Hello! For some context, I’ve been studying Japanese for quite a while (self-study & with a tutor) but I haven’t put in enough consistent effort, so my vocabulary knowledge is a bit shaky in places. I’d say I’m around N3 level; I was planning on taking the exam last December but wasn’t able to because a blizzard. I’m planning on taking 4th year Japanese in university next quarter but I don’t think I’m quite ready in all areas, so I’m planning on starting to study more consistently this quarter .
A really big problem that I’m not sure how to deal with is how to catch up learning to write kanji. I’d like to be able to write all the vocabulary I know, but I can write almost none of it from memory. I briefly tried Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji a couple years ago and sort of burnt out of it, but I’m thinking of giving it another try. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to approach bridging the writing knowledge gap? A lot of guides on learning to (write) kanji seem to be targeted towards absolute beginners, so for me it feels really intimidating to catch up to where I’m at just reading and speaking-wise.
Going forward, I’d also like to be able to make sure I know how to write new words I learn as well. I was thinking of perhaps going through RTK in Anki, then once I’m mostly through it, adding a writing variant to my vocabulary cards so I can make sure I’m able to write any new vocabulary I have learned.
Any thoughts/advice? Thanks in advance.
P.S. Sorry for the long post but I think another thing to mention is that I have a strong suspicion I have undiagnosed ADHD, which has probably played a large part in why I haven’t been able to study to Japanese or work on other things as consistently as I’d like. So regarding burning out of RTK before, I really don’t think that was necessarily its fault, it was just me. I don’t know.
1 comment
Go with what works for you. Many people say that being able to write by hand is a dying art, so you can certainly get by with typing.
If you have to write by hand, you can limit it to learning only a handful for immediately pertinent vocabulary. For example, if you’re learning how to write times in kanji, learn 三時半.