I'm not familiar with kanji I really don't even know how to speak Japanese so I idk what advice to give but I have some small ideas for your channel #1 asmr vids #2Food reviews #3Japanese gaming
@@mysteriousgaming1241 100% respect, bro. Comments like these are gold, whether you speak Japanese or write kanji. Thank you so much for sharing! These are all ideas worth looking into :D I haven't owned a gaming system in many years and had this weird itch to get a PS4 after Kingdom Hearts and the Resident Evil remake got released here in Tokyo.
Have you tried the Kanji Tree app? I highly recommend it. I already can recognize the meaning of around 70 basic (elementary school level) kanji thanks to it in less than 3 weeks (although I'm sure I would know much more kanji if I used it for more than like 10 minutes a day lol). It doesn't use a mnemonic method but I still enjoy it! I would like to hear your thoughts on it!
It really feels like you're the only person who has reviewed this underrated kanji guide. It along with the Kanji Study app are indispensable to me. :)
KKLC is hands-down the best resource ever created for learning Kanji, but it's an all-or-nothing endeavour as it's optimized to learn for real, not a small subset aimed at JLPT. Who cares if 誰 is the 2155th? You have to study all of them anyways, and it's wonderful. I don't know if you read the full preface, but it explicitly says it's made to be a start-to-finish course even if you have previous experience, as it introduces mnemonic relationships and things that are used cummulatively throughout the book. It's an extremely important point that your review lacked/misunderstood. It sure is great to look up things randomly, but it truly shines when studied the way it's meant to, although it's true that you need to be very disciplined. Thanks to quarantine I studied it religiously from start to finish every single day for approximately 90 days at the fastest pace my mind allowed without getting exhausted (exhaustion will only hurt your learning rate and throw to waste those precious study hours), doing 28 new ones every day from monday to saturday, self-testing and reviewing the previous day ones before moving on to the new, and leaving sundays for full-week review with wonderful results. I kept a steady retention rate of about 95% until about 1300, then it dropped to ~70%, then came up again to the high 90's in the last 2 weeks when I discovered the truly optimal way for me (I wish I had realized since the beginning, but better late than never), and finally, after finishing this first round and doing a full-book review, I found myself forgetting about 350 out of the 2300 (~85%). So I made a new program including those sneaky bastards to review them and finally master the whole 2300 in the book, and man the reviews are a lot easier than seeing them for the first time, so in just two weeks or so I'll be done. Why am I telling this? It's not to brag (not gonna deny I'm proud of it tho :P), but to be a testimony of it being totally possible, I've been studying Japanese for over 10 years and had never surpassed the ~500 Kanji mark, feeling mediocre and miserable. The order and method is unbelievably important, and this book's is unparalleled, the masterful order and mnemonics literally changed my life, I went from below average to soon-to-be truly japanese-highschooler-level-literate (sorry for the farfetched composites, my English isn't very good so I didn't find a better way to say it lol) in just 3 months. If that's not skyrocketting and proof of effectiveness I don't know what is. If I can do it, so can you, keep it up everyone!!
