4 Ways For You To Master Kanji Faster

For most people who are suffering the pain of memorizing Kanji, the amount of characters is terrifying and makes you feel desperate for any shortcuts you can find.  I’m not going to sugar-coat it, memorizing all 1945 of these little buggers is going to take some work.  In the whole process of learning Japanese, memorizing Kanji may be the most difficult aspect.  But here I will show you some tips which will hopefully make things at least a little easier so that you can hold your own next time you pick up a Japanese newspaper.

Tactic #1: Forget about the conventional sequence of study

What you should do first is to learn the first 100 to 200 Kanji which are used most and begin your journey.  But then, step right in front of the ones which are difficult, even if they seldom show up, as you encounter them in your studying.  When you begin to do this, it will probably not feel easy, but you cut out the part of you that says “Oh that’s a tough Kanji, I’ll wait till later to learn it,” so you will actually end up learning more Kanji faster.

Tactic #2: Let’s get radical!:

In the dictionary, there are 20 or 30 of the 214 radicals that are used more commonly than others.  Memorizing them means knowing most of Kanji, or at least being able to see the big picture.  Then, identifying new kanji will not be that hard.  You can sort of figure out what a Kanji means by looking at the radicals.  You can call it chunking, and you will find learning 3-5 radicals takes less effort then memorizing 15 Kanji.  The next thing you should do is just to put the radicals together.

Tactic #3: Dive into the hard things first

This tactic focuses on the written Kanji.  Even if you just started, you should try to set aside time for daily readings in Japanese.  This will help you learn the conventional combinations of Kanji and their everyday uses.  With a little practice you should be able to start picking up things naturally.

Tactic #4: Say what you read:

When you are learning Kanji, you need to focus on three things: recognizing the figure, understanding what it means, and saying it correctly.  Reading aloud when you can helps a lot. Reading Kanji aloud is a great way to kill three birds (learning structure/shape, meaning, and sound) with one, big, noisy stone.

Kanji learning is tough, but you can manage it with some determination.  The tips given in this article will make your learning easier.

If you liked this article and want to apply these tips for Kanji, check out Learn Kanji and Japanese Kanji Guide