Confusion between kanji/radicals

[ayaruru]

I have run into a lot of confusion with level 3 kanji and vocab. I’ve spent over 2 months on this specific level because I just can’t seem to separate some kanji, radicals and vocab. This frustrates me, so I get the urge to cheat just to skip forward to level 4. I also have about 80 level 4 lessons ready, but I’m scared that will confuse me further. Please help.

[Radish8]

Well, personally, I would identify the specific kanji and radicals that you mess up, and create focused mnemonics that differentiate between them. When they appear in reviews, always take the time to think through the mnemonic rather than rushing to answer, until you start to become really comfortable with them.

terrible example off the top of my head

矢 = your legs are all wobbly because someone shot you with an arrow
生 = you need to be grounded to live a happy life (so bad sorry omg)
牛 = there’s no ground in this one because cows actually love to fly. Gives milk that light and frothy flavour.

@KaedeHaru

I also have about 80 level 4 lessons ready, but I’m scared that will confuse me further.

Also, I wouldn’t be scared of this. Learning more things is much more likely to help you consolidate the existing items, because you’ll see them more often, and in different contexts.

Learning lots of kanji which use a particular radical in their mnemonics will reinforce that radical, and learning vocabulary which use a particular kanji will help to reinforce that kanji.

That’s not to say there’s never any merit in taking a break to nail some leeches, but in general everything builds on what’s come before.

[GinAA]

Yup, I had those all messed up for a while too. I did screen prints and put them on my wall at work and at home and made little songs about how they looked. I think I have finally “enlightened” Cow but Arrow and Life still plague me sometimes. Most of the time I just go through the reviews too quickly but now that there are a few more (Like Half and Flat) that are similar, I have forced myself to slow down. Not sure if this helps but seeing them every day helped me get them straight.

[majime]

Living in Japan, I am fortunate to benefit from daily exposure to these kanji and kanji compounds in context.
The isolated kanji take on more meaning if you put them in context…and when typing in Japanese, →矢印 is quite useful ←。。。just by typing “やじるし” and hitting the space bar…and voilà!

!

[Darcinon]

@KaedeHaru

Maybe it would help if you saw only the differences between each of these.

Here they are with the shared strokes removed:

[ayaruru]

Thank you so so much!

[Loglog74]

_{don’t mind me commenting about that ruby, then leaving without leaving a trace}