Any relations among different Kanji groups?

[lillo80]

皆さん、こんにちは！

We all heard about several different "official" or pseudo-official ways to group kanji. I am referring in particular to three ways of dividing kanji. which are:
(1) by JLPT level;
(2) by school grade (教育漢字);
(3) by kanken level.

My question is the following: are there any relations among these groups?
It is well known, for example, that JLPT level 1 kanji are (almost) all 常用漢字.
In particular, are the JPLT level 2 kanji the same as 教育漢字 from grade 1 to grade 6?

ありがとうございます
--Gabriele

[Belton]

Well, school grade and kanken overlap completely until you go beyond the school system at Level 2 and 1 of kanken.

JLPT doesn't really line up with the school system except in broad terms.
Quickly checking JLPT 2 shows that there a number of kanji from grades above 6
Grade 1 has 57 JLPT4 15 JLPT3 kanji and 8 other
Grade 2 has 43 JLPT4 73 JLPT3 and 44 other
Grade 3 has 3 JLPT4, 67 JLPT3 and 130 other
the other JLPT3 kanji are across Grades 4 (20) 5 (2) and 6 (3)
surprisingly 私 is in Grade 6
The people setting the syllabus obviously consider some kanji of more importance to adult learners.
The JLPT levels are far too broad anyhow (IMO) The school system is a better division and opens up Japanese resources to you if you decide to follow that order. Kanken books, DS games, schoolbooks etc.

[lillo80]

Beltonさん,

thanks for your reply. I was kind of hoping that my DS gamesofts would help me review kanji and compounds for the JLPT2. It looks like they can be actually useful to a great extent, but it's good to be aware that there's more.

Thanks!
--Gabriele

[Belton]

Gabrielle-san,

I started following the grade school order as a way to break down the JLPT2 set into more manageable chunks. And I hope to do kanken as an interim test. I reckon that after I finish the 1006 kanji from grade 1 to 6 the missing ones shouldn't be too hard to mop up.
I know the overlap on JLPT3 and 4 because I've done them, but I haven't completed my flash cards for JLPT2 and the breakdown into school grades. (Some day I'll manage to import existing kanji data from kanjidic into a database where it can be more easily manipulated and searched. )

Another plus is I can use my DS. No JLPT software on DS! But I use Kakitorikun everyday.

[lillo80]

Beltonさん,

I'm also using Kakitorikun and I love it!!
I also use ２５０万人の漢検, and that's awesome too,
but really really hard!! I can only pass level 9 on that one!

On top of that, I'm using the White Rabbit Press Kanji Flashcards,
and with them you can't go wrong, when you've gone through the
whole box you're done!!

Did you also try the Kakitorikun expansion?

--Gabriele

[Belton]

I have the kakitorikun extension but I much prefer the original.
Version 2 is just a bit too advanced, as it's aimed at high school students I think.
It may well be using similar vocabulary but it feels more difficult somehow. The interface is a little better, but not enough to make me want to use it yet. You get a little more feedback on your handwriting as well, much more like ＤＳ美文字トレーニング

I also have 250万人の漢検　except it's the older 200万　bought in BookOff! That's hard too. Again maybe because of the target audience.

Another one I have and really liked is なぞっておぼえる大人の漢字練習完全版
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/software/yokj/index.html
Aimed at adults though so the vocabulary is difficult. I don't use it as much since I bought Kakitorikun.

ＤＳ美文字トレーニング
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/avmj/index.html
is also good. It's not teaching you kanji as such, it's teaching you how to write them correctly. Much stricter than Kakitorikun.

All in all Kakitorikun v1 is my favourite. Grade school is just about my level really.
I wonder if the publisher could be convinced to do an English edition. Just add keyword and shukugo translations to the dictionary section. Or just adding the ability to annotate an entry would be enough.

I prefer electronics to paper, now that iFlash has come out for the iPod Touch I could see myself buying one soon. I have tuttle flash cards but I never use them now.