Japanese people forget how to read certain Kanji:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IARguDQIGVs
So, native speakers remember some of the Kanji pronunciation, but not the meaning?
Then in a different video, he was asking Japanese people to write the Kanji, but some of them couldn't remember how to write it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJNxPRBvRQg
My thoughts are maybe using a computer where it auto-generates the Kanji symbols. I can see why people would forget how to write it, but what about reading?
Are certain Kanji's just never used in writing so you forget them eventually? If someone writes in a Kanji that's more rare, is it expected that they write the Furigana? Is there a general expectation for which common Kanji people use, and which ones you don't?
What is causing this phenomenon to happen?
I encourage everyone in the community to add helpful links so that new people don't have to scour the internet for the good stuff.
Lets help each other and keep a resource thread alive to get everyone up and learning quickly. Some of these resources are completely free, while others are pay to play (at certain points on the website). You can decide for yourself what to do with the resources.
Links:
https://jisho.org/ - An English/Japanese dictionary with definitions & Kanji lookup with Furigana pronunciations, stroke order. Free
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/how-to-type-in-japanese/ - A great place to start for how to type in Japanese.
https://www.google.co.jp/ime/ - Download Google IME software to type in Japanese. Free
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:1000_Japanese_basic_words - Jumpstart your vocabulary with 1,000 new words! Free.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_language - Another helpful Wiktionary, its quite a rabbit hole (You've been warned!) Literally thousands of vocabulary words are listed here for you.
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/ - Helpful discussions on Japanese Grammar.
https://www.gyford.com/japanese/ - Quiz yourself on Hirigana and Katakana. Free
https://www.wanikani.com/ - Get started learning Kanji here. The first 3 levels are free which covers an introductory list of Kanji.
https://iknow.jp/content/japanese - The courses are pay to play, but there's hundreds of helpful grammar examples here for free.
https://genius.com/ - Sing along to your favorite Japanese songs, this website shows the lyrics (mostly romanji). Free
https://tunein.com/radio/Japan-r101255/ - Immerse yourself with free Japanese Radio.
Thanks everyone.
I will share my greatest challenge with learning Japanese. Japanese to English dictionaries are not always accurate. Also I struggle with speaking casually because traditional lessons at the library teach formal Japanese. Another challenge I have is that the learning materials I get are not visual enough.
Some things I have done to overcome these challenges:
When I use a Japanese to English dictionary to translate, I get my italki instructor to check my work to make sure the Japanese is accurate and makes sense.
My italki instructor also shows me alternate ways to say things in a more casual manner so I can learn both proper and casual methods of speaking. I also slow down youtube videos in conversational Japanese and try to re-write the conversations to get a better grasp of casual sentence structures.
I make my own flashcards with pictures on the front and only the word in Japanese so I can build a direct relationship between the word and the image without translating it to English. Cut out the middleman.
Happy Learning,
Austin
