LLearn Japanese

Any fun ways to learn kanji?

So I’ve been putting off kanji for like… two years now. I say putting it off, but it’s not like I don’t know some kanji. I use duolingo every day less for the practice and more for the daily reminder of “hey! Japanese is a thing you have to practice!” so I get some kanji from that, but it’s not much. My main method of study is watching video game let’s plays on YouTube for immersion and looking up words I don’t know in an online dictionary. Then I save that word and continue on. It’s not flash cards or anything, but it’s more important to me to have fun so I’ll want to continue than studying in the “proper” way. By doing this I’ve made a lot of progress and can understand a great deal. Still… I’m functionally a grade schooler when it comes to kanji. I only know the basics. But as I’ve said, I only really continue with studying when I find it fun. If it becomes work, I put off doing it. Are there any ways to study kanji that aren’t just drills? I don’t care if it takes me longer, I just need to like it so I’ll actually do it.

4 comments

  1. WaniKani is basically Flashcards but it has leveling up elements so it’s lightly gamified. It also doles them out slowly so as long as you aren’t too aggressive with adding in new cards too quickly it can be a less intense way of studying.

    The alternative is to learn how to make Anki flash cards. You’re already vocab mining, which is what a lot of people do. Take those kanji, or take the sentences you see them in, and place them into Anki flash cards to study. It might feel less like drilling because you are taking words with a meaningful context to you (the let’s play videos) and repeatedly exposing yourself to them.

    Third option, Google hiesig method. It’s slower but an easier way to give yourself an introduction to lots and lots of kanji. It might make your current sentence mining strategy more effective in the long run.

    But ultimately it’s gonna take some kind of Flashcard-based method.

  2. You already *have* the fun way that’s taking longer. And you can see where it has gotten you. If you’re happy with that, stick with it. Otherwise, maybe consider doing a little bit of *work*, as distasteful as that may sound.

  4. Is one of your main focuses writing? If not I’d just focus on understanding words instead of kanji.

Leave a Reply
— Previous article

Question about Jlpt practice test
Next article —

Would starting with a whv be a good idea?

You May Also Like