When to Start Learning Kanji?

[@RubyDuran]

Thanks to you I learned about WaniKani and I’m on my way to becoming a great reader in Japanese! Great videos, as always. Happy to see you’re back :)

[@AliviasNook]

Aw thank you Ruby!

[@Djax111]

Best video I have seen explaining this topic. Quick and to thr point. Love it!

[@kagebushinuplate]

Your channel is incredibly concise and has been SUPER helpful for someone like me who constantly relapses out of language learning!!! Thank you

[@imnobodywhoareyouu]

I went to japanese lessons like 6 years ago and left. Last year during quarantine I decided to go back to the language studying by myself as an autodidact. I found this channel looking for motivation and I love it!

[@chrisb3487]

Something I would probably recommend for absolute beginners is to learn the N5 kanji first. Even if you don't end up learning the rest of the kanji in JLPT order, those first 100 or so that make up N5 are so common, they're going to be useful right away. They're also pretty easy to learn compared to the more advanced kanji so it's a good way to build confidence early on.

[@AliviasNook]

That’s a great tip! Plus since they’re so common you’ll be sure to see them lots in whatever learning materials you choose later on

[@imeggalicious]

Do you know any good resources for learning them?

[@Voltaire619]

You’ve done it again! Gosh! I love your videos, they are so helpful and timely! Thank you so much!

[@AliviasNook]

Aw thank you that’s so sweet!

[@英語わかりません]

Yeah, definitely. I would spend a week or two to learn hiragana and katakana, maybe some basic japanese. Then go straight to wanikani and pound vocab sentences with anki.

[@AliviasNook]

Agreed!

[@m1chr0ma100]

Very happy to hear that you too emphasise the importance of starting to learn kanji early. I think it's easy as a beginner to feel tempted to postpone kanji, but in Japanese it is not reasonable as there are so many homonyms, and kanji help make sense of the meaning of the word (and thus also with memorisation). The vocabulary in kind helps reinforce the knowledge of the kanji. The way I look at it, kanji is one of those things that will be very challenging (in the beginning), but you just have to accept that and get into it ASAP. When I was taking Japanese classes in high school, kanji was sadly no priority at all and everyone was required to start learning them (at a very slow pace) only in their third year. There were for sure other pedagogical shortcomings, but I certainly think this one had devastating consequences for the general development of the students' language skills. Also, love the ukulele in the background!

[@fergem33]

I use RTK, after about 2 weeks I already have learned up to 200 kanji. I recomend a lot this method, I study about 1.5 to 2 hours per day and I don't feel that is a big deal.

[@AliviasNook]

Wow you’re making incredible progress, good for you!

[@fergem33]

@@AliviasNook Thank you, nice video by the way

[@joses.4078]

@@fergem33 Just curious, how are you doing now? More orbless how many kanji do you know?

[@fergem33]

@@joses.4078 Yesterday I learned the Kanji number 1320, with school I didn't find time to learn new Kanji everyday, I still do the anki reviews thought. Among all the Kanji I know there are like 30 that I simply cant remember but Im fine with that. Other important thing is that I did almost no immersion during this time, I can say that combining RTK with inmersion improves the results since the Kanji you see in real context are easier to recognize and remember.

[@joses.4078]

@@fergem33 So I guess you learned like 12 - 19 kanji per day?

[@サチ-m3o]

can I say how much I love your channel!

[@rafaelmesquita7044]

I personally find it easier to just learn words in kanji straight away. Of course the learning curve is slow in the beginning, but soon enough they start to show up more and more often in different words (depending on what sort of reading materials you're using), which makes the readings and meanings stick really well. The thing is to not worry about memorizing every single information about the kanji, but rather get familiarity by exposing yourself to them. By doing this, coupled with consistent Anki reviews, once you get a couple of kanji to study individually (if you think it's important to you), the whole process becomes much easier and you just have to worry about writing them down and organizing the knowledge already acquired through input - I usually recollect the meaning and most of the readings of the most common kanji without much difficulty. Three years ago, back when I tried to study Japanese on my own for the first time, I really tried to cram hundreds of kanji (without context) in my mind from the beginning and I just couldn't bring myself to do it after a month or so (it become tedious really quickly). I guess it depends on the person. If anyone feels discouraged because of kanji, I recommend trying this method as well. It might work for you too.

