kanji attack!

[kanamidori]

Does anyone know of some good methods for memorizing a large amount of kanji (reading and writing) in a short period of time? A lot of my courses this semester are pretty kanji heavy and I've never been able to get the hang of memorizing it very well. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Comments

[drummerboi3]

Flash cards worked for me, also its nice to learn the roots of the kanji like to write TAISETSU well thats just the kanji for big and sword/seven put together.good luck

[shmennivie]

I usually use flash cards and then focus on either one radical of the kanji, or make a different word out of the radicals, then associate the words somehow. For example, when I was studying the kanji "ao" (blue) I noticed it was "san" (three) and "tsuki" (moon) together. So I sorta memorized "santsuki" and thought blue was like the moon... it seems complicated, but, well... anyway, the other method is just looking at the kanji and seeing what it reminds you of and then associating that with the meaning of the kanji as well... for me, I usually knew the English translation for the word of whatever the kanji was, I just didn't know the kanji, so... this probably didn't help at all, but I can memorize kanji pretty easily, so... I just thought I'd share my method, haha

[acutevenus]

I agree with flash cards just like everyone else says. practicing the same kanji at night and then the morning after (actually with everything..not just kanji) help make things stick for me. Also, writing things down is really important. Drill myself with the flashcards, i see the meaning/reading and then have to write the kanji, go through the deck and remove the ones that came easily and go through again with the harder ones. (this is probably what everyone does...so i'm probably not being helpful) but that's what i do. I can't stress the writing part enough though...even when practicing and walking to class, i would write things out with my finger in the air. And remember to remember to practice back and forth...'cause being able to write it and not read it is pretty useless

[kanamidori]

I started using kantango.com and its been a tremendous help. I was able to memorize 90 kanji in 2 days. Thank you so much for recommending it to me. I feel like I won't fall behind on my kanji now.

[acutevenus]

Yay, I'm glad it was helpful. :) I might end up going back to it soon 'cause now that I'm actually in Japan I realize I know NO kanji and can't read ANYTHING. You can also nose around in other people's lists and learn see what other people are learning. Good luck on your quest!

[the_questess]

repetition, repetition, repetition. Make up papers with grids on them and write, write, write. After you've written it a bunch and think you have it down, go onto another one. After you've done about 5, put that paper away and go to a new paper where you've written out the furigana for each kanji and then see if you can remember how to write each one. If you can't, go back to the grid and write it a lot again.
Every time you go to the furigana paper, write down every single kanji you have been memorizing that day (or week perhaps), not just the 5 you just wrote over and over on the grid paper.

Also, flashcards help... but the best thing is doing the strokes over and over and over. That's the way that Japanese school kids do it too.

[ohayo_sakura]

yeah, the only way i can remember them is to write
over and over and over and over again!
i find flash cards are okay for recognition, but i can't reproduce anything without endless practise!
x

[mataeka]

Each person learns in different ways, I'm pretty much head of the class kanji-wise at uni because I really enjoy it.

I memorise by a combination of practicing writing them, flash cards for memorising them, and breaking down each particle for meanings.

Then after all that I try and place a japanese sound to it, but first comes the english meaning. So I immediately know what the context of whatever I'm reading is.