I have only been using Duolingo to study and I am 45 days in. I can read both hiragana and katakana, and write all of hiragana and most of katakana. I am entering into the stage of reading/writing certain kanji characters. Things like, 学生, 時, and 私. The kanji has caused a lot of trouble with both the writing and reading portion of the language and wanted to know the best way to learn it or if you even have to learn it as I have seen there is hiragana above the kanji on how to read it. Or is there a certain list of kanji characters that I should learn that are used the most?
Thanks 🙂
5 comments
Duolingo is fine for learning the kanas, but it’s terrible for kanji. Back when I tried it, they didn’t bother explaining a lot of things like why/when the kanji change pronounciation, and it got frustrating fast.
The two most popular methods for learning kanji are [WaniKani](https://www.wanikani.com/), and Anki flashcards based on the Remembering the Kanji books (RTK). WaniKani is easier to use, but costs money after the beginning; RTK+Anki is free, but takes more setup. The [Resources](https://reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/w/index/resources?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app) page for this sub has links for Anki, and you should be able to search to find a premade RTK deck.
I recommend at least trying the first 3 levels of WaniKani, since they’re free. You don’t lose anything, and they’ll give you a good start even if you switch to something else later.
Wanikani for reading and meaning. Writing could be practiced alongside I guess, but I’m not trying to learn writing so I can’t really tell. Still, wanikani is the best thing ever
I’m using anki with 2k/6k core deck, I think it’s working really well
Through vocab
JLPT Sensei is good. Studying for a standardized test is a good way to measure and set goals. Reading and writing the characters a bunch of times works.
Creating mnemonics in a similar way to KanjiDamage.
Using Anki flashcards for spaced repetition (srs).
You can watch anime on Animelon which has Japanese and English subtitles for a lot of different anime, for free.
I’d say you wanna spend at least an hour a day on kanji though, it’s pretty much the foundation for retaining the language.