The order of learning words

[deadlyjakepl_498131]

Hello everyone!

I'm thinking about making a notebook with the words I learn but I can't really think in which order they should be put. I was surfing the net to find out how it should be done and one particural way caught my attention. It involves writing down all the words I can read when introducing a new kanji. If the first word in my notebook would be 何 then I could only write down 何も and　何か. When introducing 誰 I could only write words like 誰も,　誰か or　誰でも. I think it's a good way since using that I will never repeat any word, but after like, a 100 kanji the lists will get really big, and that's my worry.

What do you think about that? Could you recommend a better way of learning kanji and words?

[thegooseking]

deadlyjakeplさん、

I'm not entirely sure why you don't want to repeat words. If you don't know you're repeating a word, then you can't have learned that word properly the first time round, so maybe you should repeat it.

However, I think you're likely to get frustrated if you try for perfection straight off the bat. Instead of writing down all the words you can think of when you learn a new kanji, why not try just writing down a set number of sentences (maybe 10?) including that kanji? While you're focusing on one kanji, this will passively reinforce the other things you've learned as well. If you miss anything, you can always pick it up later. I think, fundamentally, it's more important to learn a lot imperfectly than it is to learn a little perfectly. But maybe that's just me.

As for order, it seems the prevailing mood around here is that you just take them as they come. As soon as you see an unfamiliar kanji, that's when you learn it. I take the same view, though with a slight modification. I really think you should try to learn all the Grade 1 kanji and maybe half of the Grade 2 kanji first, and then move onto taking them as they come. I've found that this has three advantages. One, it simply makes kanji less scary! Two, it gives you a good feel for how kanji 'works'. And three, it introduces you to a lot of common radicals that are used in other kanji.

But continuing with the grade system after those first 100 or so kanji isn't something I'd recommend, since the grade system is designed for children, and adults learn differently to children. For instance, grade 4 contains a lot of kanji that are easier to read and write than the kanji in grade 3, but they refer to concepts that grade 3 age children might have difficulty with.

I hope this helps,
小狼

[mewes6190]

Heyho!

Learning Kanji and japanese vocab is a tiresome but fun work which mostly takes time!

Personally, I don't think much of a "isolated" learning way, so what I actually do is this:
I have a lot of books with japanese texts and english translations and vocab-lists etc. Often they're easy stories like "Momotaro", but these too use a lot of japanese words, and a natural speech.
So, I write Flashcards with the words I read in these stories. Plus, I write the vocabs of the "Word of the day" function on this website on Flashcards too.

That way, I learn a lot of useful words and grammatical formulas. I learn the flashcards in packs of 15-25 daily (once english->japanese, twice japanese->english, and once english->japanese again) for about a week. After that, I enter them into my ANKI-Flashcard App, where I repeat them for, what do I know, maybe forever. (Anki really IS a great vocab-App!)

That way I also learn new Kanjis every now and then.
Sometimes, when I'm in the mood, but especially when a Kanji gives me trouble, I get a japanese dictionary, and look up words which contain that Kanji and other Kanjis I already now (Or I look up the verb or adjective Form of a Kanji I got in a Noun - that way I learn the meaning of the Kanji!) and add Flashcards for these words too.
That way I not only learn new words (even though some of them are pretty specific... like 野党) but I also always repeat the Kanji I already know. It's a lot of work and costs me about an hour each day, but it brings me forward in leaps and hops which become bigger each time I learn new Kanji.

Most important, I think, is to learn Words and Kanji only when you face them in context of reading! That way (And I do that often) you can come back to the old texts and really READ them! Which is pretty rewarding!

So, you might just learn the words in the lessons here, and repeat them a couple of weeks later, when you really learned the words...

Best
くろくま

[community.japanese]

くろくまさん、
Thank you for sharing your leaning strategy and suggestion.
Yes, revision is important.
Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[mewes6190]

由紀さん、

I learned that one also by pure chance.
温習! (I found it when looking for more words using 習.

Best
くろくま

[community.japanese]

くろくまさん、

Thank you for the post.
いっしょに　がんばりましょう。

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com