Tools for Memorizing Kanji

[fhorusman]

I've started learning Japanese recently. Until now, I passively learn Japanese by watching anime or hearing radio program, mostly verbal, but now I stepped into the realm of reading and writing.

After I spent much effort mastering Hiragana and Katakana, I thought I finally could learn Kanji. But it blows my mind with how many Kanji were there. Memorizing was never my forte; actually it was my weakness. But if I want to learn how to read those mangas and light novels (It was solely for that reason), I must memorize it. I thought that the only way I could do that is by brute force. But only memorizing is boring,so I build this Kanji Flashcard application that has the feeling of competitiveness.

The purpose is simple: To help me memorize the english meaning and the Kun & On of the Kanji by inputing the romaji into the form. It would track my score for each day I play the game and I could compare it.

I created the application, played it everyday, and felt a little satisfied with the result. I thought that I could share it to help others. So, anyone that want to try or use it, please do so. It was on Kanji Flashcard.

I used the Jouyou Kanji list from Wikipedia and separated it by the grade it was learnt. With this, I could choose which grade of Kanji I want to learn.

When testing, I found that at most, I was able to learn effectively about 40 Kanji(s) in one session(which then I repeated everyday), so again, I separated the grades with Kanji counts more than 40 into many parts, except the first grade.

It was still on development. It was best viewed with screen resolution at 1024x768 or bigger. Viewing on tablet or smartphone would mess the layout(I'm still working on it).

Any suggestion to make the application better would be appreciated. (Or if something was terribly wrong with how the application works --or my idea of memorizing Kanji-- , then message me ASAP)

PS: I'm currently starting on the second grade.

 

[nekojita]

Don't memorize kanji readings out of context. The same for "meanings" unless the kanji stands as a word by itself (and even then some kanji can take multiple meanings depending on compounds). For example, if you've done grade one kanji - how do you read 大人？ 一人? 一月？ 一日？ (some of these could be read more than one way depending on context).

It's actually worse for low grade/common kanji which tend to have larger numbers of readings as well as be used in a wider range of words (more "meanings"), and are more likely to be found with non-standard readings (readings that don't come from either on or kun readings).

The website looks very nice, though - stick some vocabulary in for the kanji you're learning rather than just drilling separate readings and it could be useful. A lot of kanji learning material for native speakers is just like that - gives you a word (usually with a short sentence for context), expects you to return the correct reading for that word.

 

[fhorusman]

Thanks for replying.

I knew that there are many ways to read a Kanji, and even more when that Kanji was combined with others. But I thought that this flashcard is the most efficient way if I want to achieve my purpose.

My way of learning japanese writing is like this: Find Japanese article or sentence, transform the article into romaji, then I try to translate those romaji into the language I speak. When I didn't know how some Kanji reads, I used Google Translate. In the case when the Kanji could not be pasted into Google Translate, I need to typed it manually.

As an example: ﾂ渉ｭ窶扼 read as shounen. When I saw that for the first time, I didn't know how to read that phonetically, and I didn't know what is its meaning when combined. But I knew how to read each of them. So I used Google Translate, typed the Kanji separatedly (sukunai = ﾂ渉ｭ & toshi = 窶扼), and when combined, voila, now I know how to read that combination and its meaning. That's how I learn.

But, well, I really depended on Google Translate's accuracy, so I hope it didn't led my astray.

This is not the only way I learn. I played the NDS Game 'My Japanese Coach' by Ubisoft and I practiced by translating articles sentence by sentence.

The suggestion of adding some vocabulary is pretty good (didn't thought of that before). Do you know any sources where I could get the list of Kanji vocabulary? It's preferable if it was on the net.

 

[nekojita]

Google Translate is not really that trustworthy (there are plenty of EDICT based dictionaries out there, e.g. jisho.org - but careful if using them to go from English to Japanese).

You could look up a word list for the lower levels of the JLPT (say N5/N4 - which will probably just be taken from the old 4/3 level word lists). These should all be reasonably common words.

