Today was so sunny and beautiful!
While others tend to feel more distracted and want to go outside,
I get the opposite affect. It makes me feel focused and want to get stuff done.
Besides, I noted that being out in the sun, even just sitting around, tends to zap my energy.
I still feel a bit flustered on how to go about studying my kanji.
Why? Because:
1. I have way to many resources that I can't decide on the best tools.
2. I always feel I should learn to write the kanji as I'm learning the reading.
3. I know radicals are important but none of my resources teach it.
Today I decided on using my Kanji textbook that goes with the Genki series as my main tool. I wanted to start making kun-yomi and on-yomi decks. Before I did though I stumbled upon Tofugu's blog post on twitter. A guide on Kanji stroke order. Most of it was review but it reminded me that learning radicals first is the most important thing for writing and understanding the meaning of the kanji. My book only teaches 14!
I checked on Anki to see if there were any already made radical decks. I found two: Textfugu Kanji radicals and one just called Japanese radicals. I went through the textfugu one and I like it, but there's no hiragana to show how to pronounce the radical. The other deck does. So I will try to use the fugu one for meaning, and the other for reading.
After I did this it hit me. Why am I trying to learn to read and write at the same time? Those are two different skills. One always learns how to read a word first before writing it, right? And this is a reading challenge not writing challenge.
So, as hard as it is for me to stop the urge to write them out, I will only read them. I need to separate the two in my head. It will be hard but it will save time. It will also make better use of my time during my challenge. After this challenge I'll worry about writing.
I hope I don't change my mind tomorrow.
While others tend to feel more distracted and want to go outside,
I get the opposite affect. It makes me feel focused and want to get stuff done.
Besides, I noted that being out in the sun, even just sitting around, tends to zap my energy.
I still feel a bit flustered on how to go about studying my kanji.
Why? Because:
1. I have way to many resources that I can't decide on the best tools.
- YouTube Videos
- Books
- Games
- Blogs
2. I always feel I should learn to write the kanji as I'm learning the reading.
3. I know radicals are important but none of my resources teach it.
Today I decided on using my Kanji textbook that goes with the Genki series as my main tool. I wanted to start making kun-yomi and on-yomi decks. Before I did though I stumbled upon Tofugu's blog post on twitter. A guide on Kanji stroke order. Most of it was review but it reminded me that learning radicals first is the most important thing for writing and understanding the meaning of the kanji. My book only teaches 14!
I checked on Anki to see if there were any already made radical decks. I found two: Textfugu Kanji radicals and one just called Japanese radicals. I went through the textfugu one and I like it, but there's no hiragana to show how to pronounce the radical. The other deck does. So I will try to use the fugu one for meaning, and the other for reading.
After I did this it hit me. Why am I trying to learn to read and write at the same time? Those are two different skills. One always learns how to read a word first before writing it, right? And this is a reading challenge not writing challenge.
So, as hard as it is for me to stop the urge to write them out, I will only read them. I need to separate the two in my head. It will be hard but it will save time. It will also make better use of my time during my challenge. After this challenge I'll worry about writing.
I hope I don't change my mind tomorrow.
I'll go through each of the four language tools which you mentioned and how they can be beneficial for kanji study in my opinion:
ReplyDelete1. YouTube videos - The only videos that I can think of which would be useful for kanji study would be videos which are about that subject or Japanese shows which have subtitles here and there. As for the former, I can't imagine the quality of such videos being very good. There may be some good videos, but I wouldn't waste my time sifting through long videos made by those who don't understand what they are teaching. As for the latter, I watch Japanese comedy shows (downtown gaki no tsukai). There are subtitles during funny moments, but all downtown members speak Kansai dialect, so it can be difficult to hear what they are saying.
2. Books are a great way to learn kanji. If you want a good book to read, I highly recommend 心を整える（ととのえる） by 長谷部（はせべ）誠（まこと）, a former Urawa Reds soccer player who is currently playing for Wolfsburg soccer team in Germany if I'm not mistaken. There is quite a lot of furigana and it's quite an easy read. For the sole purpose of learning kanji a lot of people would probably suggest manga. Commonly used kanji will undoubtedly appear in whatever manga one chooses to read, but for the time being there's no need to try to memorise the kanji for 'pirate', for example. All in all, once you get to the level where you can read an easy book both your vocabulary and knowledge of kanji will grow. If we end up meeting in the US, I can loan you a book which is easy to read if you want. It's by 吉本ばなな, who is famous for her simplistic writing.
3. Games are a way to pick up kanji, but not a very effective way in my opinion. First of all, the kanji used in Japanese games vary greatly according to their genre, target audience etc. Kids games should have furigana on them, so maybe you could consider those. Also, I don't know what platform you were thinking of, but PC games in Japan are expensive and much more difficult to come by than PS3 games, for example. When I went to a huge electronics store one time I found the PC games section tucked away in an insignificant area of the store.
4. Blogs written by Japanese people can be one way to learn kanji. If you were to copy the text in a blog and read it over and over several days in a row, the kanji might stick.
Learning to read kanji is much easier than learning how to both read and write kanji at the same time, especially if you don't have 8 hours a day to dedicate to Japanese study like I did when I was in Japan. Also, you don't want to overwhelm yourself; there needs to be an element of 'pain' in language learning but too much can kill one's motivation. If looking up each kanji in a kanji dictionary is what's on your mind, whenever you want to know the stroke order of a character go to http://kakijun.main.jp/
In summary, keep on going! Being really good at kanji takes hundreds and hundreds of hours of tedious study, but it's worth it.
(Aaaaaa, my browser freaked on me and now I have to try and rewrite my reply!)
Delete1.I guess YT would be best for listening practice instead. I love comedy shows! There are some YT channels I watch that have subtitles on screen. I try my best to keep up with the speaking pace @.@
2.I've been looking around and found some manga I really want to read! 彩雲国物語、エマ、日本人の知らない日本語. Though I don't know if they have furigana ><. I love that if I find a drama or anime that I like, I can get the written work! I do have a manga Bible I should really try to put into my studies again... and I have a magazine for 外人.
If we end up meeting that'd be so awesome! :D
3. I have 3 games for the DS. 2 are from Japan. Trying them out for this challenge I agree that this method isn't the best. I think it can be a side thing, but not a main tool.
4.I actually found a blog I'm really interested in in Japanese yesterday! It's kinda hard for me to find blogs on things I like. I'm very excited to start reading it. ^^
I would love to have 8hrs of available study time. haha. Thank you for all the recommendations!
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