Kanji questions

[WalterWills]

Hi


When it comes to Kanji strokes, is there a standard direction to right them? Like top-to-bottom, left-to-right? I know the order of strokes is important and that's why most guides will give you the correct order, but I remember talking to a Chinese guy once and I think he told me that the direction of strokes was important.


I also said how hard it must've been to learn thousands of these symbols, but he told me that it was easy (or easier) when you learn certain rules. From what I remember, he told me that the radicals that make up the kanji have meanings too- the example he gave was that the left-hand radical in 語 meant something to do with speaking. The thing is, I want to start learning Kanji as soon as possible and if it's true that the radicals help to convey the meaning, perhaps it would be better to learn the radicals and their meanings first. I've heard about the Helsig (sp?) method and even though I'm sure it'll help you to remember Kanji, I'd be surprised if using that method provided a solid foundation. It's probably best to be able to understand the Kanji rather than simply remembering the symbol, right?



I made an attempt to write some Kanji today, I got a nice Kanji Dictionary for Christmas!

[Fedgrub]

Yeah, its top to bottom, left to right like other symbols. As far as interpreting the kanji based off rules, I'm not too sure sorry.

[Psy]

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom is a good rule of thumb, but there are a lot of nuances and exceptions to be found. I found the best way is to learn as you go... after your first 1,000 you'll practically be an expert. There is a long (albeit old) topic on kanji to be found here:

Approach to learning Kanji

Hope that helps out. Kanji is a large, hideous beast which must be defeated to reach the treasures beyond. It will be long, tiring and difficult, so before you go in-- swords blazing-- you'll want to have the right weapons.

Good luck!

[WalterWills]

Thanks guys.

Psy- is your website down permanently?

[Psy]

At that address, yes, as I didn't update it often and there was no (apparent) interest by visitors, I elected to take it down rather than renew the hosting contract (it was a paid service). However, I do have plans to make the content available elsewhere. When I do so, I'll post about in the materials section of JP101. Note that for kanji it only covers the 410 characters required by the AP college exam.

Thanks for your interest!

[Javizy]

Learning the radicals definitely helps when you get to the more complicated characters, so learning them in a particular order is also important. Some complex kanji don't just contain radicals, but entire characters, so learning the complex ones before you learn the characters within them makes them incredibly hard to remember. If you get to thinking 'oh, this character is just shellfish and axe put together', instead of writing out a meaningless tangle of strokes, your memory has a lot less work to do.

A great book that teaches you the characters in this way, as well as explaining stroke order and introducing a mnemonic system that makes things even easier is 'Remembering the Kanji' by James Heisig. I still don't understand why there are people who DON'T recommend this book. It's by far the best and easiest way to learn kanji without doubt: buy it today.

[WalterWills]

I might buy that book then if it's that good.

So many books, so little time!

Thanks for the info.

[Psy]

I still don't understand why there are people who DON'T recommend this book. It's by far the best and easiest way to learn kanji without doubt: buy it today.

To be completely biased I'm with you on this one-- but I'm one of the Heisig success stories. After long ago completing the first book, I've now found myself working my way towards literacy in Mandarin-- to me that seems proof enough that the method is effective. I think the main resistance comes from a few groups:

1) Those who resist mnemonics-- under the impression that it's not "real learning" and they're filling their heads with useless information. Memory studies have pretty well proven that the more connections, the better-- however illogical that may seem at first.

2) Those who don't want to suffer through more than 2,000 characters without learning a single word of Japanese. Results don't really show up until you near the end, so it takes a great deal of faith and patience.

3) Those who think it's easy. Let's face it, the method helps, but it's never easy. Heisig states this explicitly in his introduction.

So yeah, those approaching kanji should at least give the books a good looking-at before they try to dismiss them.

[jonesleonard296534]

I thought Kanji is a japanese writing system? Am i right?


civil war swords

[brad12]

Kanji used by the japanese in invented by the Chinese and adopted by the japanese. Kanji has the meaning that the character carry meaning rather than sound. Kanji were drawn originally as a picture from nature.

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