicals). You don't need to know them perfectly; just be familiar. Practice writing each one a couple times over the course of a week.

 

Look up the general stroke order rules (you don't have to memorize them, just get a sense of them). For each radical, though, look up the stroke order as you practice. Google "kanji Stroke Order Diagram Animation". The first link is a dictionary that will show you stroke order if you paste a kanji into the (tiny) search box at the top.

 

2. Practice a little bit everyday. Ten minutes is fine, and splitting the time up throughout the day is really helpful. Again, look up stroke order for each new kanji.

 

3. Once you're past the radicals, avoid learning individual kanji. Not all kanji are words by themselves, and many kanji change pronunciation depending on their context. The solution is to just learn words as they appear on your vocab list.

 

4. Also, avoid isolated vocabularly lists. Take your vocabulary from context—textbooks, manga, anime, books, whatever. This helps things stick in your mind, and you'll learn vocab that is relevant to the material you're using to study.

 

Good luck.

April 21, 2015
1

If you have textbooks, try to pick out the ones you don't know and write them out multiple of times. Keep repeating this few times a week.

 

If you like Anime or Manga, I would suggest reading the raw (un-translated) version and then pick out the kanji you don't know and write them down along with the meaning.  

There's also a website called www.languageperfect.com/
My Japanese teacher recommened this to me in high school. It's a good way to learn new vocabs and Kanji.

 

Hope this helps. ^_^ 

April 21, 2015

Once you learn the simple kanji, the more complex ones will be a piece of cake, because you see the same radicals (sections of kanji) over and over again. for example, take the word 撃つ(うつ) and it means to shoot. on the upper left, you have 車(くるま / car) and on the bottom, 手(て / hand). The two radicals on the upper right are so simple, only 4 strokes, you shouldn't have a problem with it. For remembering the kanji, you could make up something for it. For 撃つ, think of the speed of a car, coming from your hand. Does that sound familiar, like maybe a bullet, which you *shoot*? Just keep learning the simple ones and you'll see them show up all over the place.

April 22, 2015

I'm currently taking a Japanese class in university while also doing some self-study on the side.

This is all from personal experience, but I've found that the easiest way to remember kanji is to do it little by little alongside learning new sets of vocabulary, then using them while studying other things (such as grammar and sentence structure.) as well as using them in reading/writing practice.

My class uses the Genki textbook, which I've found is a really easy to understand as it introduces new kanji in a way that incorporates the book's main lessons. I also got "A Guide to Writing Japanese Kanji & Kana" which is basically a giant book with characters and spaces to practice them. Repetition has helped me a LOT in remembering kanji and how to write them.

April 22, 2015
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