How to learn Kanji system effectively?
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How to learn Kanji system effectively
In order to help you learn Kanji system, LearnJapanesedaily would like to introduce to you some effectivelearning methods that many have followed.
Practise writing
In the early days of learning Japanese, you should practise Kanji everyday (if you haven’t gotten a hold of Kanji stroke order when writing, check out 9 rules of writing Kanji).
You can set a certain goal for each week, for example: Memorize 10 Kanji characters each week, write them over and over again till you can memorize them. This way, your Kanji knowledge will improve by a lot, so does your hand writing skill.
Create flashcards
Creating flashcards helps a lot in learning any language. You can create your own flashcards by writing new Kanji characters, along with their pronunciations and meaning on post-its and carry them with you all the time.
In your spare time, review those flashcards and practise with them. If any thing in your house has an equivalent in Kanji, stick the note on it so that whenever you look at it, you will have a chance to practise once more.
Break it down
If the above methods are commonly used and can be applied for every languages, this method, in particular – is very unique, only works with Kanji.
The idea of Kanji is combining strokes and/or radicals together. We can break it down into smaller patterns and decipher the meaning of the word in the process. Therefore, if you can memorize the meaning and the construction of radicals, you will be able to memorize, even the most complicated Kanji characters.
For example:
The word 安 (Ān) : Safe is a compound of:
The upper part ‘宀’ : A roof
The lower part ‘女’ : A woman
→ Indicating that if a woman stays at home, she will be safe.
男 (Nán) : Man
The upper part ‘田’ : Field
The lower part ‘力’ : Strength
→ Indicating that a real man can carry a field on his shoulders.
You can find more about the meaning of each radical in Kanji system here: Kanji Radicals
Learn by rote
This method is preferred by many when they don’t have much time. It has pros and cons. The good thing is, you can learn many characters at once, but can’t write (nowadays people use computers so it doesn’t really matter).
List out frequently used Kanji characters, fold the paper once or twice, one side with the characters and the other one with the pronunciations and meaning. Go through it from top to bottom, note down which ones you haven’t memorized, repeat over and over again until you can memorize all.
When you have learnt a new word, add it to the list, or you can learn once for all if you don’t have enough time. This helps you be able to recognize and read Kanji character better.
Try this method and you will improve on your Kanji, except for the part that you can’t really write, of course.
Kanji might be hard to some, but it is very beautiful and convenient, once you have gotten used to it, you will find it uneasy to read something with all Hiragana characters.
LearnJapanesedaily wants you to know, hard work and passion play a very significant part when it comes to learning Kanji.
Hope you can find your own method to learn Kanji system effectively, so that you will love Kanji as much as we do.
Check out more similar articles on section : How to learn Japanese
