I am struggling with kanji. I’m trying flash cards and they worked for some of the characters. But not for all. If you any of you have some good advice I would be thankful.🤍
if you really can’t remember some kanji using flash cards then I recommend slowly writing the kanji on a piece of paper over and over again and eventually, your mind will recognize each stroke of the kanji and what the kanji means… at least this is what worked for me when I tried to learn 夜 (よる/night)
I know it’s not for everyone, but maybe give the Remembering the Kanji book by James Heisig a try. It basically changed the way my mind processed kanji. Now when I see a new kanji I’ve never seen before, I’m generally able to write it down when I get home even if it’s been hours since I saw it.
For how long have you been studying kanji? The beginning’s always hard and then it gets easier and easier. Maintaining kanji knowledge is another beast to tackle, though.
Some people swear by Heisig or anki, I am not a fan of these books nor the app. Bought them, tried them, found it incredibly boring. No offense to anyone who found them helpful but it wasn’t for me. Anki is too monotonous for me as well.
Personally, I say encountering kanji again and again in the wild as you would in their natural habitat of Japan is the key. So, reading, reading and reading. I can recommend the Kanji Look&Learn textbook and workbook. They’re affordable and give you a good start with 500 common kanji. The structure is really good on repetition, review and new kanji. It helped me a lot back in the beginner’s phase because I finally felt like I understood what was going on and gave me confidence to push forward.
That and manga. I love manga so I read the ones I already read in English in Japanese. It’s a struggle at first but once you get used to an author’s style, you’ll encounter the same kanji and grammar points again and again. So, try and learn vocab instead of single kanji.
Are you familiar with radicals and various kanji components?
4 comments
if you really can’t remember some kanji using flash cards then I recommend slowly writing the kanji on a piece of paper over and over again and eventually, your mind will recognize each stroke of the kanji and what the kanji means… at least this is what worked for me when I tried to learn 夜 (よる/night)
I know it’s not for everyone, but maybe give the Remembering the Kanji book by James Heisig a try. It basically changed the way my mind processed kanji. Now when I see a new kanji I’ve never seen before, I’m generally able to write it down when I get home even if it’s been hours since I saw it.
For how long have you been studying kanji? The beginning’s always hard and then it gets easier and easier. Maintaining kanji knowledge is another beast to tackle, though.
Some people swear by Heisig or anki, I am not a fan of these books nor the app. Bought them, tried them, found it incredibly boring. No offense to anyone who found them helpful but it wasn’t for me. Anki is too monotonous for me as well.
Personally, I say encountering kanji again and again in the wild as you would in their natural habitat of Japan is the key. So, reading, reading and reading. I can recommend the Kanji Look&Learn textbook and workbook. They’re affordable and give you a good start with 500 common kanji. The structure is really good on repetition, review and new kanji. It helped me a lot back in the beginner’s phase because I finally felt like I understood what was going on and gave me confidence to push forward.
That and manga. I love manga so I read the ones I already read in English in Japanese. It’s a struggle at first but once you get used to an author’s style, you’ll encounter the same kanji and grammar points again and again. So, try and learn vocab instead of single kanji.
Are you familiar with radicals and various kanji components?