For context, I am Japanese, but grew up in the US. I speak in Japanese with my family so I am extremely fluent and can hold conversations with complex vocab, but when it comes to reading its different. My parents when I was little made me go to a Japanese school to learn kanji, but due to severe bullying, I could no longer attend. Many years later now, I only know really basic easy kanji, but I want to learn more to the point where if I were in a public area in Japan (for example maybe a restaurant) I could read the menu with no issues. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to learn if you already speak the language well, but cant read much of the kanjis?
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EDIT: I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone for the thoughtful tips! They’re very helpful, and its lowkey making me excited. I’ll make sure to check all the recommended websites, books and try the ideas! 🙂
8 comments
Anki might be good for you
Wanikani, the website, is really good for me as an English speaker, but there might be a better option if you already speak Japanese
There are primarily two ways to do this. First is to learn the kanji as units with both on and kun yomi. There are lots of apps that help with this (including flash card apps like Anki), or you could go with one of the standard books like the Hadamitzky Kanji & Kana. Second is to learn the kanji as words. For this you can use a reader that generates furigana. Browsers have Rikaichan (Firefox)/Rikaikun (Chromium browsers like Chrome or Edge). iOS has Manabi Reader (the developer shows up here every now and then and is really responsive). Satori Reader has multiple platforms.
If you can already follow the flow of conversation, it may be easier to go with the second approach and read a bunch of stuff with furigana and gradually learn the readings as they are used in text. This is more of a “real “ world application. The downside to this approach is you won’t necessarily learn all the readings for each kanji, and many Japanese people will use a kanji to explain a word (usually tracing it on their hand while saying something like 生徒のせいwhen telling you the kanji for生/nama).
If you already know the language well, then honestly, just read more. Reading physical books may be too slow, but e-book readers have dictionaries and web browsers have plugins to pop up readings (e.g. rikaikun).
There’s a risk that you don’t really pay attention to the kanji, but you can also read manga with furigana, and there are Japanese language subtitles for a lot of Netflix content that is in Japanese, so you can read along, and if that’s not enough there’s a ‘learn with netflix’ browser tool that lets you use external subtitle files for even more shows.
Of course, using some sort of SRS program to do memory drills as others have suggested will help, but how much of that are you really going to do in a day?
In addition to reading, maybe do what Japanese students do throughout school – work on 漢字ドリル from first grade level and go up from there. You can find them at a Japanese bookstore if you have one around, but I’m sure you could get them online.
Shows with Japanese subtitles might work. You already know the language so it should take way less effort to connect the sound of the language with the text.
Reading. The answer is reading.
Language Reactor. Watch Japanese shows and read the subtitles with the English translation.