subject: 4 Overlooked Tips To Help You Learn Kanji Fast [print this page] For many people including me, memorizing nearly 2000 Kanji in the Japanese language is a sort of torture. I'm not going to sugar-coat it, memorizing all 1945 of these little buggers is going to take some work. Actually, this is the most difficult process in learning Japanese. But here I will show you some tips which will hopefully make things at least a little easier so that you can hold your own next time you pick up a Japanese newspaper.
Tactic #1: Ignore the old learning order
What you should do first is to learn the first 100 to 200 Kanji which are used most and begin your journey. But the next step will be getting to know the difficult words the moment you see them, no matter how rarely they are used. This can be difficult at first, but you save time by omitting the procedure of distinguishing (Oh, that one is "advanced." I'll come back to that one when I'm ready for it.), so you can save your time and energy.
Tactic #2: Notice the small things:
Learn 20 or 30 radicals which occur most frequently in Kanji with a simple Kanji dictionary, and put the rest of the 214 radicals aside temporarily, then you will have a solid understanding of a good part of Kanji. Then, identifying new Kanji will not be that hard. The radicals which make up the new Kanji will help you figure out what the Kanji means. This tactic can be named "chunking", and learning 3-5 radicals is easier than learning 15 Kanji. The next thing you should do is just to put the radicals together.
Tactic #3: Go straight for the difficult parts
With this tactic we're taking a closer look at written Kanji. If you really want to get a good understanding of Japanese, take the time to try reading something in Japanese each and every day. Getting familiar with the way Japanese printed writing works will help you understand common applications of each Kanji you see. Your Japanese will be more natural after doing this process for awhile.
Tactic #4: Read out loud:
Three main things you should bear in mind in learning Kanji: identifying the figure, its meaning, and pronouncing it correctly. Read aloud and as much as you can to get practice with your pronunciation and articulation. Reading aloud gives you the opportunity to practice all three parts of learning a Kanji at the same time.
Kanji learning is tough, but you can manage it with some determination. These tricks will make you learn faster.