@@angelosantos7061 I tried at one point some years ago, but dropped it in like a week hahah. I'm more of a kinestesic learner, so what works best for me is illustrating the mnemonics (literally drawing) while focusing on key components, then merging them and writing the character a few times. I failed miserably on trying to be brief, but this is essentially how I studied the book (I've been thinking of making a video on it, let me know if you think that would be useful for other students :P), which actually has some minor things incorporated from the SRS theory: -First, the planning: I elaborated a detailed calendar with every character to be studied each day. So I decided how many new ones I was gonna be studying per day. I wanted fast results and had a lot of time so went with 28 (also it was easy to make a 4x8 grid on each sheet of paper hahah, one row for the day number and date, every other cell for one character), and copied every single one of them on their intended place. No reading the mnemonics, no stopping too much, maybe giving a glance to the keyword, but essentially just copying every single one of them, in order to get the "oh, i've seen this before" feeling when arriving to them. It was also to materialize and visualize in a condensed place what my daily goal was. Studying every day is essential, so we better put realistic goals to which we can stick religiously. Actually studying every day is the hardest part. It doesn't matter if it's not too much, but you gotta do it every day, 12 a day is a very reasonable quantity and if you stick to your plan you'll be done in less than a year. I personally set monday to saturday for new characters, and left sundays for weekly review to revisit evey character of the week, with no new ones. -Second, the execution How did I actually study? Well, I used two main resources besides the book: a notebook, every line of each left page was for practicing the writing of every character (one per line, so you can write it multiple times), while the right page was to write useful vocabulary and notes regarding each character on the corresponding line, and a sheet of paper for every day. As I mentioned, I'm a kinestesic learner, so actually writing the characters is essential for me. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different methods to study the book, but I'll explain what ultimately turned out best. Following the excellent advice from this video th-cam.com/video/nqYmmZKY4sA/w-d-xo.html about absorbing information efficently, I first looked at the day's plan and laid out all the characters to be studied that day on a blank sheet, grouping them by similar components, there are many characters that differ on just one part, so I made sure to pay special attention to it. For example, most of the kanji associated to body parts have 月 on the left, and are defined by their right part (蔵 、干、市 、旦 、泉 , etc etc), so the left part comes for free, and you only have to learn the right part, which also comes for free because by the time 臓、肝、肺、胆、腺、and so appear, you'll have already studied the right parts on their own too, so you just have to remember the combinations which are effectively illustrated by the mnemonics. Well, after the day's base is laid out, there comes the focused study. I first looked at the character, paying attention to all its components and details, then read the keywords, then attentively read the mnemonics, then tried to draw in the mentioned sheet of paper an illustration for said mnemonic, then write the character on the notebook a few times, then read the example vocabulary and took note of one or two words on the notebook. It's good to take your time to digest and visualize everything before repeating the process with all the characters of that day. It's extremely important to be 1000% focused during this stage, read and write every component, every word with total consciousness, as it will lead to much more durable learning, if you get exhausted and enter auto-pilot mode it's gonna be a huge waste of time. Experiment and see what's your maximum concentration span and take some short breaks. If you feel the daily goal is too much, then redo the planning with a lower daily count. Every day, before the main study, I would do a quick review the previous day's calendar page and check which ones I still remembered and which ones I didn't. After that, I would write them once or twice and revisit the ones I didn't remember before moving on to the new ones. Third, the review: This process lead to the high retention rate I mentioned in the original comment, but this is just the first run, so it's very hard to not forget anything, so every few hundreds, I documented every forgotten character to make a new plan including them for special emphasis on this second round. You also need to practice reading a lot. At first it's a bit hard because you constantly bump into characters you've not seen before, but you'll eventually see them in the book and the "ooooh so here was this motherfucker!" moment will be even more satisfactory. It's hard to illustrate it using just words, but that's more or less what I did and I couldn't be happier with the results. Hope it helps!
@@angelosantos7061 Hi! I used this book with SRS to study the 2300 kanji from this textbook. It took me about 3 mo as well and I did it at 20 kanji a day. Note however that I had tried on 2 previous occasions to go through this book and gave up before getting to 800 kanji because I was taking Japanese in college and with what I needed to memorize for class I could not complete the book. So when I first restarted for the third and final time I did 50 "new" kanji a day to get reaquainted. Then I brought the number down as I got closer to where I left off until I finally settled on 20/day (probably near the 700 mark). Just like artie1283 said, it takes discipline and planning. The SRS was my way to keep up with all the kanji reviews and since my time was already limited (I'm a parent with kids learning at home, etc) I found the SRS super useful. I tracked my time and once I realized that I could get through it all within 2.5 - 3 hrs I made sure to set up a time when I could complete them and just focused on that till it was done. I used a premade deck for reviews because that saves time. There's one that I used that had the kanji with colored stroke order on the front with useful vocabulary in kanji form and then on the back you could see the readings along with the keyword. I only learned the Keywords. I didn't touch the readings or vocabulary unless I already new a vocab that was listed but didn't know the kanji associated with