• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:01
CEST 15:01
KST 22:01
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off6[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9uThermal's 2v2 Tour: $15,000 Main Event18
Community News
Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax3Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris30Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!13Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6SC2's Safe House 2 - October 18 & 195
StarCraft 2
General
What mix of new and old maps do you want in the next 1v1 ladder pool? (SC2) : A Eulogy for the Six Pool Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax 2v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature
Tourneys
WardiTV Mondays Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Monday Nights Weeklies
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies Mutation # 485 Death from Below
Brood War
General
Flash On His 2010 "God" Form, Mind Games, vs JD BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off BW General Discussion No Rain in ASL20?
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro24 Group E [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL20] Ro24 Group D [ASL20] Ro24 Group B
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting Muta micro map competition
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Dawn of War IV Path of Exile
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The year 2050 European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment"
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Breaking the Meta: Non-Stand…
TrAiDoS
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
[Girl blog} My fema…
artosisisthebest
Sharpening the Filtration…
frozenclaw
ASL S20 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2412 users

[Vlog] Learning the Japanese Kanji 1

Blogs > FFGenerations
Post a Reply
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-29 13:20:43
April 29 2016 13:18 GMT
#1
Hi, I decided now is a good time to learn the Japanese language. I made a start with re-learning the Hiragana and Katakana and just entered day 4 of learning the 2000 Japanese Kanji. I videoed my morning revision.

The plan really is learn the Kanji and then afterwards progress to learning basic grammar and putting them into practice.

Adam Koebel (the Swan Song dungeon master) is also learning Japanese so I'm gonna check out some of his videos to chill to:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAmPx8nWedFXfpqJuuaUxcj2uLicdwf8O

People say you can learn the Kanji in 100 days if you use mnemonics and don't bother learning their readings at this stage. (I'm learning the readings - it's a big enough task to begin with that I might aswell get everything done with one pass)

Personally I'm not convinced mnemonics are that good for me, I get the feeling that they would ultimately add an extra layer of thinking and so slow me down. I use them when they occur naturally to me but I'm not gonna go out of my way to apply them when I can just "directly" learn things. I already do stuff like count on my fingers for basic math, so I don't want to end up thinking things like "the red frog eats icicles" 5 years down the line to remember something I could otherwise just know. We'll see how it pans out though as I get deeper into them.

I am pretty much a huge delinquent and this is like the most I've ever learnt anything (alongside my guitar) so its pretty cool for me. I hope to update again after the 8 day mark / finish learning the 1st grade ones (there are 80).

Another shit video but I need all the practice talking I can get ^_^



*****
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
EmKey
Profile Joined December 2002
Korea (South)631 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-29 13:40:53
April 29 2016 13:39 GMT
#2
check out Remembering The Kanji by Heising. Great book for learning kanjis. It only teaches meanings without pronunciation and it uses mnemonics/stories.
불놀이야
c3rberUs
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Japan11286 Posts
April 29 2016 14:56 GMT
#3
Curious to see how it works for you. I am doing the hiragana/katakana -> grammar -> add vocabulary (consequently kanji) route. It just felt more natural to me but I don't believe in one-way-works-for-all so がんばれ!!!.

I did notice a few strokes were kinda off which felt weird watching. The right strokes (and order) help make Kanji look correct. You got most of the readings correct so good job so far (inu ftw)!

LOL at the end. And I think you forgot ん and ン
WriterMovie, 진영화 : "StarCraft will never die".
mooose
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Japan200 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-29 15:05:26
April 29 2016 15:02 GMT
#4
I found mnemonics really helpful when I started learning Kanji, but now I'm like 1000 in or whatever I find I don't really need them any more because I recognise most of the radicals and learning a new kanji just involves putting a few familiar pieces together.

I'm sure there's some really efficient ways to learn but I'm a grinder at heart so I'd rather spend my time actually studying than trying to figure out the optimal method. With that in mind, my advice to new people is just start and never give up. Realistically it's going to be quite a long time before you are able to read a page of Japanese text without looking loads of things up. The only way to get there is to keep on grinding.

When you say

The plan really is learn the Kanji and then afterwards progress to learning basic grammar


Do you mean learn all the kanji before starting on grammar? I don't really think that's a practical strategy if so. I'm quite single minded so I can see the appeal of focusing on one thing, getting it out the way and then moving onto something else; but I don't think you can really apply it to learning Japanese like that. Like I said, learning kanji is probably going to take quite a long time, and if throughout this whole period you don't know any Japanese grammar then you aren't going to be able to use anything you've learned. You will have to go through the grind of memorizing kanji without the reward of actually using Japanese.

Basically I think you should start learning some basic grammar too so you can actually practice using some of the kanji you've learned. Ideally find a way to start practising speaking and listening too.

