So this year I’ve been learning grammar, words and kanji myself on this website called Kanshudo. I’m also going through Genki 2 with a teacher. On Kanshudo kanji, grammar and words are all contained in lessons. But you can do flashcards of sets from lists of words of grammar or whatever.
I’m thinking of just learning words on it now because I think I’ll learn enough grammar in genki 2 and then Tobira or an integrated approach. I think just learning words will improve my Japanese faster. But I have noticed it’s easier to decipher the meaning and reading of a word if I know the individual kanji in it.
Should I drop kanji for now and just self learn more words? or continue to learn kanji + grammar + words during self study, which means I’ll learn less words. I’m currently at the most common 400 kanji and 1000 or so words.
12 comments
If the words you learn include the kanji, you can totally read.
If you think learning kanji helps enough to justify learning them individually, then do it. Otherwise it’s possible to learn words without learning the kanji prior, that’s what I prefer(ed).
I haven’t really studied but I’ve picked up kanji from names and words. Kanji I see a lot I look up. This has really helped me learn fast without proper studying.
learn kanji naturally as you learn words.
Learn 好き instead of learning すき and 好 separately. Learning the kanji’s other readings could help, but if its confusing, just go with the reading associated with the word you’re learning.
Both methods work for different people. Some people, like me, like to know kanji meanings and on-readings before learning any word that usds them. On the other hand, a lot of people never learn Kanji individually and reach fluency. I recommend you try a bit of both and see which one makes the process easier for you.
kanji aren’t words, you can’t read kanji
only words are readable, so yes, keep learning vocabulary, and the kanji spellings and pronunciations as you go
people rote memorize kanji to make the vocab easier, and different amounts of doing that is more or less useful to different people, but rote memorizing kanji alone will not allow one to read
My learning stagnated near the end of genki 2 after like 2 years because I just couldnt remember the differences between the 20 kanji they give you at the end of each chapter. After Heisig RTK as an anki deck and with hand practice for like 3 months, retaining kanji has been much easier and studying vocab has become incredibly easy.
If kanji are becoming hard to remember for you Id definitely recommend working your way through a kanji memorization book cause it really helps in recognizing the difference between kanji. If youre doing fine though theres probably no reason to change anything. To be clear im not recommending learning pronunciation, just practicing writing the 2000ish ones heisig gives and then go back to studying vocab after that.
On top of being able to recognize kanii better, a lot of kanji with the same pieces actually get pronounced the same and its helpful to be able to tell them apart and recognize them to make vocab easier.
Learn one kanji words like 食べる, 好き, 雨(あめ), 愛(あい), 太い, etc. You basically learn “kanji” and its meaning by doing this with the added benefit of learning actually useful vocab to boot.
I personally learned Kanji at the same time as learning the words….because in my opinion (and from experience) just knowing the meaning can go a long way towards memorization…they were their own mnemonics for me….specially since at the beginning I could not grasp the idea of things sounding the same, but meaning something completely different.
example
好く = to like.
空く = to become less crowded.
透く = to be transparent.
They are all pronounced as すく but based on context (and kanji) mean different things….as a beginner back in the day i could not understand this concept very well…so kanji next to a word in anki made it easy(er) to know what it meant…and it made just general reading easier….of course, at the beginning kanji can be daunting…but at the end of the day its an integral part of modern Japanese so eventually you will have to learn it
Yes. No need to learn every single Kanji on their own. Learn words instead
As I’ve meandered my way through the language I’ve gone from knowing the individual kanji to everything I know, to knowing only a small fraction of the individual kanji to all the words I know.
It’s up to you what you want to do. I had no real guide so just flitted around to whatever method interested me, and at some point radicals, mnemonic, and individual Kanji learning dropped off.
I have done all three and I’ve done it consistently. Depending on how you want to use Japanese, Kanji can have different levels of importance. I’d still learn them if you want to understand text if you’re in Japan for example.
What I do is, I do Duolingo and turn off Hiragana/Katakana and Romaji, forcing myself to understand the Kanji and I also do Wani Kani. I do this while commuting to school on my train so it doesn’t take a long time but it helps immensely with recognizing and understanding Kanji