Comments on: The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Kanji

By: Realm

Realm — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 02:50:00 +0000

Chineasy was established to help people learn Chinese characters. Sure it’s specifically for Chinese language. But it certainly help you visualise stuff. http://chineasy.org/

By: saber

saber — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 07:27:00 +0000

I think he meant “using” in the natural sense, i.e. through books, subtitles, writing yourself, etc. In other words, through actually using the language. Anki is an outstanding resource, and very worthwhile, but if that’s the only time you see what kanji you’re learning, it’s probably safe to say you’re wasting your time on kanji not worth knowing.

By: Kaj

Kaj — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 03:02:00 +0000

Super helpful article Koiichi, brilliant job.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 01:59:00 +0000

if you only have time/energy to learn 100 or 200, sure.

But if you’re going for 2000-3000, starting from the basics isn’t a handicap.

When you get going, learning the basic meanings of 30-50 at a sitting is doable.

2000/40 is 50 days. There’s only about 300 elemental kanji anyway, so you can clear these out in a couple of weeks of study.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 01:56:00 +0000

heh, this is me. Getting bombarded with the kanji in college, I hated them.

Then my first year in Japan I discovered Heisig’s book, and was able to get a handle on them.

Now we’re cool.

But several years ago I really felt sorry for my classmates in Mandarin, for they were forced into the same wrong-order approach I was back in the 90s with Japanese.

For me, mandarin was no sweat since I already could read the characters, mostly.

By: Jeff Morgan

Jeff Morgan — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 20:46:00 +0000

Here is a selfish comment. You may reply if you like.

The kanji is always reasoned to be isolated and grouped in some rational way.
Kanji by radical,
Kanji by stroke order,
Kanji by concept,
Kanji by frequency.

1000 remedies. 1 cure.

Are we missing the point?
How do I associate words?

When I say feather.. which word is more closely associated, in your mind,
weather, father, tickle, bird, pillow, or feeder?

we can associate words by structure or function.

father, feeder, weather are structured like feather.

bird, tickle, pillow are similar in function.

the two structures are either aesthetic or phonetic or a mix of the two.

weather sounds like feather.
feeder looks like feather
father sounds and looks like feather.

The function is divided into origin, destination, or usage.

Feathers come from birds
feathers go into some pillows
feathers are used to tickle.

What do we know now about vocabulary?

lists based on concepts don’t work well for me. Because of the confusion, of learning too many divergent things.
Spoon and knife are similar concepts and are found together.

Into the dark, my experiment is to arrange and learn Kanji as an English Dictionary would.

By the sound they make.

Good luck to everyone as we grow into japanese speaking assasins.