I’ve recently finished the n5 tango anki deck, and one of the major points I’m struggling with now is if I should go back and learn kanji via wanikani or RTK.
For example: the world 自転車 I learned from n5 tango, I can see this and recognize the meaning, but I have no idea what each kanji means. After doing a some kanji lookup I know that 自 is self, but I wouldn’t know that if I hadn’t looked it up.
How important is it really to know this? My main goal is just reading and light conversation. Is this really something people pick up over time, because even after months of anki I don’t seem to be getting it. I would like to transition to core 2k6k next I think.
3 comments
Why do you need to know the meaning of individual kanji? Do you want to be a tattoo artist? If you want to learn how to read Japanese, it is of course enough to learn entire words, since that is what you will be reading.
I recommend doing RTK simply because it helped me remember vocab more easily. I did 3 years of japanese in college and a lot of words only started sticking properly after learning kanji. Your experience may vary.
RTK > Wanikani because you can choose your speed.
Whether learning individual kanji is important enough to you to be worth the effort is a decision you kind of have to weigh for yourself.
I never did RTK (or WaniKani, which didn’t exist when I was actively learning the language), because I never really cared for the idea of spending extended time associating kanji with convoluted English mnemonic stories and English keywords — I just wanted to read Japanese. But I did use various reference books and made an effort to at least have a general idea of what each character represented.
But as you describe your situation, I have a feeling things will improve as you simply learn more words. Like if you knew 自分, 自動, 自発, etc., I think you’d have a good sense that 自 represented the idea of “self” even if you didn’t learn it through RTK/WaniKani-style mnemonics and keywords. Likewise if you knew that 転 was the kanji for the verb 転ぶ and or knew words like 転勤, 回転, etc. And obviously 車 (くるま) is a word in itself, in addition to being at the end of basically every word that describes a vehicle with wheels.
So **TL;DR — if you’re interested in learning more about individual kanji and think mnemonics and keywords will help you, then sure, do RTK or WaniKani. If you don’t really care and just want to read, then just keep learning words and fill in the blanks as you go along, looking up characters when you feel the need or desire to.** As long as you keep at it, you’ll get to the same destination in the end.
*(edited for clarity)*