Although I have been learning Japanese for about 3 years now, I have trouble remembering Kanji(minus the basic ones like 一, 二, 三, etc.) do y'all have any tips?
Biggest thing is exposure. If you don't see kanji regularly, you will forget them. Read as much as you can (graded readers, manga, NHK Easy, whatever's at your level) so the kanji keep showing up in context. That repetition does way more than isolated memorisation.
Writing's great, but only if you actually enjoy it.
In terms of SRS, I think it's good to add 2-3 words per new kanji you learn. For example—let's say you learn 短, you'd then add 短い, 短時間, and 短気.
Something else that might help is coming up with your own mnemonics ("Add a mnemonic" in the dictionary). In the process you also end up learning about radicals and parts.
Buy a white board, and draw them over and over. Then, by memory, draw as many as you can while knowing the meaning of the Kanji (Like: 猫, ねこ, cat). You can also try to write words that include the kanji, like 疲れる (つかれる) if that helps, up to you really.
In addition to what has been said before, I think it's useful to have 2 ways to study kanji (and even words): - One where you go for quantity - One where go for quality
For the first one, I don't really put that much effort and just try to remember what I can. And for the second, I do additional to help me to memorize difficult kanji or kanji that I need.
For example, when I start to study new kanji, I try to learn them quickly while also studying a lot of words that contains those kanji. And I don't bother if I don't remember them perfectly or not. I usually learn 1 words per reading first. And after that, I learn random words until I feel confident on the reading and meaning of those kanji. Also, I don't try to remember the words and just use the kanji -> kana and kana->kanji vectors only. Usually, most of those words become part of my "passive vocabulary" (aka words that I can read and understand but not recall). For the meaning, once I get used to the kanji, I can also guess or remember the meaning of most words with a quick look. It's just that I can't recall them freely.
For the second part, when I encounter those kanji again in renshuu or while immersing myself in japanese and I realize that I forgot the kanji, I do something addional to correct that. Like writing the kanji, studying more words or even simply take a look at the dictionary. It mainly depends how much I "need" that kanji or how I struggle with it in the past. It's also sometimes just because I want to understand that kanji on a whim.
Basically, the first step is just "Go for the easy one, ignore the difficult one and try to learn as much as possible and as fast as possible". Second step, "get ride of the problematic one and have fun trying to understand more details or just learning them more in context".
How you want to do that, however, is up to you. Writing, for example, is a really good method to memorize kanji or words in general and I really believe it's one of the best method to do that but I don't write that much. I tried multiple time to include that in my daily routine but it just don't fit (and make me burn out when I try). Why? Well, I focus heavily on listening and speaking too. And I have too much to do to include writing in my daily routine. And it still works.
Just keep in mind that:
1) You can't remember everything perfectly and you also don't need too (see "passive vocabulary" vs "active vocabulary" if you want to know more) 2) Not every kanji are as useful or easy to remember. If you struggle too much, it's fine to block them (renshuu will remember every blocked kanji and you can take your time later to focus on them). At the same time, there are also kanji or words, that are easier to memorize. For example, if you like fantasy and anime, you may remember easily some rare kanji just because it appear in something you like. Make use of that, it can really speed up your learning process!
Ah and also, I tried multiple before finding a good balance. I talked a lot here but it did take me a lot of trial and error. I try every tips here until I found the one that were the most useful for me. Anyway, have fun finding the best method for you! 頑張ってね～