it. There was also a reverse deck that you can use to try to recall the kanji associated by the keyword but I didn't use that since I just wanted to read, thus I filtered my deck. For my practice I first learned the 20 kanji 10 at a time and wrote them down in a notebook. I practiced writing them from memory using Kanji Study app on Android (this is also how I tracked the kanji I learned) since that would correct me and show me my errors. I then went through my srs. Whenever I forgot a kanji previously learned I would rewrite them in a different colored pen just below the new ones. I only added the following towards the end of my practice (around 1800 kanji): When I was done with my deck I took a short break and then reviewed what kanji I had gotten wrong 2 weeks ago and tested myself to see if I remembered the keyword. The ones I still couldn't remembe I would rewrite on the present days notes with the other kanji (but I would add a separator so that I could tell the difference). I took this idea from the Gold List Method and just applied it here. It only took 5 additional minutes and seemed to help. Other tips: Whenever I could, I would add a sentence that used the kanji I was shown to the front of the card to help me remember the meaning or reading. If there was a card I knew the reading for, especially in a compound but couldn't find a good sample sentence, I would make a notation next to the kanji (*) to alert me to read the vocabulary listed below it. Usually the kanji surround it will give me a clue to it's meaning. If there was a word I new I would surround the kanji with *asterisks* One cool little tool I used was a widget that I kept on my phone that counted down the days till I would finally finish studying kanji. This was really motivating and satisfying upon completion. As you go through the kanji you'll learn kanji for things you'll probably never need and if so it's super rare. On the SRS I noted those kanji (***) so that I knew to look at it, and then move on. If I really need to know it, just from this kanji knowledge I'll be able to learn it if necessary. As for 'leeches' I had them set to tag and made a notation next to the kanji (**). Once it was tagged as a leech whenever it came up I would read it and always pass it. Surprisingly enough I would actually remember some of those after the fact (It either finally clicked or I learned it properly through immersion). I hope this is helpful. Goodluck with your studies!
@@orti1283 Thank you for posting such a detailed description of your practice! It's so nice to see another user of this awesome resource (and completed it!). ^_^ I was wondering how is the reading going for you? Did you try the graded readers for the KLC or just go directly for native text? I find myself hopping around so much just because the world is so open now it's hard to settle lol Was there anything you thought was helpful and a nice transition from learning the kanji and going into reading? Thank you for your time!
@@jahayrac8636 I'm glad you read through it! I got a bit carried away on the description hahah. Reading is going very good! My main reading and writing source has been chatting with japanese friends. I also bought the little prince in japan and was a very good start, then moved on to a Murakami Ryuu's book when I was more advanced. The GRS were very useful since the 1000'th in terms of vocabulary and stuff, but my main resource are normal texts, books and articles :)
I actually completed/ learned all 2300 kanji (in about 3 mo) and I also just learned the keyword first and then learned the readings through immersion. Full disclosure I tried twice and stopped before the 800 mark because I was already studying Japanese in college, plus, with kids I couldn't finish it. But I graduated this year and finally decided to tackle this beautiful beast and get it done. Do I know the readings for all? No. lol but I can "read" text and understand what's going on and then I can look up words to know the meaning and associate the kanji with a reading that way. With more exposure the readings get considerably easier as I differentiate between onyomi and kunyomi readings. I've been going through a frequency word list and it's sooo much easier now than when I first tried and the kanji meant nothing to me. I thought it was awesome when you showed your example. 🙌 I actually had to pause the video and think because I recognized the 2nd kanji but didn't know right away like I did for 海. Then I just remembered that lone character in the middle between the shell and the spear and was like "Oh, 'Bandit!'... 🤔 "sea bandit? ' and then I'm like "duh, a pirate!" 🤣 that's such a great example and find for me. 😁 I love this textbook, it is such a great resource. I think you can take it as course but that depends on how systematic you decide to go through it as it does require some discipline. I did my own thing but the author has an updated guide (2020) on how to use his book on his website: keystojapanese.com/how-to-study/ Thank you for posting your review it was fun and informative. ^_^
That’s incredible! I’m proud of you and I’ve never even met you! I appreciate you watching this and taking the time to share your experience. Thank you 🙏
i've been going through this book at a 75 kanji per day pace (keywords only) because turns out if i have a pretty good visual-spatial memory. highly recommend if you are good at memorizing stuff like this. if you were good at stuff like human anatomy, try this book. there are some absolutely stinkers of mnemomics (of course making up 2300 is not that easy), but its easy enough to make up your own using the author's vocabulary of components, or in the worst case, the characters you have to memorize solely by their composition are rare enough that they stick in your memory. 4 1/2 points, highly recommend the book for a certain kind of learner
I've been at university for Japanese for 2 years now, but I bought this a month ago (along with a Pimsleur subscription) in order to help supplement any gaps I've had in the past tenure of learning. I've found the presentation to be really concise and promising, as well as the combination with the writing book + reading volumes to help me remember some of the vocabulary quite useful. However, my main gripe is definitely a self-inflicted one: I'm not a good self-tutor and I don't know exactly how to study it, even with a clear list of instructions preceding how to study it. I definitely hope to stick with it, as I'm looking to try and get a JLPT N1 grade by 2022, but I'd rather do it right than do it rushed. I think this book will be very decent in that regard.
