How to be fluent in kanji?

IsaacDavid · 22 Jul 2019

How can i be fluent in kanji? here's some of my troubles with kanjis:
there is kanjis that have many readings,so if i see a kanji and i know his meaning i don't know which reading it will use and i have to go to the kanji dictionary.many readings is confusing. sometimes knowing the meaning of a kanji is not enough.I will show you only one example: the kanji 烏 the dictionary says that its meaning is crow,raven and this a compound of this kanji 烏口 the meaning is: ruling pen.so it is obvious that is not easy to deduct this meaning.and i have to use a dictionary to see the meaning of this compound.and one kanji may have SO MANY COMPOUNDS!

nice gaijin · 22 Jul 2019

Exposure and practice. Once you have enough you reach a tipping point and it becomes easier.

joadbres · 22 Jul 2019

You don't need to learn all or most compound words and their readings upfront. You can learn them as you encounter them. For most characters, it is enough to learn and memorize the most common on and kun readings (if there are any), and learn special readings or rarer compound words (or compound words with special readings) only as you encounter them.

Also, it is helpful to understand that most two-character compound words are either of the on-on (the majority) or the kun-kun type. This helps with guessing the readings of newly-encountered words.

Finally, note that "ruling pen" is an uncommon English term. I didn't know precisely what it was, and would have looked it up if I needed to know. Similarly, you can and should do this with Japanese words written with kanji.

IsaacDavid · 23 Jul 2019

Joadbres,what you mean by"as you encounter them"?one have to start to study kanji,not when us encounter them..

joadbres · 23 Jul 2019

As you encounter them while studying Japanese, reading things written in Japanese, etc.

"them" is referring to compound words which use kanji, not the kanji themselves.

healer · 24 Jul 2019

I have found that learning kanji when we encounter them in the context is much easier and interesting and much better for the kanji to stick in our memory. Learning in the context is also easier to remember which pronunciation and which meaning we should pick. If we learn the kanji just for the sake of knowing the kanji is somewhat like learning the words straight from the dictionary. It is very hard and boring.

nice gaijin · 24 Jul 2019

I love this phrase, coined in 1949: Neurons that fire together, wire together. Learning in context is the most powerful way to study, in my experience.

When studying kanji, my favorite phrase is XYの"X", the following exchange makes more sense if it's being spoken obviously:
感覚の「感」は何の「かん」ですか。漢字の「漢」ですか。
いいえ、「感じる」の「感」ですね。「感触」と同じです。

Using this structure you can take characters you already know in one context, and then connect them to a new vocabulary word, reinforcing the characters you already know while expanding your vocabulary.

T.A · 8 Aug 2019

【すぐわかる！】『書き取り漢字練習【広告付き】』 - アプリブ

全常用漢字を手書きで練習！マイドリル作成も可能| (1)小学1年生の漢字から人名漢字まで、日常で使う感じを網羅 (2)手書きで学ぶので確実に習得出来る (3)好きな問題を集めて自分だけのドリルを作れる

app-liv.jp

how about using this apps ?
You can write Kanji by your finger and smart phone decides if it is correct or not.
You can receive questions automatically.
So, my daughter is using it.

Kraise · 8 Aug 2019

Pen and paper worked nice for me, As I encountered any new kanji I would write it down, break it down , repeat it.

I feel like muscular memory works very well together with my "brain" memory.

How to be fluent in kanji?

IsaacDavid

Sempai

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

joadbres

八方凡人

IsaacDavid

Sempai

joadbres

八方凡人

healer

Sempai

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

T.A

Registered

【すぐわかる！】『書き取り漢字練習【広告付き】』 - アプリブ

Kraise

先輩

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