exotic-emerald•2mo ago
learning kanji
Hi, I started learning Japanese a few days ago and I know hiragana and katakana. But I have a problem with kanji. I don't understand why I have to learn it, I don't understand how I learn it and I don't know where I can learn it because I understood that there are about 2000 letters. I would be happy if someone could explain it to me and help me sort it out.
1 Reply
other-emerald•2mo ago
Well, you have to be able to understand what they mean, because they are used in the japanese language. That being said, some people never do dedicated kanji study and simply learn how words in kanji are read as they learn the words themselves. On the other hand, many people struggle with this approach and benefit from a bit of specialized kanji study on the side. Ultimately, it's up to you to choose the route that feels most appropriate.
The Japanese government has established a set of commonly used characters known as the "Jōyō Kanji." This list includes 2,136 characters that are officially taught in schools. If you know all the Jōyō Kanji, you are already extremely advanced. But don’t worry—you don’t even need to learn all 2,136 characters right now. Just the first 1,000 characters will cover the overwhelming majority of the kanji you will encounter.
For how to study them, the method I've used is that each kanji can be split into radicals (small things out of just a few lines) then you spot these radicals in the kanjis and make stories for them, containg all the radicals. Same can be done for how to pronounce them, tho their are sometimes more than one way of pronoucing them.
You're gonna find most likly Anki Decks on the Internet, also some payed and free programms, tho not suggesting anything bc I never used em.
(Also, parts of this are copied out of the Migaku Kanji Course introduction)