Assuming covid settles down by this fall, I'll be starting a Japanese language course in a university near me. They:re using the Japanese for Busy People Kana Version for the first class, and then Genki for the second and third class, after which they have an in house materials system they use for real world readings (newspapers, imported books, etc). What kanji learning system would you say would be good for JBP? I've already pretty much got hiragana, and about 50% with katakana, so I'm just trying to get a head start since I:m stuck at home all the time.
Thanks for the review, very useful. Could you compare this book with The kodansha kanji dictionary? I wonder if there's an overlap since both sound like dictionaries...thanks!
This book was actually made to be the course that goes with that dictionary, it's mentioned in the book and i believe each kanji in the course has the reference to the dictionary location for further learning and also to see the definitions since this book focuses mostly on reading and learning the kanji themselves. So yes, the author of the dictionary actually has a section that he wrote in the beggining of this book and this book was written to include info from the dictionary while also still being a sort of course to follow.
@@Xx0ME0xX thanks! I've figured it after reading the intro actually and now I see the difference and the connection between two. There are decks for both Memrise and Anki plus Kanji study app which supports the KKLC order which makes studying with this course much easier, I went with the Memrise decks because it feels more game-like and I'm a casual learner, I'm doing both kanji and vocab simultaneously, I understand that the order might not be optimal of one wants to start reading asap but the progression, the way author connects related kanji together and how he's using the ones which look similar to each other to actually reinforce their memorisation is worth it in my opinion.
Also, I've talked to the author of the Kanji study app and he says he's talking to the author about integrating the whole course including the mnemonics in it, that would be cool, there are already graded readers for KKLC. I'm not affiliated with them, just wanted to let people know that there might be a way to get the whole course right on their phone in the future!
A find those meaning mnemonics in KKLC pretty useful, mostly because it doesn't resort to using obscure pop-culture reference or parts of english words to describe it which I mostly hate on WankiKani or several other books. But I really struggle with learning onyomi readings (kunyomi are mostly fine as those are not so similiar), do you know any other book that would have helpful mnemonics on that or do you advise learning each reading only within the context of given word?
Sorry for the late reply. While I do think this book can work for serious beginners, I have to admit that I didn’t start using it until I had a foundation first (e.g.- Genki)
I think remembering the mnemonic and the compounds it's used in works best for me. The best advice i ever got was not to study on-yomi an kunyomi. I know it sounds weird, but seeing common words a kanji is used in is way more glue than remembering on and kunyomi - at least for me. Great question, Tami Hz!
Kanjis are easy for me. I have a very good visual imagination and i remember Kanji very quickly. All i have to do is learn grammar, but that bores me because i can not speak japanese to anyone. At the moment, i only learn sometimes...^_^
I'm jealous 😁! I have to admit that I do struggle to keep things sometimes. but if I can tie it to something in my imagination, it sticks. Grammar is a sticking point for me, too. I feel ya.
![Genki Two Review [A Japanese Textbook Worth Using?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oGVqS3kgzC8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Genki Two Review [A Japanese Textbook Worth Using?]](/img/tr.png)
![Kanji In Context Review [Best Way To Learn JOYO Kanji?]](/img/n.gif)
What Japanese resource should I review next? Let me know in the comments!
I'm not familiar with kanji I really don't even know how to speak Japanese so I idk what advice to give but I have some small ideas for your channel #1 asmr vids #2Food reviews #3Japanese gaming
@@mysteriousgaming1241 100% respect, bro. Comments like these are gold, whether you speak Japanese or write kanji. Thank you so much for sharing! These are all ideas worth looking into :D
I haven't owned a gaming system in many years and had this weird itch to get a PS4 after Kingdom Hearts and the Resident Evil remake got released here in Tokyo.
@@TheJapanGuy I actually have a ps4 but it's getting fixed lol
Do remembering the kanji
Have you tried the Kanji Tree app? I highly recommend it. I already can recognize the meaning of around 70 basic (elementary school level) kanji thanks to it in less than 3 weeks (although I'm sure I would know much more kanji if I used it for more than like 10 minutes a day lol). It doesn't use a mnemonic method but I still enjoy it! I would like to hear your thoughts on it!
