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After reading a small selection of readings/uses of the water kanji, I can’t take learning individual kanji keywords as a serious investment of time lol. What the fuck. Hear me out… (I’m a beginner fyi)
What if you replaced years spent learning thousands of english Kanji keywords with thousands of vocabulary using flashcards with included definitions of the kanji found in the word? As you memorize the vocabulary and take note of the kanji used, you’d gradually pick up on the Kanji and what they mean through exposure. When you cycle through 50 vocab words noting that “日: day/sun”, instead of wasting your time memorizing specifically that kanji/radical and it’s keyword you’d be saving yourself years of unnecessary effort.
That said, is there a resource like this? It’s become clear to me that learning recognition of kanji is vastly more valuable than being able to write them on paper (which something like wanikani isn’t going to teach you anyway).
Yes I want to learn to write them, but I can always knock that out afterward.
With all this said, I do think it’s worthwhile focusing on learning the radicals before vocab to make kanji pattern recognition quicker.
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Flashcards can help some.
If you’re a beginner just pick up the kanji you need in text books etc as you learn using your method to some extent. In my experience (25 years) no amount of reading, brute force vocab/kanji learning or any other method worked other than for maybe a very basic set of 200 or so simple kanji. I then came across WK/KKLC and felt it was 2 years well spent. The SRS kanji/vocab system you outline seems like a possibility though. Learning kanji individually does let you attempt to guess the meaning of a word and attempt to say it knowing the possible readings. Reconstructiong from other vocab would seem like adding an extra step and increased vagueness.
If you think this works better, go for it. There are SRS flashcard learning appa you could do that with. Learn the way that suits you best.
This is how I learn kanji. I study how words are written as I’m learning the word. I also write the word out by hand as this really helps me with remembering the word and the kanji used to write the word.
I’m convinced that SRS and mnemonics are the best way to go for learning any language. Immersion is also helpful but not always possible, and I think some grammar and concepts also just need to be learned instead of hoped to be “figured out” by immersion.
WaniKani > RTK. Not sure about KKLC.
>As you memorize the vocabulary and take note of the kanji used, you’d gradually pick up on the Kanji and what they mean through exposure.
We process words as pictures rather than as sequences of characters, so this isn’t going to be reliable. You’ll pick up kanji that form words by themselves and a couple here and there that your brain deems “noteworthy”, so it’s not going to be anywhere close to the number people claim you “need”.
I attempted learning like this for the first half-year and honestly it was a disaster. I would mix up words with similar-looking kanji all the time (嬉しい and 優しい was a bitch) because I couldn’t differentiate between them, and the only solution was to buckle down and properly drill them individually.
It was absolutely worth it.
>Yes I want to learn to write them, but I can always knock that out afterward.
Why would you wait? Just do RTK with Anki.
Learning kanji through vocab will work with enough perseverance I’m sure, though I don’t think its worth it nor will it save time in the long run. I did it myself for a while. But after a year or so I got so fed up with the fact i could rarely ever guess a pronunciation when sightreading a new word, and the fact that most of the kanji i “learned” was just a vague understanding at best, and seemingly often just making the wrong assumption about what the kanji can mean. I can also attest to everything Veeron said in their comment. Ive been using wanikani ever since and im much happier with my japanese now
The one single best way to study is whatever way you can do every day that won’t burn you out.
Learning meanings and readings separately helps some people learn the kanji faster than without keywords. Personally I add a keyword to a kanji if I consistently fail to read words containing it. It almost always helps, so rather than being extra effort as you put it, it becomes a memory aid that makes memorizing actually be *less* effort.
>What if you replaced years spent learning thousands of english Kanji keywords with thousands of vocabulary
When people do RTK they don’t take years to complete it, some do it in like 3 months to half a year. The whole point is to do it in a way that it’s easy to memorise so that you can do it quickly and then let just reading and learning take you the rest of the way.
Wanikani takes around 2 years for most and it gets kinda intensive. I’ve burnt out on it several times, but everyone who’s done it say they walked away knowing a ton of vocab and strong kanji knowledge.
>That said, is there a resource like this?
Yeah, Anki vocab decks. You can also just look at what kanji your textbook/learning source wants you to memorise and make your own Anki deck with those words.
I think in your case it’d be useful to start out by getting a strong foundational knowledge of how kanji work. Learn to recognise when a component is associated with a specific reading or meaning. Then you can just try grabbing a JLPT vocab list or something and learn those words with their kanji. If you’re having trouble remembering you can add mnemonics, a keyword or go study that kanji individually. You’ll slowly learn how you learn them the easiest. Then just keep doing that consistently while being careful of burnout.
I don’t usually recommend text books or especially anki as i find using native material and just looking up what you must to be the best overall method. But if you feel you must have a kanji text book, this is the one you want.
https://smile.amazon.com/Kanji-Context-Reference-Book-Rivesed/dp/4789015297/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=47E7DIR37XPT&keywords=kanji+in+context&qid=1660003545&sprefix=kanji+in+context%2Caps%2C774&sr=8-1