Cool new Japanese Graphic Poster on Kickstarter

Hello everyone,

I've been using jref for some time now, and I'm excited to share with you a project I just launched. Over the past few months, I have worked on creating a poster that lists the 300+ most important Japanese kanji characters. The poster is the first of its kind in that it also lists an English translation, as well as all common On'Yomi/Kun'Yomi pronunciations, and even the number of strokes for each character. I believe it is an invaluable studying tool for elementary and intermediate students who need constant exposure in order to master the kanji. It contains all of the kanji on the JLPT levels 4 and 5.

Just recently, I launched the project on Kickstarter (a creative project fundraising website) in order to cover the costs of printing, lamination, and distribution of the initial batch of posters. We've had overwhelmingly positive reception so far, though there is still a long way to go.

You can check out my website at Genki Kanji Poster | The 300+ most important Japanese Kanji! , and more importantly, the Kickstarter page at Learn Japanese with the Genki Kanji Poster! by Genki Kanji Poster — Kickstarter

It's quite challenging to find support for a Japanese study tool(by contrast, other communities like the gaming community are vast), so I hope you guys can help make this poster a reality! Thank you very much!

Warmly,
Chris

Nice first post.

First time you felt like saying anything to us was when you wanted money from us?

The leargest problem in the effectiveness of the poster is there is NO okurigana in each kun'yomi. 窶堋?窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ has no meaning. 窶堋?窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｵ窶堋｢ means "new". So, you should write the readings with okurigana in each kanji just like "ﾂ新 窶堋?窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ-窶堋ｵ窶堋｢", "ﾂ静 窶堋ｫ-窶堙ｩ".

Toritoribe said:

The leargest problem in the effectiveness of the poster is there is NO okurigana in each kun'yomi. 窶堋?窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ has no meaning. 窶堋?窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｵ窶堋｢ means "new". So, you should write the readings with okurigana in each kanji just like "ﾂ新 窶堋?窶堋ｽ窶堙ｧ-窶堋ｵ窶堋｢", "ﾂ静 窶堋ｫ-窶堙ｩ".

Click to expand...

We tried to put as much information on the poster as possible. More in-depth information, like okurigana usage, can be found in the resources section of our website (there is a QR code at the bottom of the poster that links right there).

So, does that mean learners can't get any informations about correct words, but can only get meaningless snippets of informations by seeing the poster instead? Okurigana is not an additional in-depth information but a critically necessary basic information. I think such kind of poster is useless. (This is my opinion for your request "help make this poster a reality".)

The しい part of 新しい is basic and essential, not "in-depth". I've never encountered any sort of kanji learning resource that didn't include the kana bits of adjectives, usually in parenthesis. I would suggest redoing the chart prior to going into production rather than trying to pass off an oversight such as that.

I couldn't tell from what I could see of your chart on my iPhone's tiny screen, but do you indicate some way of telling which are the kun'yomi and which are the on'yomi? Many a learner gets tripped up on not knowing the distinction between them.

What do you do with kanji that have oodles of readings?

Where's the bit on the chart which indicates stroke order?

Mike Cash said:

The 窶堋ｵ窶堋｢ part of ﾂ新窶堋ｵ窶堋｢ is basic and essential, not "in-depth". I've never encountered any sort of kanji learning resource that didn't include the kana bits of adjectives, usually in parenthesis. I would suggest redoing the chart prior to going into production rather than trying to pass off an oversight such as that.

I couldn't tell from what I could see of your chart on my iPhone's tiny screen, but do you indicate some way of telling which are the kun'yomi and which are the on'yomi? Many a learner gets tripped up on not knowing the distinction between them.

What do you do with kanji that have oodles of readings?

Where's the bit on the chart which indicates stroke order?

Click to expand...

Thank you for your suggestion of including the okurigana. We will toy around with the idea and see if it fits nicely on the poster.

The kun'yomi are listed in hiragana, while the on'yomi are listed in katakana. There is a box in the bottom-left corner of the poster that indicates this.

We have included only the most common readings for each kanji. We believe it is more efficient for an elementary/intermediate student to learn this way, rather than struggle to memorize a bunch of meanings that are not even relevant to the vocabulary and grammar they are simultaneously studying.

I apologize for writing "stroke order" - the number of strokes is listed in the top left corner of each kanji box, while the rules for stroke order are listed on the bottom of the poster. I will edit my original post.

As a graphic designer who specializes in information systems and has an intense interest in language as a communication device and the way that visual systems can help us better learn foreign languages (and who happens to have studied Japanese), I'd like to ask what you define as a "well-structured, informative poster." What structure, exactly? Is there something in the order of characters that makes this poster particularly well-structured? Your poster provides no context, no hints at stroke order, only one each of On and Kunyomi (?), and Kunyomi is presented as a word fragment. I'll leave it at that and say I would not buy this poster as is, or recommend anyone else to.

re Mike, it seems they indicate onyomi and kunyomi by using hiragana and katakana, respectively.
By hanging the poster up in a place you frequently look, you'll be constantly reinforcing what you've already learned"

nice gaijin said:

As a graphic designer who specializes in information systems and has an intense interest in language as a communication device and the way that visual systems can help us better learn foreign languages (and who happens to have studied Japanese), I'd like to ask what you define as a "well-structured, informative poster." What structure, exactly? Is there something in the order of characters that makes this poster particularly well-structured? Your poster provides no context, no hints at stroke order, only one each of On and Kunyomi (?), and Kunyomi is presented as a word fragment. I'll leave it at that and say I would not buy this poster as is, or recommend anyone else to.

Click to expand...

Hello nice gaijin,
The poster is not yet complete, and we will be constantly be refining the poster over the next few weeks. We say "well-structured" because we have placed the kanji in a logical order. For example, you will learn the kanji for the words you are learning and can actually use (like taberu/mire/nomu). Other posters include the kanji for words such as "gall bladder" very early on, which we believe is not useful for a beginner.
The rules for stroke order are located on the bottom of the poster (With the screenshots we've given, you may not be able to make them out).
As I stated in my previous reply, we have chosen the most common pronunciations for each kanji. (again, the ones that go hand-in-hand with what a student would be learning at that time). I'm not quite sure what you meant by Kunyomi being presented as a word fragment; could you please elaborate?
Thank you for the constructive criticism. We definitely want to make this poster as perfect as possible, so I appreciate the advice.