It really feels like you're the only person who has reviewed this underrated kanji guide. It along with the Kanji Study app are indispensable to me. :)
KKLC is hands-down the best resource ever created for learning Kanji, but it's an all-or-nothing endeavour as it's optimized to learn for real, not a small subset aimed at JLPT. Who cares if 誰 is the 2155th? You have to study all of them anyways, and it's wonderful.
I don't know if you read the full preface, but it explicitly says it's made to be a start-to-finish course even if you have previous experience, as it introduces mnemonic relationships and things that are used cummulatively throughout the book. It's an extremely important point that your review lacked/misunderstood.
It sure is great to look up things randomly, but it truly shines when studied the way it's meant to, although it's true that you need to be very disciplined.
Thanks to quarantine I studied it religiously from start to finish every single day for approximately 90 days at the fastest pace my mind allowed without getting exhausted (exhaustion will only hurt your learning rate and throw to waste those precious study hours), doing 28 new ones every day from monday to saturday, self-testing and reviewing the previous day ones before moving on to the new, and leaving sundays for full-week review with wonderful results. I kept a steady retention rate of about 95% until about 1300, then it dropped to ~70%, then came up again to the high 90's in the last 2 weeks when I discovered the truly optimal way for me (I wish I had realized since the beginning, but better late than never), and finally, after finishing this first round and doing a full-book review, I found myself forgetting about 350 out of the 2300 (~85%). So I made a new program including those sneaky bastards to review them and finally master the whole 2300 in the book, and man the reviews are a lot easier than seeing them for the first time, so in just two weeks or so I'll be done.
Why am I telling this? It's not to brag (not gonna deny I'm proud of it tho :P), but to be a testimony of it being totally possible, I've been studying Japanese for over 10 years and had never surpassed the ~500 Kanji mark, feeling mediocre and miserable.
The order and method is unbelievably important, and this book's is unparalleled, the masterful order and mnemonics literally changed my life, I went from below average to soon-to-be truly japanese-highschooler-level-literate (sorry for the farfetched composites, my English isn't very good so I didn't find a better way to say it lol) in just 3 months. If that's not skyrocketting and proof of effectiveness I don't know what is.
If I can do it, so can you, keep it up everyone!!
Did you use anki or any SRS in studying kanji?
@@angelosantos7061 I tried at one point some years ago, but dropped it in like a week hahah. I'm more of a kinestesic learner, so what works best for me is illustrating the mnemonics (literally drawing) while focusing on key components, then merging them and writing the character a few times.
I failed miserably on trying to be brief, but this is essentially how I studied the book (I've been thinking of making a video on it, let me know if you think that would be useful for other students :P), which actually has some minor things incorporated from the SRS theory:
-First, the planning: I elaborated a detailed calendar with every character to be studied each day. So I decided how many new ones I was gonna be studying per day. I wanted fast results and had a lot of time so went with 28 (also it was easy to make a 4x8 grid on each sheet of paper hahah, one row for the day number and date, every other cell for one character), and copied every single one of them on their intended place. No reading the mnemonics, no stopping too much, maybe giving a glance to the keyword, but essentially just copying every single one of them, in order to get the "oh, i've seen this before" feeling when arriving to them. It was also to materialize and visualize in a condensed place what my daily goal was. Studying every day is essential, so we better put realistic goals to which we can stick religiously. Actually studying every day is the hardest part. It doesn't matter if it's not too much, but you gotta do it every day, 12 a day is a very reasonable quantity and if you stick to your plan you'll be done in less than a year.
I personally set monday to saturday for new characters, and left sundays for weekly review to revisit evey character of the week, with no new ones.
-Second, the execution
How did I actually study? Well, I used two main resources besides the book: a notebook, every line of each left page was for practicing the writing of every character (one per line, so you can write it multiple times), while the right page was to write useful vocabulary and notes regarding each character on the corresponding line, and a sheet of paper for every day. As I mentioned, I'm a kinestesic learner, so actually writing the characters is essential for me. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different methods to study the book, but I'll explain what ultimately turned out best.
