Hi I’m new to learning Japanese I know hiragana and katakana and now I’m learning kanji do you have any tips on remembering them and also how to remember the kun readings
I’d recommend following something like Remembering the Kanji or Wanikani. A common method is to essentially break kanji down into radicals and make a story/mnemonic using those radicals. Then test yourself with increasing intervals and eventually you won’t have to go through the whole mnemonic to remember it anymore
Well the kun yomi is always the meaning of the word. So for example: the kun yomi for 楽is たのand the meaning is たのしい which is fun/interesting. So the point I’m trying to make is it is always the same as the meaning in Japanese. As for the on yomi, though it might seem difficult to remember, a trick I’ve always used is to always remember the on yomi in the form of a word. For example the on yomi for the above word is がく／らく. Together with the kanji for おと(sound) which is 音 it becomes 音楽- おんがく( music). So I am able to associate a sound with a word. Which is easier than individually remembering them
One thing that’s helping me is studying words within the same group rather than specific kanji.
For example, I will make some flash cards on Anki that consist of:
学生 (がくせい) – Student
大学 (だいがく) – College/University
大学生 (だいがくせい) – College/University Student
先生 (せんせい) – Teacher
学者 (がくしゃ) – Scholar
文学 (ぶんがく) – Literature
科学 (かがく) – Science
I start to subconsciously learn the individual kanji readings as I go through it this way. I’d strongly suggest the Genki books combined with Anki as the vocabulary is broken down this way.
I personally recommend WaniKani. It starts off slow but I’ve been using it for a few months now and can confidently read 600ish kanji. Don’t waste your time using a method that only teaches you the English meaning and doesn’t also teach you the onyomi and kunyomi readings of kanji.
Learn words rather than English meaning and readings. Practice both recognition and writing.
5 comments
I’d recommend following something like Remembering the Kanji or Wanikani. A common method is to essentially break kanji down into radicals and make a story/mnemonic using those radicals. Then test yourself with increasing intervals and eventually you won’t have to go through the whole mnemonic to remember it anymore
Well the kun yomi is always the meaning of the word. So for example: the kun yomi for 楽is たのand the meaning is たのしい which is fun/interesting. So the point I’m trying to make is it is always the same as the meaning in Japanese. As for the on yomi, though it might seem difficult to remember, a trick I’ve always used is to always remember the on yomi in the form of a word. For example the on yomi for the above word is がく／らく. Together with the kanji for おと(sound) which is 音 it becomes 音楽- おんがく( music). So I am able to associate a sound with a word. Which is easier than individually remembering them
One thing that’s helping me is studying words within the same group rather than specific kanji.
For example, I will make some flash cards on Anki that consist of:
学生 (がくせい) – Student
大学 (だいがく) – College/University
大学生 (だいがくせい) – College/University Student
先生 (せんせい) – Teacher
学者 (がくしゃ) – Scholar
文学 (ぶんがく) – Literature
科学 (かがく) – Science
I start to subconsciously learn the individual kanji readings as I go through it this way. I’d strongly suggest the Genki books combined with Anki as the vocabulary is broken down this way.
I personally recommend WaniKani. It starts off slow but I’ve been using it for a few months now and can confidently read 600ish kanji. Don’t waste your time using a method that only teaches you the English meaning and doesn’t also teach you the onyomi and kunyomi readings of kanji.
Learn words rather than English meaning and readings. Practice both recognition and writing.