Learning kanji compounds

[IsaacDavid]

Answer me this question according to your experience: in order to learn the meaning of kanji compounds is better to learn separately the meaning of each kanji or learn them as one?

 

[Majestic]

You must do both. It is like asking; what is more important, vowels or consonants.

But, having said that, kids learn kanji one by one, and gradually build up their vocabulary to include compound words.

 

[mdchachi]

I would focus more on words (compounds) than kanji. You risk spending excess time memorizing esoteric pronunciations that are rarely used if you focus on individual kanji.

 

[IsaacDavid]

Thanks both of you for your reply.anybody have more answers about this matter?

 

[Kaw-Zay]

I think they go hand in hand - two sides of the same coin. Take a little time to learn about the kanji part of which is learning a bit about how it's used including vocabulary.

Learning the compounds is important because it gives you some real/practical context for your brain to grab onto.

But learning the kanji in isolation is also important because as you get into the language, attempting to understand texts from a wide range of contexts, you'll undoubtedly see the kanji used in compounds that you don't know. If you know the kanji, you can read words you've never been taught - and this means your actually literate in Japanese (that's what we all want to achieve).