subject: The Study of Kanji [print this page] The Study of Kanji The Study of Kanji
I remember studying language as a child and how frustrating I found it. The endless hours of repetative tasks and strict teachers. However as I grew I come to love the structure of Kanji. Here is a little introduction into how kanji is studied today.
Children in Japan are expected to study 1,006 base kanji characters, known as the kyouiku kanji , before finishing the sixth grade. The order in which these characters are learned is fixed. The kyouiku kanji list is a subset of a bigger list of 1,945 kanji characters called the jouyou kanji, characters required for the ability to read newspapers and literature in the Japanese language. This largest set is to be mastered by the end of the ninth grade. School children learn the characters by repetition and radical.
Students studying Japanese as a foreign language are often required by a curriculum to acquire kanji without having first studied the vocabulary associated with the characters. Study plans for these students vary from copying-based methods to mnemonic-based methods such as those used in James Heisig's series Remembering the Kanji. Other books use methods based on the etymology of the kanji, such as Mathias and Habein's The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji and Henshall's A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. Pictorial mnemonics, as in the text Kanji Pict-o-graphix, are also seen.
The Japanese government provides the Kanji kentei ( Nihon kanji nryoku kentei shiken; "Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude") which tests the ability to read and write kanji. The ultimate level of the Kanji kentei tests around 6,000 characters.
