Beginner question

[aurorawolf]

When I read manga, I can't understand anyyyyy of the words at all,,, like all the kanji and stuff and just everything really...

so my question is, do I sit down and translate an entire manga.. is that how you learn??? do I really have to do that????

just curious... I'm self study so some guidance would be nice...

another question, do I turn all the vocab from the manga also into flash cards (anki)?

 

[Uncle Frank]

I would say make JREF your guide to learning for one part. Getting some good beginer's Japanese study guides that aren't too expensive might help. Also , I hear a lot about Japanese in mangas is not really formal Japanese and probably not the way you would hear people speak in Japan. Take some time to look at threads & posts here for good tips for beginners. People here on JREF are super nice and very helpful if you hang around and become part of our family. Best of luck on your learning !

 

[Majestic]

Manga are surprisingly high level texts. I mean, they assume you know as much Japanese, language, grammar, syntax, kanji, jokes, slang, etc... as a Japanese 6th grader, at least. It isn't surprising that trying to read a manga from scratch is a tough slog.

Much better to start with a textbook for beginners. Trying to decipher a manga when you don't know any Japanese is just...a drag.

 

[Buntaro]

Aurora,

The first step is learning kana. Have you mastered the reading and writing of hiragana and katakana?

 

[IronDove]

aren't kanji made up of radicals? can you kind of deduce a kanji roughly from radicals like how you can deduce that mathamaticist either means mathematician or someone that prescribes you numbers? like a pharmacist. you see what I'm getting at right? do radicals work like prefixes and suffixes etc?

 

[mdchachi]

aren't kanji made up of radicals? can you kind of deduce a kanji roughly from radicals like how you can deduce that mathamaticist either means mathematician or someone that prescribes you numbers? like a pharmacist. you see what I'm getting at right? do radicals work like prefixes and suffixes etc?

Unfortunately not. Radicals sometimes impart meaning and/or pronunciation but many of these are so esoteric and lost to history that for the most part you have to simply memorize them using whatever memorization tricks that work for you. This article, while promoting their method, is a good explanation of how kanji work.
Essentially they are using "radicals" to help memorize kanji but it's their own set of made up radicals because the traditional ones don't work well for this purpose.

Learn Kanji with Radicals and Mnemonics: The Definitive Guide

You can learn the joyo kanji in a year or two if you use a mnemonic method plus spaced repetition. We're sharing our secret sauce so you can do it by yourself.

www.tofugu.com