[@rafaelmesquita7044]

By the way, I love your content! I don't actually know anyone who studies Japanese here where I live, so it's really motivational to see someone else's progress and be able to get some tips on how to improve.

[@AliviasNook]

Thanks for your advice! It's great to have other perspectives because different things work for different people😄

[@Deniii4000]

@@rafaelmesquita7044 I've had the same experience as you: tried using Anki with RTK Recognition and had it set to 20 kanji a day. About one month and a week later I just quit because it was a chore and was having difficulties remembering the meaning with no context at all. Because of this, I've been thinking about doing the opposite: using the Tango deck which has vocabulary + kanji and see if this works better for me. Let's see if this method works any better (hope it does because I've run out of alternative ideas)

[@hayden1096]

My recommendation for anyone feeling a bit daunted by the idea of starting to learn kanji is to just start with the numbers. The shapes and readings are all very straightforward so you will quickly master them and find yourself thinking "That wasn't so bad, I can do this".

[@AliviasNook]

I like that! Really great place to start to build your confidence 👌🏽

[@Vaxyl]

I think the best way is to memorize hiragana and katakana then you can start kanji

[@_KiRa937_]

Thanks to you I’ve started to use Anki with WaniKani + Minna no Nihongo decks and it gave a tremendous boost to my vocabulary. Thank you so much! But I wonder about learning readings. Is it really useful to learn readings without context? WaniKani has vocabulary, but only after kanji’s meaning+reading notes. And I keep noticing that I can’t properly remember the readings by themselves, but when I get examples with vocabulary it just "clicks".

[@AliviasNook]

I’m glad to hear that! I think the method for learning readings will vary person to person. It can be good to learn them independently if you find learning a whole word at once to be too overwhelming, but if you find it an unnecessary step that’s fine too!

[@orianasimmons]

I’ve completely learned hiragana & katakana and I’m terrified of Kanji 🥲🥲

[@imeggalicious]

I've been trying to learn Japanese for like 4 years but I always give up before I really try shhfndhdn so I know hiragana really well but I've always struggled with katakana, do you have any tips on learning it??

[@AliviasNook]

I completely get it, kanji is intimidating! Just start small, you don’t have to do it all at once. The more you learn, the easier learning new ones will become

[@AliviasNook]

Katakana can definitely be tricky to get to stick, because it isn’t used as frequently. You could try using online flash card games to practice or just keep out a kana chart to use for reference until you get it

[@konan8353]

@@imeggalicious If you use Tofugu's guide to Katakana whilst also using Anki (you can make a deck or download one) then I promise you can permanently memorise every single katakana character in a week

[@orianasimmons]

@@imeggalicious I’ve been trying to learn for a very long time aswell. I personally used Kodanshas Hiragana & Katakana workbooks to keep me focused. It has audio readings for the vocabulary & flash cards in the back for studying. Hope that helps! ~I learned both hiragana and katakana in 2 weeks just from those workbooks!~

[@konan8353]

That smile at the end of the video lol

[@daughterofYahweh93]

can u please post the link for RTK i cant find it?

[@adityaajay6786]

Hi Alivia, I just wanted to know how you took the JLPT N5. Did the JLPT N5 Tango MIA deck suffice for all the kanji? Do you not feel that most of the vocabulary is a bit excessive for the actual exam? What method would you say is the most efficient? Also, did the exam have furigana, I ask this because the practice questions do have furigana?

[@AliviasNook]

Hi! I never formally took the JLPT N5, only the practice exams. From what I found online the real exam does have furigana and the Tango deck should suffice for material. The amount of vocab may be a bit excessive but that’s just to make sure you’ll be sure to know whatever they throw at you in the exam, because the words they use each year is only a subsection of the unofficial Tango list and is always a bit different.

[@adityaajay6786]

@@AliviasNook thanks for replying, love your videos by the way. Also please consider making a buy me a coffee, I would love to support you.

[@AliviasNook]

Aw thank you so much for the support! Maybe one day 😊

[@georgee8509]

great video btw whats your JLPT level if i may ask?

[@AliviasNook]

I’m between N4 and N3, but haven’t formally taken it as yet

[@georgee8509]

@@AliviasNook oh thats pretty good, good luck with your japanese studying :] and thanks for your great videos they really helped me and get to wanikani

[@AliviasNook]

Glad I could help. Good luck with your studies! 😄

[@meth8830]

if only wanikani was free