kanji study methods

what are some of the methods you guys use to study your kanji??
For me, I use flash cards, writing only one kanji on a card with the onyomi and kunyomi. I memorize both. Instead of writing just one kanji, I think I need to start working on compounds

I learned Kanji using James Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, Volume 1 along with the site Kanji Koohii.

Now I learn kanji by reading novels and using the Kanji Step books from the Kanji Kentei Association.

I learned by compounds. The onyomi and kunyomi follow behind once you have learned the compound. Learn compounds of words you already know--you will recognize them and it is much easier to remember how to read kanji like 元気 if you already know what genki means.

If you are already in Japan, even if you decide to use parts of heisigs method, do not follow the strict regiment of learning the English meanings before learning how to pronounce them. If you do that, you will simply be throwing away all the opportunities to reinforce vocab you have learned, and things you hear won't help you reinforce your kanji. Learning kanji by learning pairs builds your vocab, allows you to read and supplement your speaking skills, and helps create a much more synthetic experience. If you are in Japan or living overseas in a high japanese speaking environment, this is essential. If you are overseas and have no access to japanese speaking, i.e. there is nothing there to reinforce, by all means go the whole hog with heisig.

But anyway, however you learn it, the most important thing to do is to read. My method (review on cards and practice compounds) and the heisig method are both nothing without daily reading to cement what you know.

Kanji, it is not a problem to me, but I have to notice the different meaning between J and C.

I'll give Heisig's book a try, i mean i only heard nice things about it.

James Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, Volume 1 is the best there is for kanji ive not fully started learning kanji yet but i looked through this book and i can say that it is amazing i learned 5 kanji in less than a minute and remember them well. he explains it in such a way as the kanji just stick in your mind.

Derfel said:

I'll give Heisig's book a try, i mean i only heard nice things about it.

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It's actually not uncommon for there to be violent debate on both sides over the pros and cons of the Heisig method. If you've only heard nice things you probably haven't heard very much yet.

What might its flaws be if i may ask?

The main arguments put forward against the Heisig method is that it separates Kanji from vocabulary and the language. Heisig doesn't give any common readings or example words for the kanji in book 1 (and it seems many people don't manage to continue the course through book 2, although this isn't necessarily a fault of the method) only a single English key word. This makes it easier to link the kanji to a single simple thing in your mind that you can build on later, but in many cases might give you an incomplete or even misunderstanding of the kanji. Using a method in which you learn example words with the kanji, in an order based to real life usage, will also give your vocabulary an impressive boost while you are learning kanji. While you many not know as many kanji, and struggle a bit more to write them, it is argued that by learning words rather than simply kanji you will have a higher reading ability.

I found a few threads on another forum where these issues have been debated.

In my opinion the most important thing to do is simply to find a method that works for you, whether it is Heisig or not. I haven't used it so I can't speak from experience, only what I've heard from others.

Although I do recommend the Basic Kanji books that JT mentioned in the first thread I linked.

Well i see, i see, i have read it, but than again, if i fail with the Heisig method i can always d it the hard way, and since i have enough time, why not experiment a bit? Besides JimmySeal said that he actually made progression with it, ergo, if there's one person who did it, its possible, and im sure there are lots of others too.
I mean after reading those two topics i kinda felt that both sides just wanna seem to be right at all costs, they just didn't listen to what the other said lol, it was like a deathmatch between the preservationists and the rebellious Suedenjin. So yeah, i'll try it and see it for myself. And one thing i think, if you actually spend time looking at kanji, whether its reading, symbol or meaning, you will surely learn something. No method can be a waste of time, although right now i don't know which is more efficient, but im sure that neither of the methods can be pointless, since one has to be amazingly dumb to not remember a single thing he learned with any given method.

I really want to learn Japanese but there are no book to buy in my country and internet it's hard to learn .. :S i really want to write and read and speak Japanese cause i want to go to Japan in a few years..

jayrecords said:

I really want to learn Japanese but there are no book to buy in my country and internet it's hard to learn .. :S i really want to write and read and speak Japanese cause i want to go to Japan in a few years..

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You can clearly speak English so why not just buy an English language textbook over the internet?

My 2 cents Derfel: If you are living in Japan, Heisig is not worth trying. If you aren't living in Japan and are exposed to a relatively small amount of japanese (ie, you don't read all that much outside of textbooks and don't hear much spoken japanese), then perhaps heisig would be a decent method. The problem with heisig if you are already in Japan is that it doesn't teach you vocab, which is the most important component of learning the language. Since you're not getting any vocab the heisig way, you won't be reinforcing any of the language you are coming in contact with, which would be a huge waste if you were already living in Japan. If you're still living overseas, it probably wouldnt matter that much--even if you read vocab on other kanji cards, you won't be getting enough exposure to learn them in the correct context, and consequently they will be very difficult to remember. Heisig might be far easier to remember and therefore more beneficial for someone who's not using much real japanese (yet) anyway.

Another point is that there aren't just the 2 ways of use heisig or don't use heisig. There's also another strategy, which would be to use both techniques at the same time.


ETA: Didn't realize I posted essentially the same thing earlier in the thread. I thought that was on another thread on a similar topic. Oops.

I must disagree, Mr. Barkley. If someone is in Japan for a year or more and has a lot of time to dedicate to study, then Heisig is definitely worth doing in a few months to jumpstart the rest of their Japanese studies. Heisig never discourages people from learning Japanese while they're working on his book. He just advises them not to do other kanji study until they're finished.

If someone is only in Japan for a short time, then I would agree that it wouldn't make sense to spend that time working on Heisig. They'd be better off doing it when they return to their own country or before going to Japan.

JimmySeal said:

I must disagree, Mr. Barkley. If someone is in Japan for a year or more and has a lot of time to dedicate to study, then Heisig is definitely worth doing in a few months to jumpstart the rest of their Japanese studies. Heisig never discourages people from learning Japanese while they're working on his book. He just advises them not to do other kanji study until they're finished.

If someone is only in Japan for a short time, then I would agree that it wouldn't make sense to spend that time working on Heisig. They'd be better off doing it when they return to their own country or before going to Japan.

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Sorry, if I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that if one studies using heisig, one can't learn other japanese. I meant that heisig does not complement the other japanese that one will be learning much at all, since the main components of the heisig method are English. The way I learned (and am still learning) Kanji was essentially just learning vocab--you pick a couple words that are useful and have kanji that are new to you, and then learn how to write\read those kanji when presented with the hiragana/english meaning of the word. You will go through kanji slower this way, since you are doing more with each kanji, but you will learn/reinforce vocab that you wouldn't have learned during the hours alloted to learning by the heisig method (ie, you still could have learned those words, but it would have been during your other study time).

If you are not living in japan and have lots of time to study, you are not foregoing the opportunity to reinforce vocab during your kanji study time, since you likely aren't coming into contact with much japanese to begin with. Thus one of chief downsides of the heisig method is made largely irrelevant. If you are living in japan, you will not be reinforcing vocab as much if you use the heisig method--but of course its up to you if this negative is offset by the positives of the method.

Anyway, the key to any method of studying is reading a lot. I imagine most people who are really serious about study don't have problems with kanji because serious students read, and reading is the failproof way to remember the kanji.