I’ll be taking the JLPT N3 this december. I’m currently reviewing using shin kanzen master and one of my weaknesses is really writing kanji. Although I can pick up new vocab, I’m not able to write the kanji so when I answer the exercises in the book, I just normally write in hiragana or katakana depending on the word. I know that jlpt is all multiple choices so I won’t have to write any kanji at all, but I’m a bit worried with my Japanese in general.
Will this method have negative repercussions on my learning in Japanese? I can recognize the kanji and very seldomly mistake the kanji for another, the only problem is I can’t write it aside from the kanji that I studied in class (around n4 kanji). Since the pandemic, I haven’t written any kanji since we’re all online, that’s why it’s come to this. I *would* love to learn how to write them, but considering the time constraints and my review window for N3, I don’t think I can find the time since I’m planning to focus more on other aspects that I’m lacking. I would like to hear this subreddit’s advice. Thank you.
4 comments
Unless you live in Japan or you’re taking some kind of written test, you will probably never need to handwrite kanji. As long as you can recognize a word when you read it, and recognize it to type it, I think you’re fine. Handwriting is about the last thing I would prioritize, personally.
That said, writing can be a great tool for enhancing recognition. I basically only write stuff out when I’m having trouble reading a word.
Do you want to be able to write Kanji by hand? Then it is a problem. Otherwise it is not a problem.
Being able to write Kanji can deepen your understanding of different characters and it might make it easier for you to differentiate between very similar characters, but in my opinion knowing the most common radicals and recognizing them within each Kanji is enough for that purpose.
sure learn it later, there’s infinite information to learn, you don’t have to force any one thing
tho do go back and learn it at some point. it will become easier as you go tho, so it actually gets less daunting at some point
also note that some words, tho they have kanji, are never written in kanji, or only very rarely, so also look up how they’re generally used and save yourself the trouble of memorizing something rare, unless you just wanna know for personal edification
do consider writing practice tho. while exams may never test you for it explicitly, it’s a different avenue of learning and helps reinforce information. the more senses you engage, the more and the stronger the neuronal connections you make to information, and writing is a kinesthetic interaction that can reinforce the usual visual and audal data that is most common for studying
Sometimes I just write it to help memory retention. I do know on some of those test questions they try to trip you up by changing a radical.