I hadn’t even thought to check but thanks, I’ll try that. I don’t know if I’ll really get use out of it now though cause I’ve finally got a sort of “course” going already.
Heiseg crew. A little tip - if heiseg gives a kanji a meaning that you think is really odd / obscure - it might be. There are a lot of examples in RtK where he gives a really weird meaning to a kanji that is rarely ever used in that way, so check if you’re unsure.
^ This. I am not a fan of Heisig’s method, though. I won’t knock anyone for using it but I would never recommend it.
^What would you prefer? I see the drawbacks, but I think as long as people know what exactly is being provided by RtK then I don’t think it’s too bad. People might be disappointed if they expect to know 2K kanji after completing RtK1, though.
Well, I’m bumping this a bit.
Decided to pick up, or rather start over, with my Japanese studies. Completely self-study, as there are no language courses nereby, and wasn’t any available at my previous university. A few years back I did a little bit of studying, but it was mostly listening to Japanesepod101, and a little bit of this book (I think, can’t remember) http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Japanese-Audio-CDs-Hippocrene/dp/0781811414 and another smaller one that was mostly useful phrases and such. I did, however, focus mainly on romaji because I figured that would teach me spoken japanese or something that I could start writing relatively fast. I realize that romaji won’t get me far, and as people in here posted, I’ll skip romaji and focus on actually being able to write and read japanese (and speak of course :p) this time around.
I also practiced writing and memorizing kana 1-2 years ago, and got a fair bit i suppose, but quit since I felt that I lacked direction and didn’t really know how to proceed with it. So I wouldn’t say I’m starting completely from scratch, as I know a few basic things, can say some things and can pick out quite a few words that I know/recognize while watching anime.
The starting over thing is pretty much that I want to start learning a bit more serious and doing it a bit more organized. These are the books I’ve decided to use, based on what other people seem to prefer and what looks good to me:
Genki
Remembering the Kana: Hiragana and Katakana
Remembering the Kanji vol. 1-3
I’d like your oppinions if these books above will be enough to get me a solid base, or if I need another book to cover grammar or something.
(Also looked at Social Functioning Japanese, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, Japanese for Busy People and learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana)
I also have a huge amount of other pdf’s, if you could spot anything you recognize, and that I should add to my list:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/338/unled1rv.jpg/
I guess the way I should start it all is by reading RTKana first and then going through Genki, with RTKanji being something that I always try and study alongside? Going to practice writing as well of course. Currently have all the books on my iPad to see if it’ll work smoothly to read them all there, and also practice the writing on it, so that I won’t have to sit at my PC all the time.
And for audio reference I suppose I’ll use all that damn anime that I’m watching/have watched and perhaps also Japanesepod101, but I’ve always had trouble getting all their lessons in order, even when I was on the free “paying” first test month and not just using what was on iTunes.
This all got pretty long, but basically I’m wondering if these books will do, and if the above order would be the best way to start and get a smooth learning process.
Cheers!
Bump. I’ve been studying kanji for the past few months, and I feel like I’ve made a ton of progress in a short amount of time. Can anyone point me to a good resource to learn kanji compounds and idioms?
What route have you been taking? Im about to start today using Heisig and Kanji Damage.
I tried Heisig, but I couldn’t commit to it after I decided that learning ‘primitives’ isn’t really useful in the long run. I bought a DS to practice writing, which is nice, but I just felt like I was spinning my wheels in place.
I just opted for daily brute-force memorizing with the flash cards on http://kanji.koohii.com (Anki decks should work too), with less focus on on/kun reading and more focus on the character meaning. And I don’t study 20 a day and pat myself on the back-- I dive in and drill through hundreds of characters, until the day comes that I remember 1 or 2 or 5 or 10 of them. The best thing I’ve done in my JP studies is drop the belief that kanji is ‘hard’ or ‘off limits until I learn this and that first.’ Probably isn’t the most efficient study method, but maybe it’s a worthwhile tradeoff if my recognition count rocketed from just a few hundred to over 1000. So now I can ‘read’ headlines and articles and signs and stuff at the supermarket, even though I don’t know how to say it.
It also helped my verb recognition, even though, again, I haven’t memorized the kanji readings yet.
