STOP WORRYING ABOUT KANJI !!

8 comments

1. Considering that’s how Japanese children learn the language I completely agree.
   The problem is that people start learning Japanese in order to do adult things like talking to other adults in Japanese or consuming media that is meant for adults, and they feel inadequate in not being able to comprehend kanji.

2. It’s intimidating, but the kanji mess is pretty basic knowledge one can figure out by quick googling. And it’s not even the hardest part tbh; language is much more complicated than memorizing a few thousand characters that you’d encounter anyways on a (more or less) regular basis.

   I might go as far as to say that people who try to skip kana (out of dumber reasons) before they even try – those ones aren’t going to reach any meaningful goal. It’s just way too inefficient learning a language while being illiterate.

   口動かしてる暇があるなら手を動かせと同じ理屈だと私は思うんですよね。始める前から効率的な学習法を模索しまくって、わざわざポスト建てて相談してるケースとかも同様。 ~~テメーの身の上話はなんでもいいから、黙ってサブのガイド読んでとりあえずやれっての~~

3. Here’s the thing: there is a tried and true method for learning 2000 characters you are going to need anyway that takes a month or two to learn 2000+ kanji, Kanji that you are going to need anyway to use the written language as it exists, so why not (if you actually need to use the language) just get it done?

   Watching the difference in how fast people learn Chinese who know 2000 kanji but have never spoken the language, or how fast people learn Japanese if they already know 2000 kanji but have never spoken the language, the question to ask you back is why not worry about just learning 2000 Kanji upfront in the first place? And then learning the language as it actually used, instead of some weird “no one actually uses Japanese like this” format?

   Now people who learn in college or high school are not learning the language, so there is no particular reason for them to learn 2000 characters. But by that same logic there is no reason to learn kana, either, as they could just concentrate on learning listening and speaking Japanese. There is essentially nowhere you can find Kana only Japanese. I mean they still use Kanji in *Korea*, and it is not even a required subject. Pretending that 地下鉄 is written in Kana, or 止まれ is written in Kana, or the cars say ポリス on them and not 警察 is just being silly.

   Either use the writing system, or don’t. Learning the Kana is like learning the first two letters of the English alphabet and thinking it gets you anywhere. It don’t.

   Again, this is all a thing because there is a system to learn 2000 characters in about a month. So why not do so?

   This sub is full of people who could know 2000 kanji August 1st, starting now, not knowing any Kanji at all.

   The question is better said is why do people who claim to want to use Japanese not just get this done, and instead come up with reasons to not put in the effort?

4. Ah yes, whether Kanji is that important or not. This is a subject very divisive in this community between those who say “You don’t need to learn them bro” and those who say “OMG you’re studying it all wrong! Kanji is a must-must-must and you should memorize them all perfectly before attempting to do anything!”

   This is an exaggeration of both sides, but I think it sums it up well. And honestly, I agree with you that beginners shouldn’t worry about them. Of course, this variates from person to person, but I think that it’s better to first focus on the grammar and get used to how things work in Japanese before going into Kanji. Almost everyone I personally know that tried to learn Kanji from the very start got burnt out and left, or developed bitter feelings towards the learning process.

   Another thing is that you don’t need Kanji to know how to speak or listen, and this is a universal truth: Children know this very well before even attempting to learn how to write or learn, and even foreigners and grown adults can learn similarly under certain conditions: I know a man married to a Japanese woman who, although doesn’t know how to write Japanese (Besides Hira and Kata), holds on very well in conversations.

   Now now, Kanji will help you LOTs with the vocabulary, and the language becomes much more intuitive with them: lots of words will stop being abstract syllables mashed together and you’ll see how they are actually formed by the meaning of these Kanji through their readings.

   Another thing I recommend (Which is very satanized here) is Romaji for beginners. Some say that writing everything in Hiragana/Katakana from the start is a MUST, but without Kanji, it’s just painful to write anything only with the kanas:

   imagineifwewrotelikethisinenglishitspainfulisntit?

   Romaji solves this problem until you get a solid foundation of Kanji, but if you like to read like this and are a masochist, go do you.

   Hiragana (And Katakana) will help you get a little better with the specific pronunciations, but this doesn’t apply to anyone, especially non-native English speakers. Spanish is my native language, and everything is read exactly the same as it would in Japanese using romaji, so it’s definitely a helping shortcut. These are my 2 cents and keep your goals in mind as how you approach your study methods.

5. Yeah, i feel the same. Though japanese kids usually have the privilege of time on their hands, and most non japanese speaker trying to learn japanese usually do it to be able to read japanese in the first place.

6. I can’t get katakana into my head. I am very good at hiragana, but I still confuse so many katakana

7. I guess my main goal is to read in Japanese so kanji seems pretty important to get the jump on.

   But my speaking ability is very bad so…yeah I’m sure there are some drawbacks to frontloading Kanji. Like I could have been working on speaking.

8. >What y’all think?

   If you ask me, kanji are pretty much a non-issue at this point, unless you’re talking about jukujikun, or stuff like animal or plant names, place names, or cases where a word can be written with different kanji (尋ねる? 訊ねる?). Onomatopoeic and mimetic words are much harder to recall for me.

   >You have to learn hiragana katakana first and then learn kanji on the side or along the way

   Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing. Writing a word I’m struggling with 3 times helps with recall. Also reading aloud. Grammar is an entirely different beast though.

   >you “kanji-fy” hiragana words to kanji.

   I need learn the kanji versions of words because I sometimes come across stuff like 何処, 何故, 故に, 従って, 所謂, 為, 所為, 悪戯, etc. And then you have cases where people just want to use ‘difficult’ or uncommon kanji and you gotta deal with it (e.g. 揶揄う, 醤油, 仄めかす).