I am aiming for JLPT N1, and I think I will encounter many rare words in the exam. Does it make sense to study kanji in isolation and learn their onyomi and kunyomi readings? Many people recommend learning vocabulary, but will vocabulary learning really be enough? What if I come across a usage that is not very common on the exam?
4 Likes
Is your wanikani level representative of your proficiency in the language at large? If so, don’t worry too much about N1 so early, you’ll have plenty of time to figure that out as your understanding of the language increases.
In general I would argue that it makes sense to learn kanji in isolation when they’re used in many words. 中、台、最、人、直、真、対… Those come up so often in all sorts of vocab and contexts, so knowing their reading and meaning will let you guess the reading and meaning of unknown words.
As you progress you’ll reach less common kanji that are only used in a handful of words. Then I think it makes more sense to just learn the word first and then the kanji. For instance you probably want to learn 嫉妬 as a unit, there’s no real point in breaking it down because both kanji are basically only used for this one common word.
You probably only need to worry about that once you’re past the 1000 kanji mark though. Anything before that is common enough that you’ll want to know the individual kanji and their meanings one way or an other.
11 Likes
Don’t worry. N1 does not contain many rare words; it’s trying to test that you have a good vocabulary for that level of proficiency, not that you know super obscure stuff. Also, the words it tests for the reading of are usually the ones that you cannot guess from the standard onyomi/kunyomi for the kanji – you need to know the word it is testing. Finally, the vocab part of JLPT is not a large part of the overall test – you will need grammar, general reading ability and listening too.
In my view the only reason to study kanji individually is as a stepping stone to learning words. As you progress you’ll find out for yourself how much or how little you need that stepping stone: people vary.
6 Likes
A little tangential, overall great points, but 妬む is pretty common I think (I’ve seen it written with the other kanji but IIRC it was furigana’d to そねむ over ねたむ to be doubly fancy). This doesn’t even impact your point because it’s a whole different reading to learn anyway.
Yeah in the practice I’ve taken for the N1 it even furigana’d some words in the reading if it considered them outside the general knowledge scope they’re looking for.
They’ve pretty much covered the main question and I agree with both responses. Ultimately you can succeed at Japanese with either method. Vocab first (and only) can absolutely be sufficient, but if you want the stepping stone to making kanji less of a scary mass of lines, that will definitely work too.
4 Likes
I did see 妬む on jisho while checking but I never encountered it myself. 嫉妬 I do encounter regularly however. But of course it’s probably highly dependant on the author…
Maybe I could have picked 犠牲 instead. No I will not acknowledge baseball vocab.
3 Likes
挨拶 is always the really classic one that comes to my mind. I’ve never bothered installing any frequency decks but I definitely agree 嫉妬 is the more common one. 妬む is just, from the arbitrary perspective I’ve built up to now, somewhere in the region where I still feel like I’m coming across an ordinary word if I see it, haha.
4 Likes
Off topic: Neither netamu or sonemu are remotely common in the grand scheme of things, so if you see it a lot its probably just the authors you read coincidentally liking using them. Netamu is ~20k on jpdb and that lines up with my experience.
As for the furigana thing, if you saw 嫉む that should be read as sonemu anyways. The furigana was probably just there because its an uncommon word. Both can be read as the other, but those are their respective “typical” readings afaik. Usually not too important, especially since 妬む is the only one most learners are probably ever going to see anyways, but worth remembering in case you are trying to impress someone while reading and come across 妬み嫉み without furigana I guess.
On topic:
Aiming for N1 is pretty irrelevant to whether or not you should study kanji in isolation. Maybe there is a consideration for just learning a buncha onyomi and having a slightly easier time on the kanji section…but when I took the N1 the hardest word on the kanji section was like 勇敢 which is a pretty standard word if you just…read. Not to mention the kanji section is pretty small in the grand scheme of things.
All I’ll say is that learning kanji in isolation (from a reading standpoint) just familiarizes you with their readings and what they can mean. But guess what happens when you learn words containing a kanji? You become familiar with their readings and the meanings they are associated with. From a reading comprehension standpoint you more or less will end up at the same point, its just a question of do you want to spread the learning out over 2 stages or take it all in one. That just depends more on you. Most people will prefer 2 stages at the start, and a majority of learners who get to a decent reading level will end up doing 1 stage learning primarily at some point in their journey. The question for most people is just when do you make the switch.
5 Likes
This one I know 
! #PraiseHigurashi
朝の爽やかさをそのままにした快活な挨拶が響いてきた。
2 Likes
There is also 妬く, but probably with Furigana. It’s an example of reading not being listed in Kanjidic.
Another Kanji in 嫉妬 is rare, just like another Kanji in 犠牲 that is not baseball.
But handwritten side text might not have Furigana. Also social networks / comment threads.
3 Likes