Following the excellent advice from this video th-cam.com/video/nqYmmZKY4sA/w-d-xo.html about absorbing information efficently, I first looked at the day's plan and laid out all the characters to be studied that day on a blank sheet, grouping them by similar components, there are many characters that differ on just one part, so I made sure to pay special attention to it. For example, most of the kanji associated to body parts have 月 on the left, and are defined by their right part (蔵 、干、市 、旦 、泉 , etc etc), so the left part comes for free, and you only have to learn the right part, which also comes for free because by the time 臓、肝、肺、胆、腺、and so appear, you'll have already studied the right parts on their own too, so you just have to remember the combinations which are effectively illustrated by the mnemonics.
Well, after the day's base is laid out, there comes the focused study. I first looked at the character, paying attention to all its components and details, then read the keywords, then attentively read the mnemonics, then tried to draw in the mentioned sheet of paper an illustration for said mnemonic, then write the character on the notebook a few times, then read the example vocabulary and took note of one or two words on the notebook. It's good to take your time to digest and visualize everything before repeating the process with all the characters of that day. It's extremely important to be 1000% focused during this stage, read and write every component, every word with total consciousness, as it will lead to much more durable learning, if you get exhausted and enter auto-pilot mode it's gonna be a huge waste of time. Experiment and see what's your maximum concentration span and take some short breaks. If you feel the daily goal is too much, then redo the planning with a lower daily count.
Every day, before the main study, I would do a quick review the previous day's calendar page and check which ones I still remembered and which ones I didn't. After that, I would write them once or twice and revisit the ones I didn't remember before moving on to the new ones.
Third, the review:
This process lead to the high retention rate I mentioned in the original comment, but this is just the first run, so it's very hard to not forget anything, so every few hundreds, I documented every forgotten character to make a new plan including them for special emphasis on this second round.
You also need to practice reading a lot. At first it's a bit hard because you constantly bump into characters you've not seen before, but you'll eventually see them in the book and the "ooooh so here was this motherfucker!" moment will be even more satisfactory.
It's hard to illustrate it using just words, but that's more or less what I did and I couldn't be happier with the results. Hope it helps!
@@angelosantos7061 Hi! I used this book with SRS to study the 2300 kanji from this textbook. It took me about 3 mo as well and I did it at 20 kanji a day. Note however that I had tried on 2 previous occasions to go through this book and gave up before getting to 800 kanji because I was taking Japanese in college and with what I needed to memorize for class I could not complete the book. So when I first restarted for the third and final time I did 50 "new" kanji a day to get reaquainted. Then I brought the number down as I got closer to where I left off until I finally settled on 20/day (probably near the 700 mark).
Just like artie1283 said, it takes discipline and planning. The SRS was my way to keep up with all the kanji reviews and since my time was already limited (I'm a parent with kids learning at home, etc) I found the SRS super useful. I tracked my time and once I realized that I could get through it all within 2.5 - 3 hrs I made sure to set up a time when I could complete them and just focused on that till it was done.
I used a premade deck for reviews because that saves time. There's one that I used that had the kanji with colored stroke order on the front with useful vocabulary in kanji form and then on the back you could see the readings along with the keyword. I only learned the Keywords. I didn't touch the readings or vocabulary unless I already new a vocab that was listed but didn't know the kanji associated with it. There was also a reverse deck that you can use to try to recall the kanji associated by the keyword but I didn't use that since I just wanted to read, thus I filtered my deck.
For my practice I first learned the 20 kanji 10 at a time and wrote them down in a notebook. I practiced writing them from memory using Kanji Study app on Android (this is also how I tracked the kanji I learned) since that would correct me and show me my errors. I then went through my srs. Whenever I forgot a kanji previously learned I would rewrite them in a different colored pen just below the new ones.
I only added the following towards the end of my practice (around 1800 kanji):
When I was done with my deck I took a short break and then reviewed what kanji I had gotten wrong 2 weeks ago and tested myself to see if I remembered the keyword. The ones I still couldn't remembe I would rewrite on the present days notes with the other kanji (but I would add a separator so that I could tell the difference). I took this idea from the Gold List Method and just applied it here. It only took 5 additional minutes and seemed to help.
