Just the other day I was looking through Instagram and saw a post about how people struggle climbing a huge mountain to learn Hiragana, then another mountain to learn Katakana. Only then to realise those mountains were all mini compared to the giant Kanji mountain. As part of the post, the little character was all depressed and angry at the Kanji mountain.
But that is all wrong! As soon as I saw the post I thought not again!
The wrong information is being given out about learning Japanese! Learning Japanese is not hard, it’s just different. The problem is we keep looking at Japanese with a foreign mindset! Japanese is from Japan, so we need to look at it from a Japanese mindset.
Hiragana is not hard, there are many learning hacks you can do to overcome it! The same goes for Katakana.
As for Kanji, it is quite simple. The problem is most people approach learning Kanji as a 60,000, or just over 2000 regularly used character activity that needs to be done perfectly and all at once. But the truth is, you need to see Kanji as one character at a time. Each character is just an image, a picture that has a meaning attached to it. Kanji is not hard it is just usually taught wrong!
I remember in University the teacher writing up on the whiteboard the characters that need to be remembered and then asked the students to practice writing them over and over again.
This is not only a bad way to learn Kanji it is super boring!
Would you like to know 3 Kanji learning tricks? Here are 3 tricks I use all the time to learn Kanji.
Trick 1
When learning a new Kanji, take the time to learn what it means. Find 2-3 words that also use that kanji and find what they mean. (I recommend you use a Japanese children’s kokugo dictionary for this)
Trick 2
Pull your kanji apart. Separate the different parts or Bushu and make sure you know what each part means.
Trick 3
Turn your kanji into a coloured picture. Be creative, and try and attach the meaning to the picture.
Once you do this you will find learning new kanji takes a bit longer, but a lot more fun and over time you will not only learn kanji quicker, but you will remember them longer!
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