I’m working my way through the core2k deck as part of my studies and I’m just wondering how other people approach this.
I do 10 new cards each day. When I first encounter the a new card I write the kanji, the furigana, and definition down in a notebook. On any cards that I’m learning i try to get the pronunciation and the meaning down. If I get them both I’ll click “good” if I miss one of the two I click “hard” and if I can’t get either I click “again.”
However, im starting to encounter a problem where I understand the kanji. Like I have no problem remembering the meaning but I can’t for the life of me remember the pronunciation. I’m wondering if I should not focus so much on the pronunciation and just try to get down the meaning for now so I can get more cards in. What do you all do?
3 comments
Depends on what your goals in Japanese are. I found that when I focused on just kanji meaning my reading speed/ease went up in general, but I was in trouble if I ever encountered the word written in hiragana only (often material aimed at younger children). It also means you wont recognize the word when spoken aloud, or be able to use it in speaking conversation yourself.
I think its worth learning the pronunciation so you can recognize & use the word in more contexts, but if, for example you main goal is just to read japanese books, you could probably get away with doing less of that.
> Like I have no problem remembering the meaning but I can’t for the life of me remember the pronunciation
For onyomi, what I like to do is add a cluster of words with the same reading. Find words where the character is positioned in different places (if possible). So for instance,
探究 たんきゅう
探偵 たんてい
both have たん for 探
and then I found
偵察 ていさつ
To give 偵 as てい another position.
So I have a small cluster right there.
If you’re using a pre-made deck, IDK how you would apply this though.
For kunyomi I don’t always have a solution, but if you can find a few words or a phrase (or even small sentence) which contain the kunyomi word as word that can help.
“If I get them both I’ll click “good” if I miss one of the two I click “hard” and if I can’t get either I click “again.”
Remembering the meaning is a lot easier than the reading, especially if you are good with kanji. I fail cards unless I get both meaning and reading right. The only mistake I allow for and not hit fail is pitch accent.