I really need to improve my reading ability with Japanese. There is too much I don’t know, and because of that, I have avoided reading. I read along as I listen to a podcast, but I never “study” the kanji.
However, I have picked up an amount of kanji, simply by reading along at LingQ. I’ve seen them enough times, I can read them.
I want to be more attentive with my kanji, but I’m really not inspired to follow hollow flash cards. I tried the Heisig method, but being that I can already speak and understand some japanese, I found that method unfulfilling.
Just yesterday, I have committed my self to read more, but only using LingQ. I’ve started to create some flash cards (though this takes time).
Has anybody hear studied kanji on LingQ, or using the LingQ method at least?
I have learned all my Kanjis purely through reading at LingQ(I know almost all joyo). No flashcards involved. So the LingQ method definitely works. The question would be, do you just want to be able to read the kanjis, or to be able to write too?
Because to be able to write you would probably have to write them out, and the Heisig method is just a very popular one for that.
Yes basically as you said, I kept reading and looking up the kanjis on the right side, which goes fairly quickly.
My reading, is relatively slow still, but that also depends on what I read. If it’s a sentence I have seen many times, I can read it in a flash barely looking at it, but more complex stuff still takes me a while. It does get easier with time, but it takes a very long time to reach that comfort level(which I haven’t yet completely). So hopefully you enjoy reading as it’s probably gonna take a while.
I’m learning japanese since the beginning of the last summer but I still can’t read anything except for extremely easy sentences or the lessons on lingq that I’ve seen before. I’m about to quit Japanese I can’t memorize with flashcards. Also I’m learning joyo kanjis with anki, but that helps me with nothing because they are not words just kanjis.
I spent 6-8 months on LingQ, using no flash cards, no “study”. I was just listening and reading along.
My kanji was awful, but I was able to participate in hour long conversations on Skype, using only japanese, And I could understand podcasts on familiar subjects.
I would recommend you go through simple stories like Who Is She? on LingQ, and then move on to the LingQ Podcasts or something.
Do not worry about memorising it. Just create LingQs and you will slowly understand more, whilst listening to fun content.
I don’t want to quit too. That would be a huge waste of time. I just feel like if I had studied another language with latin alphabet, i would have been in a complete different level now.
I don’t have anyone to have conversations on skype.
I’ve already completed Who Is She? I checked lingq podcasts, I only saw intermediate level podcasts. I will look on the list again.
My biggest issues are kanji and vocabulary( I don’t have large vocabulary because It’s harder to memorize because of kanji)
What would you suggest on reviewing the completed lessons ? How often should I review them ?
Hi Krose00.
You are completely right, if you’ve studied another language with a Latin alphabet you would be a lot better.
But that’s the thing with Japanese. You have to learn vocabulary “twice”, the meaning and the reading, so you spend “twice” as much time on Japanese than on any other language.
So whatever you do, stay motivated and enjoy your ride, because it’s gonna be long(but fun).
P.S. Review the lessons as many times as you see fit. Personally the better I get the less and less I review lessons.
Personally, I ignored kanji initially. I gradually picked up more kanji on LingQ, but I’m still not very good at reading.
That said, I just jumped straight into Intermediate podcasts after Who Is She?
Tough at first, but it was fun listening to Steve and Yayoi, and the other shows. It kept me interested, and I eventually expanded my vocabulary by ear.
I know many words by ear and can speak them, but I do not know their kanji. I would have given up if I focused on all that from the start.
I recommend Italki.com, there you find people lerning language so you can search for a nativ japanese speaker who’s learning turkey. Most of them will talk with you in skype, so you have people to talk in skype.
I personally made a conscientious and tenacious effort of learning the meaning (not readings) of the 1-6 grade kanjis.
Now I am studying new kanjis at maybe a tenth of the previous rate and mainly focusing on reading comprehension.
I personally find that some kanjis will stick by mere exposure in Linq texts.
Memorization through flashcards and memonics. At a certain period I added 20 to 50 new kanjis per day and reviewed even more. Now I review 25 each day and add 10 every week.
I mainly used memrise for this but any flashcard application would do fine.
I can’t memorize with flashcards. Also I’m learning joyo kanjis with anki, but that helps me with nothing because they are not words just kanjis.