I’m sorry in advance if this question has been asked before but does anyone have any suggestions for learning and reviewing practical kanji pronunciation and N5 material?
I’m in a strange situation. I understand roughly 60-70% of what’s being said when watching the weather channel and YouTube in Japanese but I took an N5 practice test and only scored 54/100.
Here’s where I think my problems stem from: I’ve been self-studying for just over a year now by using mainly Duolingo and some from the Genki books. Without much long-term review. Duo and media consumption provides me with context so it’s easier to understand what I’m taking in, whereas the N5 test only gives me hiragana and katakana. I find it much easier to read kanji, which a lot of the time, isn’t on the tests I’ve taken. It’s sort of backwards. I also find myself hearing or reading words that I’ve studied but I cannot remember.
I do most of my studying at work so bringing my Genki book isn’t very practical. In Duo, I’m at the stage where I’m learning about bank accounts (47,000pts / 30% of the course) which is too far past my goal of getting my N5 certificate, I would think. I’d like to get back to the basics without learning from scratch. Does anyone have any suggestions?
4 comments
TL;DR
I have a good amount of study time in (about 2 hours a day for the last year) but I struggle reading kanji when it’s written in hiragana (largely due to a lack of review resources) and it’s hindering my test taking
I’d recommend “Kanji study” app. In my eyes, it’s the best app out there. You can not only study all Kanji that exist but also it has a huge dictionary. Kanji + Dictionary. You must check it out. I have been using it for 2-3 years now.
I’ve tried Anki before but I’ve been having more success with Wanikani, currently sitting at around 400 kanji. Duolingo is horrible for memorizing, I forgot 90% of all kanji after finishing each course even if I remembered the hiragana.
Not an app, but the funniest kanji drill books available are the “Unko Sensei” series. It’s perfect for the those of us who are immature.
The books go by Japanese grades and are hand-to-paper which is probably better for internalizing kanji than just reading them. Each example sentence given will have something to do with poop. The sentences are VERY creative and show the kanji in context. Most of the vocabulary you see will be every-day and mostly casual. It is very fun.