Hi everyone! I would like some advice about learning kanji. A little about me first, I started learning Japanese a few weeks ago (a bit less than that actually but I have been doing quite a lot, 1-3 hours a night), using Rosetta Stone and a couple of other webpages/programs (I've found Anki helpful). Anyway I'm at a point where I can recognise and enunciate almost all the hiragana, and have a small vocabulary of around 75-100 words, I'd estimate.
What I have been doing is "adding" the hiragana up by sounding them out individually rather than just recognising 2 or 3 in a certain order as a word. I find this way I gain a better understanding of how to pronounce the words and gradually build up a vocabulary based on understanding, rather than memorising.
I am less good at the katakana, I started that more recently and I can probably only recognise/enunciate about a third of them. My aim is to have them sorted in the next week or two.
Rosetta Stone gives you the option of seeing the text in romaji, hiragana/katakana, kanji or furigana. Up until now I have been using the hiragana option, but the more I learn in hiragana the more I think "maybe I should start learning some kanji now?". So essentially what I'd like to know is when should I start learning kanji? I had one idea which was whenever I completed a section/unit in Rosetta Stone, to go back and repeat it but with kanji (or furigana) script instead of hiragana. Or should I simply continue with hiragana/katakana until I can speak and read better/fluently before I go anywhere near the kanji?
Also when I started writing hiragana I was completely unaware of brush strokes or stroke order or anything, so I just sort of drew them how it came naturally to me. Now I can write most from memory, they look fine but my technique is probably awful. Is it really important to learn the stroke order, do you think it would be a good idea for me to go back and learn them all correctly? It must matter more when it comes to kanji I'm guessing because they can get more complex.
Anyway that's all from me, hope I didn't go on too much! Any advice or learning tips in general would be appreciated and thanks in advance!
What I have been doing is "adding" the hiragana up by sounding them out individually rather than just recognising 2 or 3 in a certain order as a word. I find this way I gain a better understanding of how to pronounce the words and gradually build up a vocabulary based on understanding, rather than memorising.
I am less good at the katakana, I started that more recently and I can probably only recognise/enunciate about a third of them. My aim is to have them sorted in the next week or two.
Rosetta Stone gives you the option of seeing the text in romaji, hiragana/katakana, kanji or furigana. Up until now I have been using the hiragana option, but the more I learn in hiragana the more I think "maybe I should start learning some kanji now?". So essentially what I'd like to know is when should I start learning kanji? I had one idea which was whenever I completed a section/unit in Rosetta Stone, to go back and repeat it but with kanji (or furigana) script instead of hiragana. Or should I simply continue with hiragana/katakana until I can speak and read better/fluently before I go anywhere near the kanji?
Also when I started writing hiragana I was completely unaware of brush strokes or stroke order or anything, so I just sort of drew them how it came naturally to me. Now I can write most from memory, they look fine but my technique is probably awful. Is it really important to learn the stroke order, do you think it would be a good idea for me to go back and learn them all correctly? It must matter more when it comes to kanji I'm guessing because they can get more complex.
Anyway that's all from me, hope I didn't go on too much! Any advice or learning tips in general would be appreciated and thanks in advance!