How to Rock Your Kanji - Quick and life-long mastery of Japanese Kanji characters

HOW TO ROCK YOUR KANJI 3-STEP STUDY METHOD for quick & life- long mastery of JAPANESE KANJI CHARACTERS 3 HABITS of highly effective KANJI LEARNERS MEANING FIRST WORDS NEXT Learn a few representative vocab Create your own mnemonic (memory tool) to help you retain the character's meaning. Use relationships between the elements within each character to create your own story. This helps you remember its meaning, and helps you recall the character when you need to write it. A person 「亻」 leaning against a tree 「⽊」 is taking a rest. So, 「休」 means "to rest." NOW, USE PROFUSELY Practice reading and writing to rest, break, be absent rest, break holiday a break Learn the stroke order & stroke directions, and practice writing until you are comfortable forming a balanced version of the Kanji. Then write it every chance you get, and forever continue the mental exercise of associating the Kanji with the vocab you learned in the previous step. For every Kanji you study, learn and drill 2 or 3 common, easy-to- remember words in which that Kanji appears. Be able to recognize those words and their meanings when you see them. From then on, whenever you see that Kanji, recall those words in your mind. This cements that Kanji into your long-term memory. ⼀休⽇休憩休む⼆三 Recognize the character's meaning Copyright © 2016 Kurt Pipa. All Rights Reserved. Wells College, Lecturer in Japanese. Many Japanese study books have small print, called Furigana, below or above Kanji to show how to pronounce the Kanji. Advice: cover the Furigana when you read. Always. Make it a habit. If you don't outright know the reading, guess based on context. Then peek at the Furigana to check if you were right; if not, note the reading and cover it back up, then take a moment to re-read the Kanji without the aid. You might peek a lot at first, but that's OK; you'll gain lots of exposure to Kanji and gradually learn many of the common ones, almost through osmosis. Cover Furigana Strive to continually make associations among Kanji you've learned. Perform the mental exercise of connecting: · different words with the same Kanji, and · different Kanji with the same element. See the examples on the right. 中国休外国海外きれいな海 Elements (also called radicals or components) are the building blocks of Kanji. They can represent meaning, sound or both. When studying a Kanji, concentrate on learning its elements. Here are some examples. The element 氵represents 3 drops of water and means "water" or "liquid". That's why 海 means ocean, 波 means wave & 汽 means steam. One of the readings of the Kanji寺 (temple) is "ji." Since 寺 also appears as an element in the Kanji 持 (hold) and 時 (time), these Kanji can also be pronounced "ji." Learn Kanji elements Make associations W o r d s w / s a m e K a n j i K a n j i w / s a m e e l e m e n t 「亻」 body 体 samurai 侍

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Transcript of How to Rock Your Kanji - Quick and life-long mastery of Japanese Kanji characters

HOW TO ROCKYOUR KANJI

3-STEP STUDY METHOD for quick & life-long mastery of JAPANESE KANJI CHARACTERS

3 HABITS of highly effective KANJI LEARNERS

MEANING FIRST

WORDS NEXTLearn a fewrepresentative vocab

Create your own mnemonic (memory tool) to help you retainthe character's meaning. Use relationships between the elementswithin each character to create your own story. This helps youremember its meaning, and helps you recall the character whenyou need to write it.

A person 「亻」 leaning against atree 「⽊」 is taking a rest.So, 「休」 means "to rest."

NOW, USE PROFUSELY Practice readingand writing

to rest, break,be absent

rest,break

holiday a break

Learn the stroke order & stroke directions, and practice writinguntil you are comfortable forming a balanced version of the Kanji.Then write it every chance you get, and forever continue themental exercise of associating the Kanji with the vocab youlearned in the previous step.

For every Kanji you study, learn and drill 2 or 3 common, easy-to-remember words in which that Kanji appears. Be able to recognizethose words and their meanings when you see them.

From then on, whenever you see that Kanji, recall those words inyour mind. This cements that Kanji into your long-term memory.

⼀

休⽇休憩休む⼆

三

Recognize thecharacter's meaning

Many Japanese study books have small print, called Furigana, belowor above Kanji to show how to pronounce the Kanji.

Advice: cover the Furigana when you read. Always. Make it a habit.

If you don't outright know the reading, guess based on context.Then peek at the Furigana to check if you were right; if not, notethe reading and cover it back up, then take a moment to re-read theKanji without the aid. You might peek a lot at first, but that's OK;you'll gain lots of exposure to Kanji and gradually learn many of thecommon ones, almost through osmosis.

Cover Furigana

Strive to continually make associations amongKanji you've learned. Perform the mental exerciseof connecting:

· different words with the same Kanji, and · different Kanji with the same element.

See the examples on the right.

中国

休外国

海外

きれいな海

Elements (also called radicals or components) are the building blocksof Kanji. They can represent meaning, sound or both. When studyinga Kanji, concentrate on learning its elements. Here are some examples.

The element 氵represents 3 drops of water and means "water" or"liquid". That's why 海 means ocean, 波 means wave & 汽 means steam.

One of the readings of the Kanji寺 (temple) is "ji." Since 寺 also appearsas an element in the Kanji 持 (hold) and 時 (time), these Kanji can alsobe pronounced "ji."

Learn Kanji elements

Make associations

Words w/ same Kanji Kanji w/ same element 「亻」

body

体samurai

侍