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Kanji studying methods, what's yours? (Read 0 times)
Jacke
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Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Mar 13th, 2006, 8:37am
 
The way I do it is I take 10 or so kanji of the ones I want to learn, then I make a list with the English words corresponding to the meaning of them and I try to memorize the stroke-order, drawing them in the air; repeat them all until I've got them down for the moment and move on to the next set of 10 kanji. After each set I try remember stroke-order for every kanji in the sets I've gone through that session.
 
Curiously, this is very similar to how I would study Finnish words when I was doing that. Our teacher would give us for homework a list of words and then I'd break the list down into sections of 3-5, and rehearse until they stuck and then take the next section.
 
So, does anyone else have any particular studying method for kanji?
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Ainu
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #1 - Mar 13th, 2006, 11:23pm
 
One young man who studies Japanese in Helsinki told that he makes up stories from the radicals to remember the meanings of the kanji. If a radical doesn't have a meaning he invents it. And he memorizes the on-yomi by learning the sound-radicals.
 
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I haven't studied kanji for a while. Been into history - as our exam approaches, I hope I pass it so I can continue with the language.
 
My method to learn kanji is to divide them to groups like you do. I usually draw them to paper - I have chart of all the kanji we have studied - and then I make kanji-cards. They are really small and handy. I watch the kanji (putting my finger on top of the other stuff in the card) and speak out loud the kun- and on-yomi and the meaning of the kanji.
 
Then I check if I'm right and go them all through till I got them.
 
My method leaves good basis for reading kanji. I should definitely draw them more.
 
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Well I passed our first kanji test with a high score!! And I had to draw kanji in it.. I think my method rocks!
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Ainu
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #2 - Mar 26th, 2006, 12:09am
 
I guess the most important thing in learning kanji is to start!!!
 
I have been so lazy lately with them!!!
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Jacke
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #3 - Apr 24th, 2006, 9:43am
 
Lately I've also been using JFC for Mac OS X quite a lot, a port of the JFC Japanese Flash Card program. You'll have to make the lists of kanji you want to rehearse yourself, but once that's done I found it to be a bit better than just rehearsing from books since it's a lot more random. On the other hand it displays the print version of the kanji, which is different from the hand-written one.
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #4 - Apr 24th, 2006, 11:59am
 
Thanks for cool info. I downloaded and installed it. For those who have big trouble locating the download link try this:
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/f_main.html#DOWNLOAD
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Ainu
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #5 - May 1st, 2006, 3:57am
 
Why, oh why.. I don't have a mac computer.
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Jacke
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #6 - May 1st, 2006, 12:54pm
 
Quote from Ainu on May 1st, 2006, 3:57am:
Why, oh why.. I don't have a mac computer.

It's available for Windows too (in fact, the Windows version came first), just go to the link Pooh gave and follow the instructions ^_^b
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Ainu
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #7 - May 2nd, 2006, 4:47am
 
Cool!  Cheesy
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acjama
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Re: Kanji studying methods, what's yours?
Reply #8 - Jun 25th, 2006, 9:55am
 
I don't use kanji flash cards at all. I never could learn anything from them.  undecided
 
I use the same books as Japanese kids. Each lesson is divided in two. In the first part there's 7 kanji, one or two of their readings (others come later), stroke order, example sentence and additional vocabulary. First I translate the lot, then write the kanji 20 times each (no problem with stroke order after that, I can tell you that!). Then I read out loud the example sentences. Then I memorize the vocabulary again.
 
In the second part there are lots of example sentences written in kana. I write them with all the kanji from this and previous lessons. The most important thing is to drag the new info from the brain at whatever cost, without peeking. It only needs to be done once.
 
The whole thing takes about 30-45 minutes, but I only do it every other day. The other days I practice the last three lessons, reading out loud and air writing. By learning in Jouyou order I can keep track of my level and immediately know whether I'm supposed to know a particular kanji yet or did I simply forgot it.
 
My method is not so hot for flash card type of tests, but I also have a pile of kanji reading books, which are stories written with certain level of kanji (no furigana). I can read them just fine. I base my learning method on the fact that as long as one can read full Japanese text with understanding, one doesn't have to spend extra time on vocabulary or grammar. Of course I do have grammatical reference books and a nice electronic dictionary. Three, actually, but I only use one. I had some paper ones too, but I burned them dancing around naked and laughing maniacally. Cheesy
To look up kanji with them is cruel. Beyond cruel. Übercruel.  
 
One extra plus point about the kanji learning books is that they are very often written in regional dialects, and going through them really helps to filter them out. There are some weird wordings out there!
 
And I concur, the most difficult kanji to learn is indeed, the first one!   Wink
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