Learning Kanji and Vocabulary

[TetsuyaNomura]

I have been learning kanji by going through my Tuttle kanji dictionary starting with the first entry and learning the meanings and all the readings for 3 - 5 kanji a day. I now know about 300 kanji. The problem I'm having is that I don't know how to use many of the readings of a lot of the kanji I have learned(which makes it harder to retain the readings), and I don't know the kanji for a lot of the vocabulary I know. Should I be learning kanji as I learn new vocabulary? Is there a better order to learn kanji in?
Or should I just bite the bullet for now because it will get easier after I know more kanji?
I'm really just looking for a way to better synchronize leaning kanji and vocabulary. I'd love to hear any ideas on this.
Thanks.

[taikutsu]

Don't memorise readings on their own. That's like banging your head against bricks.

I'll give you an example of why that's a bad idea. 定 has the readings さだ, てい and じょう. If you learned it in context, it's easy to notice that さだ is always followed by まる or める as a verb, and that in most compounds like 一定 and 定員 it's pronounced てい. If you didn't learn it in context, you would be left to guessing what it should be.

I've personally learned much of the kanji I know from materials for Japanese children, which works and has the added benefit of giving me words and sentences to associate with them, though I admit that's probably not for everyone.

I've heard a lot of positive recommendations for the book Remembering the Kanji, which I've never used myself, but I understand it uses English mnemonics to help you remember the components. You could try doing that first and then just associating the kanji you will know with vocabulary as you learn it.

Whatever keeps you interested in continuing to learn and curious for more should work.

[Javizy]

There was a discussion about this last week in this thread.

You should really be using a book designed to learn kanji, and not to look up words and characters. What if you learnt 錠 before 定? And why do 安 and 従 have some of the same parts? You can really make it easier for yourself by using a book like Remembering the Kanji.

What are you using to review what you're learning? Memories only last a certain amount of time, and you need to review before you forget. Check out Anki or smart.fm mentioned in that thread.

[williamst4334]

someone can help me here. I am an absolute beginner with this language. I am learning to speak it using romaji. However, I believe it would benefit me to learn to write it as I go along. How should I start this process at its most basic level? Is it better to begin with hiragana or katakana or the kanji? Can you read and write one without the other? Help!!!

[nobap]

Is it better to begin with hiragana or katakana or the kanji?

Hi, I suggest you start with hiragana followed by katakana, perhaps a few simple kanji too. After you have mastered hiragana and katakana, you should focus more on kanji. That's how I was taught at school.

[pensuked]

Okay nobap, I have just recently finish learning Hiragana and Katakana (well not perfectly, I can't read all of the flashing messages on tv fast enough but I figure I just have to practice over time).

What would be a good approach to learn kanji? I was planning to use the Kanji in Context books and learning maybe 5-10 kanji a day (Reading, vocab & sample sentences) but my grammar isn't even past beginner level yet. (meaning I can't completely understand the structure of most sample sentences) So should I slow down the kanji learning and focus more on grammar through, say the podcast?

[Javizy]

Try Remembering the Kanji by Heisig. You don't need any background in Japanese at all, and you can learn at a much faster rate with much greater retention. There's a nice forum to help you in your quest too: http://forum.koohii.com/index.php

[Sableriyo]

This is going to seem like a silly question, but is it easier to write kanji in pencil or pen? I've tried both, and I'm just not sure which would be the better choice for my studying until I'm better at writing the characters.