Good luck though! Don't give up. You'll hit some walls along the way, but just keep going. Everyone's brain works differently so just keep trying things until you find a method that works for you.
www.teamyao.com @TeamYAO
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
April 29 2016 15:38 GMT
#5
On April 29 2016 22:39 EmKey wrote:
check out Remembering The Kanji by Heising. Great book for learning kanjis. It only teaches meanings without pronunciation and it uses mnemonics/stories.


Thanks i noticed this book but i haven't really bought into the mnemonics thing, i feel OK with just straight up learning them and adding my own incidental mnemonics as and when they come up. Maybe I'll feel differently if I start to struggle later


On April 29 2016 23:56 c3rberUs wrote:
I did notice a few strokes were kinda off which felt weird watching. The right strokes (and order) help make Kanji look correct. You got most of the readings correct so good job so far (inu ftw)!

LOL at the end. And I think you forgot ん and ン


Yeah I'm not bothering with stroke order, its waay too much to worry about for me IMO. Shit is hard enough. Maybe if I get a Japanese calligrapher idol waifu who refuses to marry me unless I learn my stroke orders I will reconsider. It'll get better over time once I am practicing reading actual text on the computer rather than just scrawling them to remember their shapes


On April 30 2016 00:02 mooose wrote:
Do you mean learn all the kanji before starting on grammar? I don't really think that's a practical strategy if so. I'm quite single minded so I can see the appeal of focusing on one thing, getting it out the way and then moving onto something else; but I don't think you can really apply it to learning Japanese like that. Like I said, learning kanji is probably going to take quite a long time, and if throughout this whole period you don't know any Japanese grammar then you aren't going to be able to use anything you've learned. You will have to go through the grind of memorizing kanji without the reward of actually using Japanese.

Basically I think you should start learning some basic grammar too so you can actually practice using some of the kanji you've learned. Ideally find a way to start practising speaking and listening too.

Good luck though! Don't give up. You'll hit some walls along the way, but just keep going. Everyone's brain works differently so just keep trying things until you find a method that works for you.


Yeah you're right, I will probably want to switch things up, like learn the 2nd grade kanji (looks like there's 160) then start making basic sentences and stuff for fun (and brag rights lol). Well anyways, the first milestone is getting the first 80 down, I've only got 4 days so I gotta get crackin :D
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
Chef
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
10810 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-29 17:23:26
April 29 2016 17:22 GMT
#6
Why do you want to learn Japanese?

Why do you want to learn to READ Japanese?

I guess it doesn't matter. But I think you have to recognize that language is not about mental processing, it's about familiarity and habit. You see the character, you think the meaning and the sound of the word. There's no middle stage, oh this goes kind of like that, and this word goes in that order, and then I need to conjugate like this. It's literally all memorization, getting corrected as you speak, and slowly working away mistakes from over-generalizations, but not avoiding generalizations from the start since they are your greatest asset to communicating.

I think you can only get that sort of thing from a few hours of practice a day, which is why language is so hard to learn out of context. You can get to a point where you recognize and know the meanings of bits and pieces, but it doesn't come together without constant real use.


Specifically for memorizing writing, I found early on it was most helpful if the set of characters I was learning were in a real sentence. Learning them in the abstract was a good way to forget them quickly.
LEGEND!! LEGEND!!
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19077 Posts
April 29 2016 20:32 GMT
#7
just fyi your stroke order is off a bit, typically on your 口 and 目.

http://kanji.sljfaq.org/kanjivg.html is a really handy site for getting stroke orders down
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-29 20:57:28
April 29 2016 20:52 GMT
#8
Ya I'm (mostly) ignoring stroke order for now but thanks for the link
it looks cool seems to use a normal pen style instead of a goddamn paintbrush
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19077 Posts
April 29 2016 22:32 GMT
#9
because most people write pens, not paintbrushes.

But stroke order is important. People reading what you write will be like "this looks weird" if you do it wrong, and you don't write F by starting with the little horizontal line.
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-04-30 11:54:34
April 30 2016 11:48 GMT
#10
just came across this website

http://www.kanjidamage.com/

he claims to have written a kanji learning list

1) in approximate order of usefulness and composition (radicals i think they're called?),
2) using crude language as mnemonics (like ...south park language lol)
3) with a focus on writings/readings that he thinks are useful in real life and excluding some non-useful ones

example:

http://www.kanjidamage.com/kanji/14-no-否

actually this example page was rated 2/5 and says that "no" = ina and make me confused whether to bother learning the chinese form "hi", so i would have to research this page a bit

