Comments on: A Case for Kanji - Beginners of Japanese, Learn to Love Kanji! http://www.1nichi1kai.com/2007/10/16/a-case-for-kanji-beginners-of-japanese-learn-to-love-kanji/ Exploring fun Japanese and following the antics of Makoto & Megumi Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:28:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Clay http://www.1nichi1kai.com/2007/10/16/a-case-for-kanji-beginners-of-japanese-learn-to-love-kanji/comment-page-1/#comment-306 Clay Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:34:44 +0000 http://www.1nichi1kai.com/?p=334#comment-306 >>It’s like a puzzle, and all over the place you see pieces you recognise in new kanji from other kanji you’ve already learnt. What a great analogy. I totally agree with that. Kanji can be a lot of fun - especially living in Japan and seeing kanji everywhere. I did something very similar. I had a Doraemon notepad that I practiced writing kanji in day after day. My Japanese friends were always amazed by my diligence flipping though. Of course it was very sloppy, but it was how I learned most of the kanji I've studied. I deeply appreciate the comments! >>It’s like a puzzle, and all over the place you see pieces you recognise in new kanji from other kanji you’ve already learnt.

What a great analogy. I totally agree with that. Kanji can be a lot of fun - especially living in Japan and seeing kanji everywhere.

I did something very similar. I had a Doraemon notepad that I practiced writing kanji in day after day. My Japanese friends were always amazed by my diligence flipping though. Of course it was very sloppy, but it was how I learned most of the kanji I’ve studied.

I deeply appreciate the comments!

]]> By: Mark http://www.1nichi1kai.com/2007/10/16/a-case-for-kanji-beginners-of-japanese-learn-to-love-kanji/comment-page-1/#comment-305 Mark Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:33:50 +0000 http://www.1nichi1kai.com/?p=334#comment-305 Nice reply! For the first year of my Japanese study I thought a similar thing to your reader about kanji (although I eschewed romaji at the first possible chance in favour of hiragana and katakana which are very easy to learn). I got into the mindset that spoken japanese would be far more useful and important than being able to read and write kanji. But now I'm actually living in Japan, surrounded by them every day, and attending school every day with mostly chinese students, I have had no choice if I didn't want to get left behind. Not only that but you even have to study more than the other students as there's a lot of catching up to do being from a non-kanji-using country. Anyway, my point is that now I've been studying kanji every day for the last 3 months I'm really REALLY enjoying studying them. It's like a puzzle, and all over the place you see pieces you recognise in new kanji from other kanji you've already learnt. Over time fitting the pieces together you can slowly accumulate more and more. I'm up to about 300 now, and it's become fun! That said, so far I'm not in favour of the rote-learning or the heisig methods of kanji study. I may be slower than people using those methods but I'm just reading and writing as much as i can, and finding that over time they sink in and I retain them in my head. Nice reply! For the first year of my Japanese study I thought a similar thing to your reader about kanji (although I eschewed romaji at the first possible chance in favour of hiragana and katakana which are very easy to learn).

I got into the mindset that spoken japanese would be far more useful and important than being able to read and write kanji. But now I’m actually living in Japan, surrounded by them every day, and attending school every day with mostly chinese students, I have had no choice if I didn’t want to get left behind. Not only that but you even have to study more than the other students as there’s a lot of catching up to do being from a non-kanji-using country.

Anyway, my point is that now I’ve been studying kanji every day for the last 3 months I’m really REALLY enjoying studying them. It’s like a puzzle, and all over the place you see pieces you recognise in new kanji from other kanji you’ve already learnt. Over time fitting the pieces together you can slowly accumulate more and more. I’m up to about 300 now, and it’s become fun!

That said, so far I’m not in favour of the rote-learning or the heisig methods of kanji study. I may be slower than people using those methods but I’m just reading and writing as much as i can, and finding that over time they sink in and I retain them in my head.

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