Having trouble on where to begin

[tylercole]

Hello Everyone,

I am having quite a bit of difficulty on where to begin. I have read the guide on where to begin. Initially, I decided on the newbie series, but then I read somewhere that the beginner series was better. So I started with beginner Season 1. I learned all of the vocabulary and everything, and then I realized that I had to memorize 16 kanji. Or at least all of the lesson notes include kanji, and there are premium quizzes to test kanji knowledge, so I believed it was fairly safe to assume that I had to memorize those kanji.

After speaking with someone who lived in Japan, and who is helping me every step of the way, he said a beginner should not learn kanji, as it is very difficult to understand with all of the multiple meanings and everything. I tend to agree with him, because the beginner series does not even talk about kanji at all in the notes, and yet, in the vocabulary and everything it uses kanji.

So I am at a loss on where I should begin? And should I keep with the beginner series and learn kanji at each lesson?

Please help!

Thanks!

[salivia_baker]

I had the same problem but then I decided to not learn the kanji yet but stay with the kana for now.
I listen to the newbie, beginner and survival phrases lessons but leave out the kanji for now. So when I have some basic knowledge (and my kana is perfect) I can move onwards to kanji.

I hope that helps

[JohnFrost]

The thing is, it seems pretty impossible to read anything in Japanese without learning the Kanji; and I would think it's pretty essential to learn to read and listen/speak at the same time.

But it seems more than overwhelming just to remember the hiragana and katakana when they mean the same thing... much less deal with the On and Kun meanings of each Kanji!

Any advice from advanced learners/native speakers?

[Jessi]

I think Salivia is on the right track - you should have hiragana and katakana down completely before you start with kanji. When you do start kanji, though, don't feel as if you have to master every kanji that shows up in the lesson notes and kanji close-up - that would be too heavy of a load. When you're ready to start learning kanji, I'd start with the simple ones and work your way up (you can check out our kanji videos on Youtube as well as the JLPT level 4 kanji flashcards in the Learning Center).

You might also want to try listening to the Newbie series called Nihongo Dojo - this series was popular among students new to Japanese

[untmdsprt]

I also recommend to learn all the hiragana and katakana first. Next build up your vocabulary before even thinking about starting kanji. You'll be a lot better off with a large vocabulary than a small one with kanji.

Once you're comfortable with your vocabulary, start learning the kanji for what you already know. If you are taking the JLPT, concentrate on the kanji associated with your level.

BTW, it doesn't hurt for beginners to start learning everything. If you know たべる backwards and forwards then go ahead and learn it's kanji.

[Taurus]

I guess I'll be the token Heisig guy again then!

As the other posters in this thread have pointed out, there are many approaches you can take with kanji. The approach that I would recommend is one devised by a guy called Heisig, who wrote a book called remembering the kanji. It's a system that uses various mnemonics and re-orders the kanji to make learning them easier. But! you will not learn any of the readings. And! he recommends that you learn the most common 2000 kanji before starting to study Japanese. Then, when you start learning Japanese, when you learn the words, you just learn to spell them using the kanji. So instead of learning that the word for power is pronounced 'chikara', and then later learning that the word 'chikara' is represented by the kanji 力 when you get round to learning that kanji, you just learn that the word for 'power' is 力. And by doing so, you'll be able to start immersing yourself in real, written Japanese far more quickly than you otherwise would.

But the Heisig system is a little bit controversial, and not everybody likes it. I didn't follow it strictly - I didn't use it to learn all the kanji before learning a bit of Japanese. But now that I more or less know all of those 2000 or so kanji, it has accelerated my learning a lot. For that reason, I disagree with the following statement:

You'll be a lot better off with a large vocabulary than a small one with kanji.

Because if you understand a lot of kanji, then you can increase your vocabulary much quicker than if you don't understand a lot of kanji.

But like I say, it is controversial, and really you should just use whatever techniques work for you.

[onepiece]

Allow me to share my experience.

I learned hiragana and katakana and kanji at the same time but I put more effort on remembering hiragana and katakana first. We tried to remember 5-10 very basic kanji everyday like 私、食、飲、歩　and so on. I feel it is much more easier to remember vocabulary. It's like using both left and right brain. No need to remember every sound of the kanji at this level. You will see the same kanji again with different sound in next level. At that level, just update what's in your memory.

But one thing that I would like to advice about learning kanji is to take out some paper and a pencil and keep on writing the same kanji again and again and again. Remember the stroke. Keep on writing anywhere even if you don't have paper and pencil. I still remember writing kanji on the air while walking, eating etc. People keep asking me "what are you doing? what are you pointing at?" LOL.

It's not a good thing to learn kanji with computer or digital dictionary.At least for me. Now I realized I forgot most of the kanji when I spend more time on computer. Even though I can read them, I can't write it down anymore. Maybe because it is too easy? Just type in hiragana and choose the right kanji. Anyone having the same problem?

I didn't use the flash card system. My sensei always say to me ”頭だけじゃない、体で覚えてください”

Sorry for my bad english but I really hope you get what I'm trying to say. 頑張ってね