The biggest obstacle that hinders a great number of us from learning Japanese is The Kanji, which is made up of the Chinese characters. It really makes Japanese learners feel so tired or even terrible when looking at them. So, some people give some advices to start with grammar and vocabulary instead because they think we should learn the easiest thing first as it will be our motivation to learn more difficult ones. But have they ever thought that when people start to encouter the tough parts of learning language, will they quit ? In fact, I have witnessed so many of my friends who used that way and then all of them turned out to quit learning Japanese.
There is another statement that the most difficult part of learning any language is not quitting. If you study effectively and consistently without any intention of quitting, you will learn Japanese. So, how can you do away with that intention? Let’s learn all of the kanji at the beginning. You may ask me whether I am crazy or not or if it is the reason that makes people give up on Japanese. Yes, that’s true, yet you should take it under consideration that not knowing kanji will make you feel like quitting, isn’t it ? So if in the first place you learn them all, the rate of quitting might decrease drastically.That’s the point, as long as we do not quit, we can learn Japanese. For this reason, today we are going to show you how to learn kanji quickly and easily below.
1. Divide the Kanji into Constituents
While trying to learn a kanji, you should not learn it as a whole or learn it stroke by stroke. Instead, let’s divide them into constituents. Let’s take an example of “族”（family).
方（flag) ＋ 矢(arrow) ＝ 族 ( family)
In this way, the kanji “族” seems much easier to learn and remember because you know from what is is formed. Besides, you can also learn other subordinate simple kanji like “方” and ” 矢” which are parts of the main kanji “族 ” you are encoutering with.
2. Create Effective Mnemonics
Subsequent to dividing the kanji into constituents, nest step will be creating effective mnemocis. To put it simply, we attach a funny, creative and vivid story to both the kanji and its constituents. Let’s take a deeper look at the example of “族 ” above.
方（flag) ＋ 矢(arrow) ＝ 族 ( family)
People waved flag and raised their arrows to protect their family during the war.
As we create this story, we also display a lively picture in our mind, which was about the time of war when our ancestors sacrificed their lives to protect their family and has given us the current generation such a peace nowadays. Whenever you want to pull out a kanji from your mind, this vivid story and image will show upto help you.
3. Repeat the kanji as much as possible
It is said that repetition is king because repetition is the key to memorize something for the long term. Kanji are not something only to understand. You also need to memorize them with meaning and reading attached to it. And how can you do that ? You need
a repetition to help it go straight to your mind over a particular amount of time and I have some suggestions for you. First, you can form a group with your friends which you meet a lot in a day so that every time you meet, you can check the kanji for one another. If unluckily you can not find a group, let’s use some applications on your phone or computers. Thanks to those apps, you will be provided with trainings for listening and reading comprehension skill. At the same time you practise those two, you are able to repeat the kanji as well. It is just like something we usually call “two birds, one stone”.
4. Using flashcards
Flash cards are effective memory-aid tools that can help people to learn new materials quickly. Moreover, they’re inexpensive beacause you yourselves can also create a simple flashcard with a 3-by-5 inche hard paper.
Flashcrad are small and portable, which makes it more efficient to learn something through repetition. By taking the cards everywhere, people can make an effective use of their time when they do something which does not require much attention such as waiting for , being on a bus or are walking on a treadmill.
5. Review the kanji and flashcard everyday
Every day, before you go on to learn a new kanji, you need to review all the kanji that you have already studied from the beginning so as to make sure that you still remember them. I have met a lot of cases like this, a lot of people continue to learn new knowledge while they have forgotten nearly all of what they just have learnt yesterday,let alone the days, weeks or months before. And I often ask them why and the answer I get is always the same that they are too lazy because it is too much to review. Yeah, maybe they are true, but if you don’t review and then forget them all, so what kind of knowledge have you gained ? And have you ever when it is close to the final exam, which means you are left with no choice but have to review them all. At that time, the amount ot knowledge you have to review is 5 times, 10 times or even more as much as the one you have to encouter now. Moreover, you will not have enough time for reviewing and inevitably, you’ll expose yourselves in a helpless situation. Those are only the beginning of the worst consequences you may get. Nonetheless, if you are persistent to review, I can ensure that you efforts will bear fruits, extremely delicious ones.
We hope 5 ways to learn kanji quickly and easily above might be a good companion with you to help you stand up and never give up on your journey to conquer kanji and the Japanese language. We are looking forward to hearing good news from you all.