Other tips:
Whenever I could, I would add a sentence that used the kanji I was shown to the front of the card to help me remember the meaning or reading. If there was a card I knew the reading for, especially in a compound but couldn't find a good sample sentence, I would make a notation next to the kanji (*) to alert me to read the vocabulary listed below it. Usually the kanji surround it will give me a clue to it's meaning. If there was a word I new I would surround the kanji with *asterisks*
One cool little tool I used was a widget that I kept on my phone that counted down the days till I would finally finish studying kanji. This was really motivating and satisfying upon completion.
As you go through the kanji you'll learn kanji for things you'll probably never need and if so it's super rare. On the SRS I noted those kanji (***) so that I knew to look at it, and then move on. If I really need to know it, just from this kanji knowledge I'll be able to learn it if necessary.
As for 'leeches' I had them set to tag and made a notation next to the kanji (**). Once it was tagged as a leech whenever it came up I would read it and always pass it. Surprisingly enough I would actually remember some of those after the fact (It either finally clicked or I learned it properly through immersion).
I hope this is helpful. Goodluck with your studies!
@@orti1283 Thank you for posting such a detailed description of your practice! It's so nice to see another user of this awesome resource (and completed it!). ^_^
I was wondering how is the reading going for you? Did you try the graded readers for the KLC or just go directly for native text? I find myself hopping around so much just because the world is so open now it's hard to settle lol Was there anything you thought was helpful and a nice transition from learning the kanji and going into reading?
Thank you for your time!
@@jahayrac8636 I'm glad you read through it! I got a bit carried away on the description hahah.
Reading is going very good! My main reading and writing source has been chatting with japanese friends. I also bought the little prince in japan and was a very good start, then moved on to a Murakami Ryuu's book when I was more advanced.
The GRS were very useful since the 1000'th in terms of vocabulary and stuff, but my main resource are normal texts, books and articles :)
I actually completed/ learned all 2300 kanji (in about 3 mo) and I also just learned the keyword first and then learned the readings through immersion. Full disclosure I tried twice and stopped before the 800 mark because I was already studying Japanese in college, plus, with kids I couldn't finish it. But I graduated this year and finally decided to tackle this beautiful beast and get it done. Do I know the readings for all? No. lol but I can "read" text and understand what's going on and then I can look up words to know the meaning and associate the kanji with a reading that way. With more exposure the readings get considerably easier as I differentiate between onyomi and kunyomi readings. I've been going through a frequency word list and it's sooo much easier now than when I first tried and the kanji meant nothing to me.
I thought it was awesome when you showed your example. 🙌 I actually had to pause the video and think because I recognized the 2nd kanji but didn't know right away like I did for 海. Then I just remembered that lone character in the middle between the shell and the spear and was like "Oh, 'Bandit!'... 🤔 "sea bandit? ' and then I'm like "duh, a pirate!" 🤣 that's such a great example and find for me. 😁
I love this textbook, it is such a great resource. I think you can take it as course but that depends on how systematic you decide to go through it as it does require some discipline. I did my own thing but the author has an updated guide (2020) on how to use his book on his website:
keystojapanese.com/how-to-study/
Thank you for posting your review it was fun and informative. ^_^
That’s incredible! I’m proud of you and I’ve never even met you! I appreciate you watching this and taking the time to share your experience. Thank you 🙏
Thank you so much for this! Plus your humor and personality make it fun to watch! 💖
i've been going through this book at a 75 kanji per day pace (keywords only) because turns out if i have a pretty good visual-spatial memory. highly recommend if you are good at memorizing stuff like this. if you were good at stuff like human anatomy, try this book.
there are some absolutely stinkers of mnemomics (of course making up 2300 is not that easy), but its easy enough to make up your own using the author's vocabulary of components, or in the worst case, the characters you have to memorize solely by their composition are rare enough that they stick in your memory.
4 1/2 points, highly recommend the book for a certain kind of learner
Woah no way, I recognize you from your South Park videos!
I've been at university for Japanese for 2 years now, but I bought this a month ago (along with a Pimsleur subscription) in order to help supplement any gaps I've had in the past tenure of learning. I've found the presentation to be really concise and promising, as well as the combination with the writing book + reading volumes to help me remember some of the vocabulary quite useful. However, my main gripe is definitely a self-inflicted one: I'm not a good self-tutor and I don't know exactly how to study it, even with a clear list of instructions preceding how to study it. I definitely hope to stick with it, as I'm looking to try and get a JLPT N1 grade by 2022, but I'd rather do it right than do it rushed. I think this book will be very decent in that regard.
