So Many Choices: Kanji

So Many Choices: Kanji

I started off this blog talking about kanji. and I’ll never stop talking about kanji. Intriguing, beautiful, frustrating, vital…what’s not to love? These characters, borrowed from the Chinese and then evolved by the Japanese over many centuries, are one of the biggest obstacles in learning Japanese well. You can certainly get to some level of proficiency without learning kanji. but if you can’t read in a language, how proficient are you really? Books I didn’t start my kanji studying with books, but I certainly splashed out some cash on them. Remembering the Kanji This certainly is one of the most well-known study guides. James Heisig locked himself in a library to… Read More

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A Really Nice WaniKani Community App

It’s no secret I’m a fan of WaniKani. I’ve tried other systems, but this one just clicks for me. But using it away from a large keyboard has always been a pain. I find no problem with doing 25 reviews in one session in front of my computer. With my phone, I can do maybe 10 and then put it down. The keyboard is too small, the text is too hard to read. Japanese is not made for people with poor eyesight. But then. on the WaniKani community site, I saw the announcement of a new Android app: Flaming Durtles. Intrigued. I thought I’d check it out. I had a… Read More

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Kanji Wrap-up

Wow, so many posts about kanji. Why do I think they’re important? You can’t do anything with reading or writing in Japanese unless you know them. They will help you in learning vocabulary and grammar. They are thus essential to Japanese studies. Otherwise, nothing much else. When you confront your own cranky dog of kanji, have the positive attitude of the guy below. No, I don’t know what these kanji say. 頑張ってください!!

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Writing the Kanji

Writing? Kanji? おい、おじさん、2017年だぞ!みんなはコンピューターを使ていますぜ! No need to get upset, I know quite well that the IT revolution has made Japanese resources so abundant that even a clod like me can study the language in the comfort of my own home. You just fire up your IME (on computer), or keyboard app (on your smartphone), and start typing in sweet, sweet English letters. These letters form kana. The drop-down list shows you a bunch of kanji that match the kana you are entering. If you know your kanji well enough, just pick it from the list. If not, just leave the kana in and hope anyone reading what you’re writing is excellent… Read More

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Pronouncing the Kanji

So, you’re doing pretty well in your Japanese studies. You can now stride confidently into any Japanese restaurant and say 一つとんかつラーメンおねがいします。(Is it totally correct? Well, you won’t starve as a tourist, anyway, as long as you go into tourist-friendly restaurants.) You even proudly know that you used a kanji in 一つ. Wow! Super! And teachers give you kanji that have two or three or four pronunciations, and you’re a bit worried, but hey! You’re a language expert from birth! You can do it! And then comes the mountain. Not the mountain 山, but this: I mean, the first time I saw this, my eyelid started to twitch. If yours didn’t,… Read More

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Examining the Kanji (kanji form and composition)

To learn the kanji, we have to learn the following: kanji form and composition kanji pronunciations (on’yomi/kun’yomi) kanji writing This post will talk about the first one. This article describes everything very well, and was the basis for me wanting to write this post. Basically, every kanji has one and only one radical. Every radical has a meaning, some more clear than others. But acquiring an idea of what each radical means can really help in some cases when trying to figure out what an unknown kanji is referring to. If there’s only one radical in the kanji, then what are the other parts of the kanji made up of?… Read More

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Don’t Fear the Kanji

So, you start off wanting to learn Japanese for any number of reasons. Mine was culture and travel. Yours might be anime or movies. “How hard can it be?” you ask yourself. “It’s now almost all English words in katakana and a few connecting Japanese words, right? I can do this in 10 days, like this book ‘Learn Japanese in 10 Days’ says I can!” Photo via Good Free Photos The thing is, a lot of Japanese schools will not attempt to tell you any different. In fact, they treat kanji carefully around their beginner students, like they will render these 外国人students weak and helpless, like kryptonite. Teachers create the… Read More

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