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How should I learn Kanji ?

Ibouvousaime

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13 Dec 2014
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I began learning japanese recently I can read hiraganas and katakanas (my reading is still slow xD), Do you have any advices or tips to learn kanjis :D
 
Find a list and start studying, simple as that. While doing that, prefer mnemonics over rote memorization (i.e. spend time to think of a story or association to remember each character rather than quickly picking up, forgetting, and relearning the same character 100 times), and prefer regularity over learning speed (i.e. better to look at 10 kanji each day rather than 100 over the weekend; the latter will most definitely fail). Also, learn at least one example word for each (common) reading of the kanji and ideally integrate those into the mnemonic as well.

Most importantly: prevent yourself from looking ahead to the list of characters that you still need to learn, that will only serve to frustrate and discourage you. Only look at the characters that you're going to study that day (and of course the ones you have already studied). Make your kanji study such a strong daily habit that by the time you complete the list, you'll feel confused about stopping :)
 
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Find a list and start studying, simple as that. While doing that, prefer mnemonics over rote memorization (i.e. spend time to think of a story or association to remember each character rather than quickly picking up, forgetting, and relearning the same character 100 times), and prefer regularity over learning speed (i.e. better to look at 10 kanji each day rather than 100 over the weekend; the latter will most definitely fail). Also, learn at least one example word for each (common) reading of the kanji and ideally integrate those into the mnemonic as well.

Most importantly: prevent yourself from looking ahead to the list of characters that you still need to learn, that will only serve to frustrate and discourage you. Only look at the characters that you're going to study that day (and of course the ones you have already studied). Make your kanji study such a strong daily habit that by the time you complete the list, you'll feel confused about stopping :)

ありがとございます :D I'll start today but someone told me that learning it with radicald would be faster, any thoughts about that ?
 
Absolutely - seeing each kanji as a collection of a small number of commonly occurring radicals, rather than an atomic set of strokes, is not only helpful but also (imho) necessary for learning and remembering mnemonics and the kanji themselves.
 
Coscom's materials are quite good:
Learning Materials of Japanese Language - Kanji

You should definitely have some awareness of how kanji are constructed, and sound/meaning components.
e.g. 銅 is copper, made up of 金 (metal or money - meaning component here) and 同 (どう - sound component - a clue to the on-reading).

A significant percentage of kanji are constructed this way (the sound part isn't always consistent). I personally wouldn't worry about learning all the radical names, etc, just be aware of these sort of patterns. If you know 夜 already, learning 液 ought to be a doddle.
 
If you know 夜 already, learning 液 ought to be a doddle.
Actually, this example has always seemed particularly cryptic to me. Though I know both these characters, I have never understood what connection there is between the two. Does anyone know the etymology?
 
Unfortunately this option is no longer open to some of us!

English isn't his native language. I think he meant "Study as a child (studies)". In the same way as a child, in other words.
 
English isn't his native language. I think he meant "Study as a child (studies)". In the same way as a child, in other words.

A child can study a new language so fast.

Adult can't. Why?

Maybe we don't have much concentration and studiousness like them!
 
A child can study a new language so fast.

Adult can't. Why?

Maybe we don't have much concentration and studiousness like them!

Children are neurologically pre-wired for language acquisition. As the brain develops, this ability atrophies.

Children have a biological advantage over adults. It has nothing to do with concentration or being studious.
 
Children are neurologically pre-wired for language acquisition. As the brain develops, this ability atrophies.

Children have a biological advantage over adults. It has nothing to do with concentration or being studious.

That's the reason why learning ability of a child is 100% and 20% with an adult

How to improve?
 
There's really no way to get that ability back once mylenation has occurred in the left temporal lobe.

Basically, once you're not a kid, you're not a kid. The brain is different in a variety of ways, both in structure and function.
 
You may not have that inherent ability any more, but you have a different advantage.

Adults have the advantage of knowledge, and intelligence. You can understand grammar structures easier, focus more and associate words with concepts easier.

I dare say, it takes children the better part of a decade to become half way fluent in a language. Whilst being surrounded by the language all day, every day. Adults can achieve a decent level of proficiency in a fraction of that time. The primary downside being that the original language, and the way in which it has forced you to develop the muscles for making sound, hinders your ability to correctly reproduce foreign sounds accurately.

I honestly think anyone could become fluent in any language if they spent 10 years in the same environment kids do. There are various opposing theories to the assertion that kids have an inherent advantage.
 
Adults have a lot of things to think and to do.
When we only focus on 1 task to do. We do it best!!!
But does it happen in reality with an adult?
 
Actually, from the day a child speaks his first word it's about two more years before he has a functional expressive vocabulary of around 1000 words, give him one more year and he's at about 1500-1600 words. And those are effortless words used in grammatically correct, complex and compound sentences with no explicit instruction in language whatsoever.

I know of no legitimate theories opposing the inherent advantages of the neurological development of children in regards to language acquisition. I would be interested in any research backed theories which assert that neural exuberance and pre-mylenation language learning are not advantages.

I'm obviously not saying adults can't learn, but I am saying that every shred of evidence we have shows that after a certain age language acquisition is far more difficult.
 
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