I’ve been thinking about writing down the Radicals and all the Kanji & Vocabulary associated with it on a notebook?
I think it would help me remember later (plus I like the idea of a cute notebook full of kanji written by me lol)
Do you all think it’s a good idea? Have any of you guys done that?
Yeah, I’ve used the process described in this thread in the past.
Yep, I write. Every single thing, every kanji, every vocab, every definition. It can take some time but that’s the only way I can learn. If I just look at the pc and just read, I won’t remember it 5 days after learning it. So I write everything. It was tricky at the beginning, to find some schematic way that works but I did it. Now I have 4 thick notebooks with kanji and vocab and I feel like a monk trying to collect some forbidden knowledge (on cute notebooks with butterflies, birds and flowers) For me, writing down is the best way to remember kanji, vocab and everything else, really.
Yep. That’s what I’m doing now and it helps to bring things to memory a lot more, at least for me. I do it level by level or when I’ve encountered Kanji that comes up often when I’m reading or watching something. I write everything really. My own little “辞書” lol. I’m on level 6 now but when things come up in my reviews from, let’s say level 3, I remember a little better cause I remember writing it down. So yeah it does help
I just bought a cute notebook. I like people who like cute notebooks, that’s all I have to say about this.
I do difficult words, more or less thematically thrown together. Like ‘this week’ ‘next month’ ‘every day’ because all the nichi’s and jitsu’s just go in a blender inside my head and weird things come out.
edit: sorry for the edit mess
I drill radicals and kanji when I level up and unlock new lessons. I have graph paper to practice writing the kanji. Writing it down doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to remember each one, but it does help me to have a physical notebook that I can take glance at for a quick review before bed or in my down time.
I don’t go as far to do that for every single vocabulary word because it is time consuming, and I usually don’t have issues remembering them if I’ve already got the meanings of the corresponding kanji. The further you progress, the harder that will be to keep up. I suggest only writing down the ones you have trouble with remembering.
Do you take notes?
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I never write them down and as a result I don’t really know how to write most of the kanji I learn on here (although I can recognize them). Main reason is just laziness and I usually want to get through the lessons as quick as possible. I definitely think that for more thorough learning writing is a good idea, although it will probably take more time.
Absolutely. I’m a power-journaller, even. Paper is just the start.
I write down every lesson in a notebook going front to back and I write my review results in the same notebook going back to front. When they meet up, I start a new book. I jot down the readings in hiragana, make a note if WK wants the kanji to use a kun or on reading, if the kanji is a keisei compound, and what time I learnt it so I can optimise the SRS spacings.
As well as the physical notebook, I keep an online (private) journal which covers both grammar from Bunpro and “writables” (kanji and vocab) from here. For new kanji, I look up words which use it on WK but I also check Jisho. This helps me get a sense for whether the kanji has any extra meaning or shades of meaning, like how 脈 is introduced as vein but also means chain or thread, which explains why 山脈 means mountain range. For vocab I write down the meaning of each kanji and focus most on words which introduce new readings, or which have strange readings or non sequitur meanings. And I try look for connections between the words too - there are more than a few verbs in Japanese written with different kanji which have roughly the same meaning and same pronunciation: 表す (express) and 現す (show) for instance. Again, Jisho is helpful! 
I also log my failed reviews in the online journal and try to dig into the nature of the mistake, etc. If I thought something was X but it turned out to be Y, I’ll look up Y as well and make sure I’m clear on the difference.
Beyond the journal, I have a Google doc just for managing leeches - kanji and vocab reviews I seemingly fail to remember for very long. (敗 is one of them, ironically.) A WKer who reached level 60 not so long ago (sorry unsure who) had an excellent admonition about putting extra effort into attending to leeches once you get to the mid-20s levels so they don’t clog up your review queue. That and breaking lessons up into shorter sessions over more days was very good advice!
For sure. I don’t write down radicals so much, but I definitely do writing practice on my kanji and words. Also, if I’m in a boring meeting I do stuff like this:
Might as well get something productive done instead of just sitting their bored out of my mind. 
I started out writing everything down, but now I just write down the kanji and both readings… I found that writing down vocabulary took way too much time
Yeah, usually if I want to write vocab, it’s better to just write down whole sentences. Thankfully my Japanese teacher likes us to write a lot so he will double check our writing for us. Helps a lot in getting in practice and making sure to reinforce proper grammar and word usage, etc.
Not sure how to answer, haha. I don’t take notes on WK items, so i guess no. But I do take some notes in class.
I don’t write everything down but I do take notes. If I’m having a hard time remembering a certain kanji or grammar point, physically writing (NOT typing!) it over and over helps me remember.
Personally I don’t. Whether it helps you depends on your learning type I believe.
There are people who excel at obtaining information visually, others verbally (well with kanji they may be out of luck!) and other tactically, by wrinting it out!
You should try it and see if it helps you remember!
For me personally, I’m more of a visual guy. Writing kanji by hand is beautiful, but not my goal, which is reading, understanding and speaking Japanese. That said, maybe i should do a little more, can’t even handwrite Hiragana neatly haha
I write down my mistakes. So when I miss, I write down the kanji, the meaning, the pronunciation, then write down the kanji a couple more times, just to help drive home the ones I’m struggling with. I use graph paper that I treat as throwaway, since the goal is just to use the writing as a way to help remember.
Yep. I write about a page a day in notes in a spiral notebook-- kanji/vocab lessons from WK in the morning and vocab/grammar from my textbooks in the evening. Not sure how much it helps me remember BUT it does keep me accountable to learning something every single day (even if it’s just a little some days).
I also keep a binder with my Kanji, vocabulary, and readings. It really helps me remember. But i really like BreatheTheFREQ’s idea of putting kanji in categories. I would love to do that when I have time. Great idea.
I use this too (from your thread… came across it whilst snooping around WK) it’s a really great method. Thanks for sharing that.
I have a sheet of graph paper next to me when I do my KANI-WANI (not WaniKani) exercises. If you don’t know about KaniWani, check it out. It’s linked to WaniKani (but not developed by Tofugu) and prompts you with English to help you work on recall. I will type out my response in Hiragana and before pressing enter write down the Kanji as best as I can. (The kanji appears when you press enter). I highly recommend using regular graph paper. When you start out, or find a particularly complex Kanji, you can use 4 squares, but then when you become more comfortable with it, you can start writing in 1 square (which is about how small you’d normally be writing).
