I’ve been having trouble recently remembering kanji. I feel like I can remember, quite a bit of the time, the meanings of kanji combinations into English… But I’m having a hard time with the actual Japanese words since pronunciations of kanji change all the time.
Was wondering; could I first try memorizing words in hiragana and then move to the kanji ? I’m not sure if that’d help, but I’m thinking maybe getting the actual words first, the pronunciations, could help me to retain that easier. I’ve used my own mnemonics for words in the past, so.
Not sure if this is a silly question or not, but thought I’d ask. Thanks ~
Not sure if it helps, but before I started learning kanji, I am familiar with some N1 or N2 level vocabulary and can write them correctly in hiragana. I knew them through listening from several Japanese media.
It totally helped since I mostly sweep through vocabulary in WK. I only have hard time remembering the kanji.
At my level though, I am encountering words here in WK that I don’t know. It really helps that I read raw manga and see those vocabs in wild.
I think it helps save time if you learn kanji and corresponding vocabs at the same time, but it needs to be reinforced through reading
Try using the mnemonics to remember the words. The more you imagine the odd details and create mental pictures for each kanji / vocab, the easier they will be to remember
Turn on autoplay audio also so you have the audio cue to help
memorize the mnemonics, write down your own things to help you remember.
then do your reviews.
WK is still about the best method to learn the vocabulary on WK because of the mnemonics, order, radicals, etc.
So, i don’t think you’ll have it any easier by first learning hiragana words.
Plus, many hiragana words aren’t on WK because they actually don’t have Kanji.
Just do your reviews and don’t worry too much, you will learn everything eventually
The words that I already knew before learning the kanji were the easiest to remember! No mnemonic required. I think it’s a lot easier to remember that 先生 is せんせい (that is, if you already knew that word), than 先ーせん and 生ーせい. So yeah, I think ot can help to learn the words by themselves too.
If you’re talking about mixing kuyomi and onyomi there are some rules that can help you guess the readings correctly, also with rendaku. Most of the time anyway…
But with stuff like 人 which change all the time between にん and じん you’re just going to learn the words individually or use a mnemonic for them.
Thanks @ren_grantz !! Yeah, I should pracitce reading… I feel like I need to learn more grammar though first heh, I’ve not been so consistent with that.
Thank you @Jerricent ! I’ve tryin to use the audio; I feel like it helps ~
