I’ve been studying kanji for one or two weeks now. I have the paid version of this app called [Learn Japanese! – Kanji Study](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lulilanguages.j5KjAnd&hl=en&gl=US), and I use AnkiDroid to record every new Kanji I learn, but until now I’ve been able to learn only 20 to 30 kanjis, and I keep forgeting some of them. So, what do you guys do to learn hundreds and hundreds of them?
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I’m 25 years old, and I want japanese to be my third language, after English and my mother tongue, Portuguese. My memory is not prodigious. I remember I started studying English with lots of texts, and I used to translate word by word, but I fail to do the same with Japanese, the reason why I stick to the app for learning new kanji.
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(I don’t know if it matters, but my dream is to read manga in Japanese and play classic JRPGs).
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Aside from the Kanji, all I did until today was learning kana and doing the 30 days challange from JapanesePod101. I have a deck for this challange on AnkiDroid.
25 comments
I tried watching stuff in japanese and made an anki card for every word i didn’t know, so my kanji knowledge naturally expanded, now i probably have an N2 level of kanji, i probably know around 800-1000
Forgetting is absolute normal. You will relearn them much faster the 2nd, 3rd and 999th time.
In my opinion the method how you learn doesn’t really matter. What matters is to keep motivation so that tomorrow you will learn again. I tried many different ways. (Just writing them on paper, vocabulary cards a lot of apps, creating my own app). They all work for me only a limited time until i get bored again.
Hi, I’m about 6 months in and I’m at around 300 kanji. I don’t use any apps, I prefer writing them down with pen and paper. I’m using the Genki textbook. After every chapter, I’d write down every new kanji I encountered (20 times/character) and memorising them along the way. Then I’d start to write them down from memory using only the English words / meaning as aid (e.g.: I see the word ‘tomorrow’ then I write down 明日 along with their hiragana pronunciation). After I can clear 100% of the new kanji without having to look up the kanji, I add it to my big collection of new kanji from every chapters in Genki. Then I’d go over the whole collection, writing down every kanji I learnt until I can clear them 100% without having to look up. Then I proceed to a new chapter.
Is it efficient? Probably not, but it’s simple af and I like it.
I quickly memorized the meaning of the 2200 jouyou kanji using RTK (I only learned to recognize them using Anki though). Then I started learning vocab through immersion and Anki which is what I’m still doing now. This is the traditional AJATT method.
I think RTK was very helpful (not just because I know the meanings of kanji which allows me to make pretty good guesses while reading but also because they look very “distinct” and “clear” to me now) but there’s no denying that almost nobody makes it through the entirety of it. If you know that you don’t have much endurance, don’t even try it.
Disclaimer: I don’t claim RTK to be the best way to learn kanji, I’m simply answering the question “What is your method to study Kanji?”. I would do RTK again but it really isn’t for everyone.
Reading and making Anki cards for any unknown words that I come across. Currently 2500+ kanji into it and I’m convinced that there are no other effective methods to learn them.
I started out with RTK but after around 500 a lot of Kanji started to look the same. I stopped learning individual Kanji and focussed more on learning vocab. I found it also to be more motivating and productive, being actually able to read texts rather than just recognizing some Kanjis.
I think it’s also important to note that reading kanji and writing kanji are two different skills.
Which one would you like to prioritize?
I never learned kanji. It came naturally when I learned words. The topic of “learning kanji” makes up most of the posts here. A lot of people really need to stop thinking about kanji as an additional thing to learn, at least beyond learning that radicals are a thing and that kanji is organized chaos rather than complete chaos, it seems to cause much more problems than it solves.
Wanikani
Anki and the RTK books.
There are only [80 kanji in grade 1 kanji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyōiku_kanji) – they are all pretty straightforward. Maybe you could try studying them by grade? That breaks them up into more manageable chunks.
You might also want to try mixing in some [vocabulary learning](https://learnjapanesedaily.com/most-common-japanese-words.html/#1000-most-common-japanese-words-week-1) as well – this will get you some new kanji to study and you’ll also get some useful words.
I can’t stand Anki, so I just go oldschool and use a textbook. Kodansha’s Kanji Learner’s Course (“KKLC”) is a fantastic tome with an even more fantastic partner series of graded readers which feature 10+ reading exercises for every single one of the 2,300 kanji covered in the main course (30,000+ in total).
