When I started studying Japanese at the University of Gothenburg in Autumn 2008, we started using a book called Basic Kanji Book Vol.1
At the time I’m writing this, 783 other Smart.fm students have enrolled to this goal, as well as 10 collaborators correcting any misspellings (anyone is free to collaborate).
Now I want to be clear on one thing, and that is that I only recommend this goal for people who actually use this book in school. If you aren’t, there are more efficient ways out there. Personally I prefer learning readings of kanji in context while I study vocabulary and sentences (Japanese Core 2000 is recommended for beginners), and then compliment this with some other way of learning meanings and stroke orders such as Remembering the Kanji
Well, I just thought I’d tell you that this is probably a better solution if your school is forcing you to use this book.
I’ve just got back from Japan and getting back to my old routines, studying has never been this much fun!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the direction. The Japan Core is what I’m working on now. I’m hoping to get myself ahead of the power curve for when I (if everything goes as planned) start learning Japanese at De La Salle University in Manila.
I see! Never heard of The Japan Core actually. Good thing you’re preparing though, so you can show off in class^^
Actually what I was talking about was the Japanese Core 2000 you mentioned in the post.
It will be nice to be ahead of te game and impress my classmates but i’m doing it more to just make things easier on myself later. :)
Oh haha!^^;
And yeah, it’ll definitely be good for you. I was just a little bit a head of the big group when I started in terms of writing and reading, but my listening comprehension was a lot better. I’m sure they’re all better than me now though… xD
Question for you. Do the individual kanji always stand for the same sound? In Japanese Core 2000 it usually has two kanji together that make a word, but I haven’t studied enough to see individual kanji repeated to see if they make the same sound.
If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be easier to study the different kanji individually, so you could at least sound out the words?
Individual kanji often have another reading. And no, studying the readings on kanji individually is incredibly difficult because there are so many kanji with the same readings. And a kanji almost always has more than one reading.
But that’s just an opinion really, I’ve tried and it didn’t work well for me, but it might work for you.
Ok. Thanks for the clarification. I think I’ll just stick to the traditional way of learning them.
I should be doing my cards at smart fm… i am sooo behind… shifting work schedules have really cut down my nihongo study time.
btw Jonas… what JLPT level are you at now? around N3? Im stuggling to get past N4 by self studying but when I take tests i fail miserably… hehehe…
I’m probably on N3, but I’m not sure since I’ve never taken a JLPT test, I don’t use JLPT as goals nor to measure my level of Japanese. What part of the test is the most difficult for you?
Well im actually taking employment exams that are geared towards 2.5. A test a little bit higher than the past JLPT 3 standard. I actually always get “destroyed” in the grammar section on “you, rashii, sou” those kinds. Also, sonkei-go and kenjou-go are the bane in my Japanese learning. XD.
It is really hard when you don’t find ways to practice. The problem with me is that I can read fine and I can actually understand quite well spoken japanese but if its time for me to formulate sentences… An hour is not enough for me ToT.
I see that’s cool :) My weak point is kanji but my listening comprehension is strong. I can watch a drama or talk to someone and understand most of it. I had no trouble talking with Japanese people when I was in Tokyo, but I have to work on my vocabulary so I can discuss more difficult things. I don’t study handwriting of kanji at all right now, trying to focus on the things that are the most important to me and then get to the other things when I’ve reached a higher level :)
You should start writing a blog, or posts on Smart.fm/Lang-8^^