How to start learning kanji

[akaritan]

I have no idea, and in all honesty the idea is really intimidating ... How did you guys start? How would you recommend doing it?

[Zodai]

Tae Kim is the basic thing I use, along with text hooking.  http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/

 

In order to get stuff like context and how pieces fit together you need a general grasp of stuff like grammar for it to make sense.  So read through as much of Tae Kim as you can.  After going through it a few times, try picking up an untranslated VN and going through the hooking process.  There's full guides on here somewhere, but basically it grabs the text from the game and puts it through a dictionary translator of sorts to help you figure out the meaning.  From there you'll be able to start recognizing some along the way while you read.

 

I've been focusing on my writing so I haven't been able to do full-on for this, but once you manage to figure out basic grammar it should be easier to figure out meanings through context.  Once you start getting some experience it can be easier to jump into more kanji-specific or concentrated methods.  Using the language in and of itself is the most efficient method alongside memorization rather than memorization exclusively.

[akaritan]

3 minutes ago, Asonn said:

Just do it, I would recommend doing the following courses on memrise. Tip: you should download Tampermonkey and add a script to disable the time limit: 

http://www.memrise.com/course/256797/japanese-kanji-by-grade-on-kun-readings-too/

http://www.memrise.com/course/122927/jlpt-n5-readings/

The script you should add for Tampermonkey if you decide to use it:

 

Hidden Content

 

Okay, I'll start working on learning these right away. Thank you so much.

2 minutes ago, Zodai said:

Tae Kim is the basic thing I use, along with text hooking.  http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/

 

In order to get stuff like context and how pieces fit together you need a general grasp of stuff like grammar for it to make sense.  So read through as much of Tae Kim as you can.  After going through it a few times, try picking up an untranslated VN and going through the hooking process.  There's full guides on here somewhere, but basically it grabs the text from the game and puts it through a dictionary translator of sorts to help you figure out the meaning.  From there you'll be able to start recognizing some along the way while you read.

 

I've been focusing on my writing so I haven't been able to do full-on for this, but once you manage to figure out basic grammar it should be easier to figure out meanings through context.  Once you start getting some experience it can be easier to jump into more kanji-specific or concentrated methods.  Using the language in and of itself is the most efficient method alongside memorization rather than memorization exclusively.

Would you say that multiple rereads are necessary, or would reading VNs after one and getting the hang of it that way be enough?

[Zodai]

1 minute ago, akaritan said:

Okay, I'll start working on learning these right away. Thank you so much.

Would you say that multiple rereads are necessary, or would reading VNs after one and getting the hang of it that way be enough?

Reading Tae Kim multiple times is probably useful since that way you can cement all the nuances well.  It's likely someone will miss a detail on their first reading.

 

I'd say go through the whole thing twice, then go onto a VN.  After that read it once a week or so along with the VN until you get a bit more in there if you're serious about getting this down.

[Clephas]

I'd focus on the radicals and common ones first.  Simply playing through the average charage VN will give you a good idea of what the most common kanji are, due to the large amount of conversations.  Knowing the radicals, common kanji, and the 'basic' types makes it easier to figure out the more complex ones without needing to resort to a dictionary every time, because a lot of the more complex kanji are combinations of simpler ones and radicals.

 

[Kanbe]

Beat your head with a kanji dic ez