its kinda enticing but i'll finish the 1st grade before trying to switch to it.....
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
c3rberUs
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Japan11286 Posts
May 01 2016 01:08 GMT
#11
You don't need to switch so abruptly, I went the same route too when I started. I was like "stroke order? really? lol, it doesn't seem so important so i'm going to wing it". When I started writing, it looked like shit (my inner artist cried) so I checked how people do it and then realized that even alphabet characters are written with a stroke order.
WriterMovie, 진영화 : "StarCraft will never die".
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-05-01 23:57:21
May 01 2016 23:57 GMT
#12
ok this is pretty funny

youtu.be/4AOWrhgS4W4?t=118
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
lichter
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
May 02 2016 02:23 GMT
#13
stroke order is important as you learn more complex words. remembering stroke order is also really effective in memorization, because sometimes you can't remember the root word or a portion of the word, but your muscle memory remembers the stroke order and you can figure it out from there. it can also help remembering similar words based on stroke order. seriously though, learn it the right way from the start
AdministratorYOU MUST HEED MY INSTRUCTIONS TAKE OFF YOUR THIIIINGS
FFGenerations
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
7088 Posts
May 02 2016 08:38 GMT
#14
that reason makes more sense to me, tnx
Cool BW Music Vid - youtube.com/watch?v=W54nlqJ-Nx8 ~~~~~ ᕤ OYSTERS ᕤ CLAMS ᕤ AND ᕤ CUCKOLDS ᕤ ~~~~~~ ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ PUNCH HIM ༼ ᕤ◕◡◕ ༽ᕤ
TwoTrickPony
Profile Blog Joined November 2015
30 Posts
May 06 2016 06:35 GMT
#15
you can also learn kanji radicals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Japanese_kanji_radicals
in the beginning this won't seem super useful, but when you get to much denser kanji it helps a lot.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
12:00
King of the Hill Weekly #223
CranKy Ducklings53
Liquipedia
WardiTV Summer Champion…
11:00
Playoffs Day 2
herO vs ClassicLIVE!
TBD vs NightMare
Cure vs MaxPax
WardiTV792
Rex121
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Harstem 284
Lowko218
Rex 121
LamboSC2 37
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 8783
Calm 6709
Horang2 2833
Bisu 2664
actioN 1012
Larva 522
Stork 366
Zeus 343
Mini 327
Hyun 325
[ Show more ]
ZerO 320
Soulkey 224
Pusan 192
Snow 163
Leta 145
Light 137
Soma 72
Backho 66
Liquid`Ret 64
Sea.KH 53
ToSsGirL 44
Sharp 33
Free 22
Shine 22
[sc1f]eonzerg 21
JulyZerg 18
ajuk12(nOOB) 17
scan(afreeca) 17
Yoon 14
HiyA 13
SilentControl 9
Hm[arnc] 8
Terrorterran 7
Movie 2
Dota 2
Gorgc3598
qojqva782
BananaSlamJamma232
XcaliburYe192
420jenkins190
Counter-Strike
olofmeister2238
x6flipin744
byalli354
edward55
Other Games
singsing1841
B2W.Neo986
hiko696
crisheroes353
RotterdaM183
QueenE41
ZerO(Twitch)0
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 28
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis5298
• Jankos851
Other Games
• WagamamaTV156
Upcoming Events
PiGosaur Monday
10h 59m
Afreeca Starleague
20h 59m
hero vs Alone
Royal vs Barracks
Replay Cast
1d 10h
The PondCast
1d 20h
WardiTV Summer Champion…
1d 21h
Replay Cast
2 days
LiuLi Cup
2 days
MaxPax vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs herO
Cure vs Rogue
Classic vs HeRoMaRinE
Cosmonarchy
3 days
OyAji vs Sziky
Sziky vs WolFix
WolFix vs OyAji
BSL Team Wars
3 days
Team Hawk vs Team Dewalt
BSL Team Wars
3 days
Team Hawk vs Team Bonyth
[ Show More ]
SC Evo League
3 days
TaeJa vs Cure
Rogue vs threepoint
ByuN vs Creator
MaNa vs Classic
Maestros of the Game
4 days
ShoWTimE vs Cham
GuMiho vs Ryung
Zoun vs Spirit
Rogue vs MaNa
[BSL 2025] Weekly
4 days
SC Evo League
4 days
Maestros of the Game
5 days
SHIN vs Creator
Astrea vs Lambo
Bunny vs SKillous
HeRoMaRinE vs TriGGeR
BSL Team Wars
5 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Sziky
BSL Team Wars
5 days
Team Dewalt vs Team Sziky
Monday Night Weeklies
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSLAN 3
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL Season 18: Qualifier 1
Acropolis #4 - TS1
SEL Season 2 Championship
WardiTV Summer 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
EC S1
Sisters' Call Cup
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
Roobet Cup 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.