As you probably already know, Kanji study in isolation is a sore subject on this subreddit. This is because, strictly speaking, it’s not necessary to study Kanji like this in order to become literate in Japanese. I happen to *like* learning this way, but lots of people don’t and they get along just fine or even better. It’s *entirely possible* that this simply isn’t the best way for *you personally* to acquire more Japanese — and that’s 100% fine.
With that being said, here’s my suggestion if you want to stick to your guns: alternate. Do Kanji study until you’re “full”. Then, pivot to another focus area like vocabulary or grammar (repeat until satisfied). I think of it a bit like bodybuilding; even if you’re only trying to just get jacked in the arms, you still need to take breaks to focus on cardio and core — purists who myopically hone one thing to the detriment of everything else risk injury or even permanent stunting (and usually end up with a “monkey’s paw” version of what they were *really* looking for in the first place)
Read
Personally, my method is there is no method.
*pretty much I just look them up in Jisho when I notice one that I don’t know particularly often*
Though for sets of Kanji I am *actually studying* those. I pretty much have the numbering system down up to 百
I have two alarms, one in the morning and one in the evening, and I just test my memory of the names, or do whatever other practice I’ve set up for myself.
I do need a way to help me recognize numbers in speech though, I’m struggling there :l
Also lol that’s basically what I plan to use my for too! I’ve already got a small collection of retro games (hand picked for being manageable at my current level, no RPGs, visual novels, adventure games etc. just yet – Just navigating menus)
Apparently Crystal Hunters is a good manga to start with? I’m not even at that level yet xd
Lately I enjoy android app called Kanji Garden. It adds radicals gradually and puts similar kanji together so you can clearly distinguish those.
It makes you remember readings and shows good examples of where such reading occurs, so you really start remembering and recognizing readings and whole words. Somehow the learning – reviewing loop works for me there so I often do more than app asks for and it feels good. It might be slower but it gives me that feeling that I am doing good which is not the case with anki for me. You can go faster and do more if you want.
No harm in checking it out, free premium for a month than $5/month. There is lifetime subscription too and limited free version after a month.
It gets easier as you keep studying. If you’ve only been studying two weeks, your brain hasn’t had time to really get used to kanji yet because *everything* is new. 20 to 30 kanji is actually impressive to learn in that timeframe especially as a beginner.
What’s going to happen later on is the vast majority of kanji are going to recycle bits and pieces of themselves, and it’ll be more about remembering which parts to stick where rather than which stroke to draw next.
I much prefer learning them with vocabulary, so as I learn a word is when I learn that combination of kanji, and it all goes from there.
Understanding what they mean and how they are composed really help me, especially the radicals. Like the kanji for sea,海, contains a radical that is used usually for water and the kanji 毎, which means every, so water+ every makes me think water evereywhere, meaning the sea. Finding your own logic to kanjis helps memorizing the kanji itself, although the onyomi and kunyomi might be harder.
Step 1. See kanji
Step 2. Look up the kanji on jisho
Step 3. Try to remember what it means
Step 4. ????
Step 5. Repeat until profit.
That of course, and learning common radicals, like 病/疲’s and 近/遠’s in common radicals, which are for illness and movement, respectively.
Wanikani!
Beleza camarada? Vai pelo Anki mesmo. O app do Kanji Study é muito bom também.
Recentemente eu descobri que o app Drops é muito bom pra decorar Kanji, recomendo demais.
Fora isso, o app Renshuu é o melhor de todos. Recomendo muitíssimo.
Wanikani. 300 in three months. Idk if this is what you’re doing, but the mnemonics building on mnemonics concept is great. Feels like the only good way to memorize anything.
I use WaniKani, but since I find kanji etymology really interesting, I look up the history of each kanji and write notes as I learn them. Takes me a lot longer to learn but I find it more enjoyable.
Read the kanji readings the move on. That’s how I do it
For solely recognizing the kanji, I use the [Kanji Pict-o-graphix](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kanji-Pict-Graphix-Japanese-Mnemonics/dp/0962813702) book. I do about a couple pages a day and put them in Anki to review them.
For learning actual words though, I’m starting to use [renshuu](https://www.renshuu.org/)