What after kana?

[Zankes]

I have soon learnt all the kanas... So what is next? Grammar, words, kanji or what? Could someone enlighten me?
Also is heisig method best for kanji even if English isn't my native language? I'm pretty good at English but far from native

Anyways I would appreciate some good tips!

Thanks

[community.japanese]

Zankes-san,
well done!
Next step would be kanji, in terms of writings.
You can learn words little by little, separated from those writings.

Good luck!!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[cloa513ch2629]

What is your native language? - maybe there is good book in your language. There are children's picture Japanese dictionaries but they tend to avoid the Kanji. Does anyone know if there is a Japanese picture dictionary that is as comprehensive as is possible?


Obviously the Japanese for a concept or something, that looks too similar to something, is basically useless to show as pictures- otherwise you can show a cat and the kanji 猫 and its furigana　ねこ or show someone walking and write 歩く　and あるく　and someone can get the information. And even better form short expression like　 バス に　のる- get on a bus with the right pictures. 　
Zankes-san, you'll need to get a general description of the nature of Japanese- that should available in the equivalent to Wikipedia in your language.

[Zankes]

My native language is Finnish. I have found one kanji study book from 2009 year which has 1950 kanji in my native language so I might get it. Finnish has similar pronunciation as JP, so at least that is helpful..

Picture book would be also nice and useful!

Also thanks for your message

PS: I hope I can find a good kanji book.

EDIT: cloa513ch2629-San

What was your method to learn kanji or did you just use the heisig?

Also when I want to say san is it with alphabetics or with hiragana or with what? さん? San? or Kanji?

[mmmason8967]

Also when I want to say san is it with alphabetics or with hiragana or with what? さん? San? or Kanji?

Using "Yamada" as an example, I would use "san" if the name is romaji (e.g. Yamada-san) and hiragana if the name is in Japanese script (e.g. やまださん or 山田さん).

There is no kanji for "san" as far as I know, so it's written in hiragana.

マイケル

[cloa513ch2629]

さん　(san)　is probably technical 様 but noone writes it like that because its says honorifically mister さま there is no easy way to differentiate between them. There is a Kanji for just about all bases forms of japanese words but whether they use it depends on the Kanji's rarity and other factor. お- and ご- (which are honorifics) have the kanji　御 but its always written in kana.

[community.japanese]

cloa513ch2629-san, Zankes-san, マイケルsan,
kon'nichiwa

さん is indeed written with hiragana always. 様 should be written with kanji if you know it.

I'm not sure if there's a good picture book/dictionary for Japanese learners if you want it to contain kanji...
I guess you have to use two dictionaries (combine use); one with picture and "reading" and another to find
if there's kanji for certain word.

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com