I’m starting to write the kanji and hiragana more for my karate kids. They like learning new things like this and we do teach in Japanese so writing down stuff on a white board gives it some more depth.
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One of my main reasons for learning Japanese was I found the script pretty and wanted to be able to write it so… quite a lot of handwriting involved, I’d say 
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I’m a pretty low level and pretty low on grammar too; so I can’t write full sentences or anything. BUT every time I do a lesson, I write down the Radical/Kanji/Vocabulary, the meaning, and the pronunciation in Hiragana in my notebook. My Hiragana is getting good because of that, I suppose! Or sloppy… not sure which.
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I’m taking part in the Genki study group and have gone in with 0 knowledge of stroke order, grammar, or anything really. Genki asks you to write your answers in hiragana, so I studied stroke order for about a week and can write hiragana and katakana effortlessly.
I am going to begin studying stroke order for kanji next, but all I can say is it is such a satisfying feeling to be able to write in Japanese with a pencil or pen! I’m a really low level still, so to be able to look at my paper like, “I did this!” feels great.
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A bit. I have a cheap square grid notebook that I use for writing down the radicals/kanji/vocab (along with meaning and pronunciation in kana) when I first learn them.
I also use this notebook when doing English-to-Japanese reviews on KaniWani or Torii: I try to recall and write down the word using kanji+kana on my notebook, and then I type the answer on KW or Torii. If I’m in a lot of hurry, I won’t use the notebook, but I will take a couple of seconds to imagine that I’m writing down the word before I start typing.
I do like this approach. There’s a little bit of writing, but nothing too boring or time-consuming such as writing down the same character over and over again in one go (which I’ve heard doesn’t even work that well, apparently after the first few times you just repeat the movements without actually paying attention and committing them to memory, so it ends up being a tiresome waste of time). I do think it helps, plus I find it even somewhat enjoyable/relaxing/meditative, and one could make it even more so by using some nice smooth papers and pens.
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I personally found that my retention for the shapes of basic multi-component kanji went way up when i started writing it (on a phone screen) since it really forced me to remember what components went where and how they were constructed, rather than just sort of vaguely recognizing a kanjis shape. This makes wanikani reviews way easier for things that look similar.
I’ve set up sort of a basic SRS system in Chase Colborn’s Kanji Study App. I spend maybe 10 mins at most on it a day, but i feel I get a lot of return out of those ten minutes.
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It’s not even about kanji, I am just wondering whether writing in general is beneficial and makes you a bit more fluent, considering how different kana / kanji are from everything else I know. I am Russian so I grew up with Cyrillic but used Latin letters just for fun for as long as I remember, too, so it wasn’t a factor when I started learning English. It’s very different with Japanese and I suspect that the muscle memory that you get form writing might help with fluency while reading, too.
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I do handwritten notes as I watch Misa Grammar Lessons on youtube and read through Tae Kim.
Colour coded, red for Japanese, green for English, blue for explanation, black for heading.
I do it because I know it helps me focus, and because I enjoy it. If I just watch the videos and don’t take notes or speak along, I don’t retain much. At the moment the only place I can watch is the library as I don’t have wifi at home, so I’m lipsyncing rather than speaking.
At work I handwrite my special’s board but that’s all in katakana and I think it looks ugly as hell.
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Yes. I used not to, but I started to about 4 months ago and it improved my learning quite a lot.
It’s very different (to me anyway) to be able to read kanji / kana, to actually being able to picture them in my head and write them. It’s much better in my opinion, specially for those very similar looking kanji.
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Your notes look beautiful! I’m not sure I have enough patience to do THAT much writing by hand. 
But I love the idea of it.
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Thank you! My host in Kamishi used to insist I got them out to show guests whenever they came round 
Proof that despite what my bedroom floor says, I am blood type A. 
A long time ago I read that having text in different colours helps with retention, which is part of the reason I switch between colours. The other reason is I just like using the 4 colour multipen. I am a bit worried about the constant clicking at the library though.
I also disagree with people who say that writing is an unused skill in Japan. For starters I’ve been handed forms everywhere I go and being able to write things down from memory, even if it’s just my city name 高知, saves loads of time compared with copying out from a phone. At my work we do handwritten receipts, filling out items as the customer orders them. I need to be able to quickly and clearly write the item in Japanese so my coworkers can read it.
And lastly, it really gets respect from Japanese people. Last Friday when my shift ended I was drinking with a regular and my coworker and wrote out all the kanji I could remember. I got to 42. I wrote 玉 after 金. We had a good laugh. But I got the general sense that they found it almost… heartwarming? It showed that I was really making an effort with Japanese.
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Besides Wanikani which I rather use on the go during my day I also study Kanji with flashcards (white rabbit) regularly at home and each time I pick a card up to guess the Kanji I’ll write the Kanji down first and then check if I wrote it correctly.
I’m learning my grammar/vocab with Genki and allowed myself to only advance to the next chapter if I finished ALL the exercises, from those I force myself to answer at least 50% of them by writing. (the other 50% by speaking the answers out loud to practice speaking and putting together sentences on the fly)
And I feel this helps me a lot to retain all my learning. (I also write down all core grammar points I learn each chapter in my own words, in my mother tongue though)
I’d recommend something like this to everyone, the brain can retain stuff so much better when you actually take the time to write it down.
Especially Kanji get easier when you remember the pattern in which they’re drawn.
Also, I’m an illustrator and I think Kanji are beautiful little pictures so there is that… 
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Somehow I got the idea that you got actual blood on your floor that tested to be type B or something by the CSI dudes. And you be like. Nope, mine’s A, so not mine.
Wait that means you are now in a crime scene. Who did you kill?
…
…
Anyway, I like writing kanji. Gives me the fake feeling that I know what i’m doing.
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I think the one catch here is that most of our reading is in computer fonts. I’ve definitely had a problem with recognizing a kanji in calligraphy style even after seeing it 50 million times on my computer or something else I’ve read.
Once I figured it out I feel like an idiot of course. But yeah, writing it yourself helps so much in this regard.
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Do you know what the actual idea was? Was it supposed to be the whole blood type horoscope thing?
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Often when I do new lessons I use a stroke order userscript to help me write down the kanji a few times. I’m currently working through Genki I, and I answer all the questions in the practice section on paper just to practice writing. I personally would like to be able to write well in Japanese, and I find it helps me remember a kanji more clearly when I’ve written it down a few times.
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That’s probably what she meant, yes. I just let my fantasy get ahead of myself 
I have a question that is about Japanese writing so I didn’t want to start a new topic.
I have seen in a few anime where someone writes in a journal or some report or even a manuscript and there are no lines on the paper.
Is this normal in modern Japanese writing? When hand writing in Japanese, do they not use lined paper? I have been writing using standard college ruled paper and still can’t keep things straight and “pretty”. I have horrible handwriting as it is so writing anything without guidelines always looks terrible.
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Basically not at all. I did some kana and early kanji in the beginning, but then realized that my focus is on comprehension (reading and listening) and conversations (verbally), both of which don’t require handwriting. Instead I try to put my energy into my priorities, but might indulge in handwriting once I reached a certain level.
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Blood type A are supposed to be neat and tidy, organised and fastidious.
My bedroom often looks like it has been ravaged by a series of high level natural disasters.
But my Japanese notes sure are pretty!
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