The first kanji a learned was 大. It was back when I was in middle school. Our geography teacher had a life changing trip to Japan and did a special class after coming back to share the excitement.
Of course, she didn’t tell us the reading but I still remember the meaning because the kanji looks like a person trying to grab something large and extending their arms all the way out.
I later borrowed a book about Japan from that teacher. It was pretty interesting, though I don’t remember anything from the book except for how fast Shinkansen are.
(Back then I would’ve never guessed I that I’d be able speak Japanese as an adult)
I don’t really remember my first kanji, but the first one I really remember being proud of being able to write was 賽, and I’d basically only write that over and over again when I was little to show off.
The first that I actually noticed was 日 and 月 for the date in Princess Maker 5 on an unfinished fan translation many years ago, but as others pointed out I would have seen the 亀 in Dragon Ball and various elemental ones in Yu-Gi-Oh on the top right of the card.
Me too! It was the first I learned, before wanikani but after I started learning Japanese. I was learning words and phrases in kana, but for some reason this came up in passing on one of the sites I was using. No clue why only this kanji and nothing else in Kanji at all… but it stuck with me enough to give me some trouble when I got to it and needed to be answering すい instead of みず (it also is what gave me the courage to try wanikani and learning Kanji despite how difficult it seemed lol)
Long before I learned any Kanji in a class I knew that 木 meant tree and three trees 森 meant forest.
I guess one of the first Kanji I learned in class must have been 食, just because it comes up so often.
The first Kanji I learned outside of the class, when already studying was 待, totally because of Ace Attorney, because I was toying around with the Japanese option (even when my Japanese level was way too low).