I’m going to restart my studies soon, maybe for a new years resolution hah.
Heisig’s stuff worked pretty well for me but I also did other kanji stuff with other books/DS games/Online learning/Anki Decks.
I’m not sure why you dropped Heisig’s method, but are now doing the flashcards based on Heisig’s method? You’re better off trying a different Anki deck perhaps, Taito. Also, if you’re going to use a deck for Heisig’s method I think the Anki one is better (but I never got really embedded in kanji.koohii except for adding a few stories)
Before I get ahead of myself I just want to be clear-- there’s nothing wrong with Heisig and it’s a study resource that’s worked for lots of students out there.
Lately I thought that my Japanese studies has felt too ‘bureaucratic’-- it seemed like I had to treat kanji as this immeasurably hard challenge that I need to put off until I finish this book and study vocabulary and conjugation and etc. The goal of reading and understanding news articles was getting pushed further and further away.
I felt that should stop and try to assess what I actually understand. After Googling I ended up at Koohii because I was able to test how many kanji I already knew (I never bothered to formally count until a few months ago). The Koohii cards aren’t Heisig-based, they’re SRS-based, and the cards are neatly categorized by ‘don’t know at all,’ ‘learning,’ and ‘I already know these, don’t bother me with those for a few weeks.’ Just drilling through the ‘don’t know’ list, 500 at a time, and focusing only on meaning for now has been incredibly fast for me, almost like learning kana years ago.
Also I decided to learn radicals over Heisig’s primitives, since they’re so similar anyway, and because radicals are the indexing standard for Chinese characters. When I look up characters in electronic dictionaries, I have to search by radical, not primitive. And once I get around to mastering writing, I’ll have to simplify the writing process by writing radicals, not primitives. I’m just looking for ways to trim the fat and learn this language already.
I’m not saying that I’m right (seriously-- I’m actually looking for feedback on what I’m doing wrong), I’m not even recommending my method. But it’s been one of those breakthrough moments that I really haven’t had in a while. Pretty exciting. I feel like an independent adult in Japan for once.
No, I’m not talking about SRS. I’m talking about the meanings, order, numbers, stories, page numbers, etc. are based on Heisig’s books. That whole site, kanji.koohii AKA Reviewing The Kanji, is there as an online resource/companion/whatev for Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji series.
What I was trying to say is that if you’re not doing Heisig’s method, perhaps a different SRS kanji deck would be better. In Anki I had a deck based on Heisig’s stuff (pretty much the same thing as the online deck on Reviewing the Kanji) plus some other Kanji decks that went pretty in depth, compounds, other meanings, etc.
I just take it all. learning Heisig’s primitives is good if you stick with his program. If you don’t, like you said you weren’t, then yeah, no point learning them. Either way, you can always add in radical knowledge too.
OK I understand. And Koohii is in fact an RTK supplemental although that isn’t what I use it for.
OK after a bunch of super dicking around, I have now established my route to learning Japanese based on what Ive heard from around the web:
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Learn Kana
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Learn Kanji. The meaning and stroke order only. Everyone and Heisig says that learning the kanji is key for getting better. You cant learn how to write real sentences until you get these down. I am now using Kanji Damage for Kanji. I’ve heard people that have used it say that its better than Heisig RTK and for me it feels pretty comfortable. I hope I can get this down by my next birthday. (9/14) As long as I do this stuff everyday from now on…
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Learn vocabulary and grammar. Take the Kanji learned and utilize it. Learn the rules and broader forms of use will come naturally. I’m actually listening to Pimsleur Japanese SRS as additional vocabulary practice while doing the Kanji. Its actually too formal for regular use but there is still a lot of good practical stuff in there and its good listening practice and it never hurts to learn stuff on the side if it makes learning new a bit easier.
Man I should have did this years ago. Probably my biggest regret in life.
Yeah I can say that the best thing I ever did for learning Japanese is focusing on the kanji meaning over the reading. I’m not saying ignore learning the readings, but probably learn the meaning first, including radicals, before taking on on/kun (which will come to you the more you read/hear/speak JP anyway).
Shoutouts to this thread there’s a lot of good resources here
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