Are you learning okurigana? (e.g. すくない is 少ない)

 

[fhorusman]

Thanks for the advice. I look up at the vocabulary list for JLPT N5 and found this site: N5 Vocabulary List. Looking at the list, I know that I would create another flashcard game. Maybe for each JLPT level separated by their first letter, just like on that site (though it lacked the list for N3-N1).

I'm not learning Okurigana. What's that for?

 

[nekojita]

In kun-readings, okurigana is the kana that follows the kanji (usually for verbs and adjectives)

For example, 少 by itself or in compounds is not read "すくない", so properly the kun-reading should be something like すく・ない where the first part is how the kanji is read, the second part is what follows it, and the same for すこ・し (少し)

It's important for remember how to write words which use kun-yomi e.g. たべる is 食べる not 食る

 

[Mike Cash]

You do realize you're reinventing the wheel here, right?

 

[Nismo]

This is certainly interesting. You may want to further read on something called "Gamification", which is about turning hard tasks into games with small, manageable goals. Gamification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Your method could be very effective for learning. However, I feel that the best results would be gained from combining your game method with a mnemonic learning method, like Remembering the Kanji or KanjiDamage.
[In an aside, Kanjidamage is very good because it teaches you pronounciation, both kunyomi, onyomi, and jukugo (compound words). You should try it out, it's totally free.]

I also feel like I must say that using Romaji to learn Japanese is no good. There are many methods used to transliterate Japanese into Romaji, and not all of them are the same. Romaji can also be confusing - I myself had a hard time with a long お sound being represented as "ou", I would always say it in my head as "oo" like in "boom".

 

[fhorusman]

@nekojita: So that's called Okurigana. I didn't know its name, but I know its purpose after encountering it a few times. For now, I would be focused just on reading. Writing would come later...

@Mike Cash: I know there were already Hiragana and Katakana game like this on internet, but I didn't found the Kanji one. So I build it for myself. I only added Hiragana with their combinations later for the sake of completion. If you know other Kanji games (similar or not), please be kind to share with me.

@Nismo: Yes, that's my purpose. I recalled playing game called jrpg, which really turned learning Kana and Kanji into an RPG game. It was similar with Typer Shark, with Kana and Kanji as a monster that needed to be defeated. It was really interesting and memorable, but it crashed a lot so I stopped playing it.
I didn't know any other way of recognizing Kanji's pronunciation other than using Romaji. Every source I read always included the Kana and the Romaji version of it. And to tell the truth, I never found any problem from it (Rather, english is more confusing and difficult). Do you know any other way?

 

[BrianLewis]

I use JQuickTrans as an electronic dictionary. I'm pretty sure it's freeware now, though I payed for it a long, long time ago. I like that it gives you the word frequency, so you can compare similar words and see which is outdated. Also, it will mention when a word is vulgar or has special characteristics.

I like your method of translating documents. I think that is likely the best way you can go about learning Kanji. Later on, when the translating is effortless, simply reading would be a good idea.

When it comes to games, I have tried a few, but I have never found any that helped at all. In fact, they all seemed to be a total waste of time and a distraction to the learning process. I would highly recommend staying with translating documents and articles.

 

[fhorusman]

I've finished the N5 Vocabulary version of the game. Is it good enough?

N5 Vocabulary Game

@BrianLewis: Different people has different way of learning. I'm the type that quickly lost interest when repeating something over and over. Translating article is very good, but after a few sentences its rapidly become boring.
This game wasn't supposed to be the only way I learn. I try to search for as many as I could about different way learning Kanji, so that I could switch to another when I lost interest with the one I currently use.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Slime Forest might be interesting for you,
Slime Forest Adventure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
as it's more unique than the run of the mill.

But there are many, many, many others if you'd only look Let me google that for you

I think everyone who knows how to program and starts to learn Japanese thinks about writing a game using KANJIDIC, and many do more than just think about it, and hundreds actually release something.

 

[BrianLewis]

I am not talking about mental differences, they just are not effective.

 

[fhorusman]

@SomeCallMeChris: Thanks. Some of the game is great for testing how far I've learned.

@BrianLewis: I don't know what's effective or ineffective. What I know is that I learn faster when I used games than any other way, and it stuck longer in my brain.