掲示板 Forums - How do you study Kanji?

personally, I don't do any one thing 'first,' it's more of an all-in-one. I don't worry too much about learning the stroke order/number, because once you get the hang of learning kanji, the strokes pretty much fall into place (with a few exceptions), but I guess I learn a kanji by its parts (radical and non), which can relate to the readings and meanings (for example, kanji with 韋 generally have the onyomi イ, so if I see, for example, 緯, I can look at it and say 'ok it's got to have the reading イ, and it's got the 糸 radical so it should have something to do with string or connections etc, and it's 6 + 10 strokes' and then figure out the parts I don't know from there), but I'm not consciously putting one aspect of a kanji first when I learn. Does that make any sense at all?

I'm like mysticfive-I do the all-in-one approach. I study the radicals and primitives, and make up my own phrases for the definition. It's kind of like RTK, but it's personalized, so I retain it better. I also think about the radical/on relation, but I pay attention to when a primitive supplies the on, as in 語(go to zhongwen.com for an interesting explanation of why 5 belongs here-and why two is the radical for 5). If the okurigana can hint at the kun, I'll latch onto that. Then, I study the kanji in vocabulary (if you don't know 練習 by now, something's wrong); I try to think of memorable phrases from reading, songs, and yes, anime, where the kanji's vocabulary is used. I also write them, thinking about the radicals and primitives as I do. The motor activity helps with retention. Stroke count is the least concern. Rinse and repeat.

I study kanji by kentei group. I'm studying 1 or 2 new kanji a day, sometimes more. I first dissect the components of the kanji and make a kanji story (you can find the 600 or so I've done up to now here: [url]http://rtega.be/chmn/[/url]). I start studying the relevant kentei vocabulary at the same time while studying the kanji in renshuu.org. This seems to work very well.

I learn by vocabulary. I tried various methods e.g. learning by radicals, readings, stroke count and what else there is but nothing genuinely helped. I just remember the words seperately and if I happen to see the same Kanji used in a different word, I can say "oh, I know this one from that other word, maybe the reading is the same here as well". If it is, awesome, if not, new reading learned. i.e. I couldn't tell the the seperate readings of 未確認 unless I looked it up. Only as a whole I remember it as "mikakunin" but after seeing how they are made up, I can fall back to that word and if I were to see another word using for example 確, I can instantly tell "kaku". Kanji is unique in that even if you don't know their reading, you can remember them "graphically" and instantly recall the readings of whole words if you see them.

Tricky question, and not easily answered. I tend to learn vocab, when I can. If I practise the kanji strokes to the point of being able to write it without a hitch, great. But for the most part, it takes a lot of use and a lot of writing to remember the correct strokes. I have trouble with the finer details: remembering whether it's one radical or another, very similar radical, in any given part of the kanji. There are a lot of these instances (初 vs 社 - the left-hand radical; 矢 vs 失 - stick at the top or not, and both are used in a number of kanji). However, sometimes because you have to check so many times whether it is one or the other, you finally click and can recall a particular kanji perfectly. Sometimes it is the exceptions that make it stick. As for readings, well, it really depends. I tend to stick with the rule that more often than not, if it doesn't have おくりがな, it uses the 音 reading. This isn't always the case, and sometimes you can't even remember whether one is 訓 or 音. I don't think it's that big a deal some of the time, so long as you practise seeing the kanji in different contexts and with different combinations -- something I don't do nearly often enough. I often rely on my keitai dictionary and can search using a "key word". So I just use a word I know to find a kanji, then check how it is pronounced when it is with other kanji. I seldom remember alternative readings or both 音 and 訓, but sometimes (after a lot of repeat looking up, usually), I will be able to guess the reading of a kanji combination -- or at least the parts I know. I like plant and animal kanji. I find it fascinating to try and learn words that are not usually written using kanji. Take 薔薇 (バラ), for example. Very few Japanese people can write it (though all adults can read it). For some strange reason, I remember every single stroke as if they are etched in my mind. The same is true for a handful of insects and animals, such as 蜘蛛 (クモ), 麒麟 (キリン), and 鰤 (ブリ). I have no idea why I recall how to write them, but I guess it goes to show that when you are fascinated enough, your brain goes to the extra effort of affixing it in a more solid place of memory. If only it would work for the 常用漢字! Actually, I've been trying to go through the school grade kanji. I work at a school and my interaction focuses mainly on the 4th grade. I have had a very hard time trying to learn 4th grade kanji with their combinations and 音 and 訓 readings. I don't even know most of the 3rd grade kanji yet! But every time I write either the kanji or the reading for a word, I am getting one step closer to actually knowing it. I guess you could say that without formal study, the study of kanji is very バラバラ*. ;) (*Nothing to do with roses... just being poetic through phonemic association)

out of curiosity, why don't you study the おんよみ／くんよみ readings as such? to me knowing which is which makes things much easier

I think you may find knowing reading types more helpful as you learn more words... as you said, 手 is read as しゅ in those compounds, but what about 手紙 or 切手 or 人手? Actually, compounds tend to use readings of the same type (e.g. all kunyomi or all onyomi - and even then there are some exceptions.) As you said, there are more on/on words than kun/kun words, but it's good to be aware of both options! I don't think mysticfive was suggesting that you should learn readings independently of words; it's just helpful to be aware of which is which.