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SBrooks90

United Kingdom

Learning Kanji

September 30 at 12:28

Hey peeps!

I really want to start reading in Japanese, I have a good grasp of Hiragana and a bit of Katakana which isn't as common but have no idea about Kanji yet and it's almost impossible to read in Japanese without it as they are in almost every word. I'm just wondering where other people started with them and if you've used LingQ to effectively learn them also?

Thanks so much for your time!

Steve

ericb100

United States

October 01 at 14:32

You *might* check out wanikani.com.

It's something I've played around with a little, but don't have enough time to dedicate to Japanese at the moment so I can't speak to its effectiveness. It supposedly is akin to Heisig's work, but using SRS.

It's free for some certain number of levels so you can play around with it for a bit and see if it's useful enough to pay for the service beyond the basic levels.

SBrooks90

United Kingdom

October 02 at 09:23

Brilliant thanks so much mate! I bought Heisig's book so will work through that but will bookmark that site for sure for after!

ありがとう！

PeterBormann

Germany

October 02 at 09:57

Hi SBrooks90,

As an alternative or supplement to the Heisig method, there is also the "learning Kanji by reading" approach. See:

the Japanese Reader series in various e-book formats by Roger Lake and his wife Noriko Ura (you can download the audio flash cards from their website for free): https://www.japaneseaudiolessons.com/ and https://payhip.com/jafl

(btw, you can find the corresponding flashcards for free on Memrise, too).

Satori Reader: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.braksoftware.SatoriReader&gl=US

And the following resources might also be of interest to you:

Obenkyo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Obenkyo&gl=
Skritter: https://skritter.com/

Hope that helps,

Peter

azarya

Belgium

September 30 at 18:38

Heisig works. Lingq also works. lots of things work as long as you're not trying to just remember all on yomi and all kun yomi readings by heart. that doesn't work.

Personally, I would say start with the radicals and maybe some textbooks. Just to understand how kanji are structured. Heisig can help a lot on memorization of characters, but in the end Heisig always picks and chooses definitions.

In the end, just reading a lot, a lot, a lot, is what gets it done. Just start reading on Lingq. Switch off the furigana and if you don't know a word, look it up in the dictionary and write the reading in the definition of the word.

SBrooks90

United Kingdom

October 01 at 08:44

Thanks so much mate! I think I'll start with Heisig and then plow into reading!

B.Oliver

Germany

September 30 at 15:08

You might want to have a look at the book "Remembering the Kanji" by James W. Heisig.

SBrooks90

United Kingdom

October 01 at 08:42

Thanks mate! I'll be getting right now!