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Author Topic: Understanding kanji  (Read 22021 times)

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Offline motoh

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Understanding kanji
« on: November 08, 2007, 03:26:26 AM »
I was wondering if anyone had a good resource to actually understanding kanji, not just writing or pronouncing it.  I can't learn it very well through rote memorization, I tend to prefer knowing the meanings and structures.

~M

Offline Lokanas

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2007, 09:12:29 AM »
"A Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese" is a very good resource when you're just starting out. It gives you the stroke order, different readings, meanings of the kanji, and example words. It only teaches you the essentials, though, so if you want to learn more, an actual kanji dictionary will probably be what you want.
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Offline Soniti

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2007, 02:25:42 AM »
If you are OK with just learning the meanings of kanji in an amazingly easy way (you pick ways to remember them, via pictographs or meanings of the parts of the kanji), then http://kanji.koohii.com/ is great. It's free to sign up for and helps you study and review and stuff.

Offline motoh

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2007, 02:46:33 AM »
Sweet.  Here, have some magic circuits.  ^^

~M

Offline Tropsy

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2007, 02:21:53 PM »
Wakan is all I use, and I will (hopefully) soon be done with all jouyou kanji...

Just memorize them by radicals (e.g. remember 語 as 言 五 口 rather than as a random collection of lines), learn some of the most common compounds for each kanji (no point memorizing 季 by itself -- but 季節 is a common word), and make sure you can actually handwrite them without looking 5 minutes later (even if you never plan to actually handwrite -- just imagine how questionable your grasp of the English alphabet would be if you needed a computer to remember how to write an 'A'... it does wonders for long term memorization, too)

(Disclaimer: there are a bunch of errors in the stroke orders given by Wakan. If in doubt, double-check with WWWJDIC, which, as far as I know, has them 100% correct. I also kept a .txt of all the errors I noticed until I got good enough at stroke order to stop checking it most of the time, so ask me for it if you're interested)

Offline motoh

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2007, 08:06:03 PM »
Absolutely awesome.  Thank you, Tropsy!

~M

Offline Rocky

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2008, 02:08:08 PM »
Any tips in memorizing the Kana?

Thank you for links on Kanji.

Offline Lokanas

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2008, 11:00:13 PM »
Practice over and over. Say the kana out loud when writing it. It's best to exercise as many of the senses as possible when learning a new language.
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Offline solshido

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2008, 01:59:15 AM »
Practice over and over. Say the kana out loud when writing it. It's best to exercise as many of the senses as possible when learning a new language.

私は再三再四開業します、しかし、あちこちでまだ間違った時制というシンボル〔記号〕及び他の物のようなある間違いをします.  :V  :V :prinny:

Offline ocean

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2008, 11:46:30 PM »
Any tips in memorizing the Kana?

Thank you for links on Kanji.

Wow!  Great thread!  I'm in the 2nd semester of Japanese and after taking a year off from the language I have to say Kanji, Kana, etc. it's all use it or lose it.   Sure somethings come back but I think if you can find something you enjoy where you can actually practice using your Japanese often, that's the best way to learn.  I started a Mixi account just to try to write journal entries at least a couple times a week to help w/ my Japanese outside of class.
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Offline kinta

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2008, 04:58:53 AM »
Japanease includes Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana.
Though the number of the Kanji is a few thousands. Hiragana and Katakana are about 50 respectively.
Hiragana and Katakana are phonography that are made of transforming the Kanji.
あ=a い=i う=u え=e お=o
か=ka き=ki く=ku け=ke こ=ko
さ=sa し=shi す=su せ=se そ=so
た=ta ち=chi つ=tsu て=te と=to
な=na に=ni ぬ=nu ね=ne の=no
は=ha ひ=hi ふ=fu へ=he ほ=ho
ま=ma み=mi む=mu め=me も=mo
や=ya ゆ=yu よ=yo
わ=wa ゐ=wi ゑ=we
ん=n

Neither "ゐ" nor "ゑ" is used among these.

Offline kinta

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #11 on: November 24, 2008, 03:47:12 AM »
The pronunciation of Kanjis have "呉音" which were transmitted from China to Japan in ancient times, and "漢音" which got across to Japan after diplomatic relations were established between China and Japan, and  "唐音" which got across to Japan in tha Chinease "宗" era ,"明" era, and  "清" era, and "訓読み" which applied the pronunciation of the language Japan had from ancient times at it to the Kanji.
Therefore even if it is the same Kanji, there is various pronounciation.

<example>
明 = myou ... 呉音
明 = mei ... 漢音
明 = min ... 唐音
明 = ake ... 訓読み

Offline kinta

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Re: Understanding kanji
« Reply #12 on: November 25, 2008, 03:50:37 AM »
Practice over and over. Say the kana out loud when writing it. It's best to exercise as many of the senses as possible when learning a new language.

Hello, Lokodorollypo!!
I hate to syay, But your Japanease transration is a littele wrong...

<Transration>
 何度も練習してください。それを書く場合かなを声に出して言ってください。新しい言語を学習する場合できるだけ多くの感覚を用いることが最も良い方法です。