Assuming covid settles down by this fall, I'll be starting a Japanese language course in a university near me. They:re using the Japanese for Busy People Kana Version for the first class, and then Genki for the second and third class, after which they have an in house materials system they use for real world readings (newspapers, imported books, etc). What kanji learning system would you say would be good for JBP? I've already pretty much got hiragana, and about 50% with katakana, so I'm just trying to get a head start since I:m stuck at home all the time.
Would anyone recommend using this book side by side with the Kodansha Kanji Learners Dictionary?
I really liked the video thanks man.
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
Hi, I'm new to this journey of learning Japanese. Your videos are helpful. Thanks
So glad to hear the vids are helpful. 日本語頑張ってタミナちゃん！
@@TheJapanGuy That was a nice touch.....Thanks
do i still have to buy a separate japanese vocab book if i buy kodansha kanji book?since kodansha has vocabs too 😅
Thanks for the review, very useful. Could you compare this book with The kodansha kanji dictionary? I wonder if there's an overlap since both sound like dictionaries...thanks!
This book was actually made to be the course that goes with that dictionary, it's mentioned in the book and i believe each kanji in the course has the reference to the dictionary location for further learning and also to see the definitions since this book focuses mostly on reading and learning the kanji themselves. So yes, the author of the dictionary actually has a section that he wrote in the beggining of this book and this book was written to include info from the dictionary while also still being a sort of course to follow.
@@Xx0ME0xX thanks! I've figured it after reading the intro actually and now I see the difference and the connection between two. There are decks for both Memrise and Anki plus Kanji study app which supports the KKLC order which makes studying with this course much easier, I went with the Memrise decks because it feels more game-like and I'm a casual learner, I'm doing both kanji and vocab simultaneously, I understand that the order might not be optimal of one wants to start reading asap but the progression, the way author connects related kanji together and how he's using the ones which look similar to each other to actually reinforce their memorisation is worth it in my opinion.
Also, I've talked to the author of the Kanji study app and he says he's talking to the author about integrating the whole course including the mnemonics in it, that would be cool, there are already graded readers for KKLC. I'm not affiliated with them, just wanted to let people know that there might be a way to get the whole course right on their phone in the future!
A find those meaning mnemonics in KKLC pretty useful, mostly because it doesn't resort to using obscure pop-culture reference or parts of english words to describe it which I mostly hate on WankiKani or several other books. But I really struggle with learning onyomi readings (kunyomi are mostly fine as those are not so similiar), do you know any other book that would have helpful mnemonics on that or do you advise learning each reading only within the context of given word?
Is it necessary to buy the KLC graded readers?
I didn't get the graded readers until later. They can be helpful. But to be honest, I just started with the book.
Great review and breakdown of the book!
Thanks, Ani!!!
the learner's course isn't available currently....
Great video, I’m thinking of buying this book to work on my kanji.
Thanks for watching, Gray. There are some good ones out there, this is a solid reference book.
Are you starting from scratch, bro?
TheJapanGuy yea I am. Would this be a good starter book? Or should I look for another one?
Thanks for the complex review! :) But still, I am not sure if the book is a good choice for a complete beginner?
Sorry for the late reply. While I do think this book can work for serious beginners, I have to admit that I didn’t start using it until I had a foundation first (e.g.- Genki)
Love your vids😃I always wanted to go to japan.
Thanks, @shywolf cherry! I really do appreciate the love. I hope you get a chance to go. It's a great place to be.
The idea is to memorize the meaning as well as the on-yomi and kun-yomi? At the same time?
I think remembering the mnemonic and the compounds it's used in works best for me. The best advice i ever got was not to study on-yomi an kunyomi. I know it sounds weird, but seeing common words a kanji is used in is way more glue than remembering on and kunyomi - at least for me. Great question, Tami Hz!
1st
1st again?!? Nice!!! 😁
Kanjis are easy for me. I have a very good visual imagination and i remember Kanji very quickly. All i have to do is learn grammar, but that bores me because i can not speak japanese to anyone. At the moment, i only learn sometimes...^_^
I'm jealous 😁! I have to admit that I do struggle to keep things sometimes. but if I can tie it to something in my imagination, it sticks. Grammar is a sticking point for me, too. I feel ya.
"I mean nOT THAT I SMOKE CRACK OR ANYTHING" 😂
Hehehehe