i finally went over and gave up the romanji completely, it really does make my lessons so much easier that i have to kick myself for not just sitting there and putting more time into learning the characters sooner, but now i find myself really thirsting for the kanji study that i was always putting off
i remember being recommended a website, i don’t think that they had an app at the time, but it actually went through and pointed out connections in the pictogram aspect of the kanji to build off of which made things a lot more interactive and memorable for me than some of the apps that i’ve been trying out recently that all seem pretty “memorize these flashcards” and i sit there feeling like dennis on that family feud ep of always sunny and it’s like, they’re stealing my thirst and i just want to feel good learning kanji again like i did that time, does anyone know what site i’m talking about? or any apps that actually try and teach you before just endlessly quizzing you?
ty in advance for sharing your knowledge, or if there is another community that you’d recommend that i crosspost, feel welcome in sharing, ty
I honestly can’t imagine that approach taking you very far. Most kanji are very abstract and I’d be surprised if you wouldn’t sooner memorise 2000 of them as they are than 2000 mnemonics that are effectively more abstractions.
Just don’t try to memorise individual kanji with no context.
Bad flashcard: 日 （ニチ ジツ ひ び か） day, sun, Japan, counter for days
Good flashcards:
日 ひ day
日記 にっき diary, journal
日本 にほん Japan
日曜日 にちようび Sunday
本日 ほんじつ this day/today
日焼け ひやけ sunburn
Basically, learn words, not kanji. You’ll actually recognise words in the wild much faster this way, making the whole process more enjoyable.
Edit: oh and you should write them. Don’t just look at the card, write the kanji, over and over, while repeating the reading and meaning in your head. It really helps retention.
This is good advice but I wouldn’t learn individual words on their own since learning the words in context should be more effective. Even better if the context sentence is meaningful to the learner somehow.
This also requires work and isn’t just an app you can just download.
There is migaku a paid app that streamlines creating flash cards from sentences in YT and other videos. With ability to record audio + screenshots from relevant stuff that you watched.
I don’t use it but I heard good stuff about it.
You do need a basic level of vocabulary to do that, though.
I do agree that complete sentences are even better but I don’t think it’s going to be much help to someone who’s just stopped using romaji. They need to build a repertoire of basic words and understanding of Japanese sentence structure first - これは猫です doesn’t seem more helpful than just 猫.
Also, this may be me yelling at kids to get off my lawn, but I think creating your own flashcards is preferable to premade ones for the immediate effect on your memory.
True. I kinda took OP as someone who has studied for some time already but yeah it very much depends on the level of the said learner.
NEVER! You can’t make me put in the effort! /s Seriously though I pretty much needed the ready made solutions to get pushed over the edge and I totally get why people might want that. Making your own cards is most likely much better option but that would’ve taken effort that I couldn’t spare myself when I started.
We didn’t have those newfangled upps and and DeppLs and whatever the kids are using, back when I started. We used handwritten paper flashcards and clunky monolingual electronic dictionaries and we liked it! (Disclaimer: No we didn’t, I would’ve killed for something like Anki on my phone lol)