Which methods were useful for you when learning kanji?
Writing characters out many times 68.7%
Referencing a dictionary 50.9%
Using the convert feature on a computer / word processor 18.0%
Learning about radicals and the structure of kanji 15.4%
Reading Chinese scripts 14.5%
Reading text with lots of furigana 14.2%
Reading text with no furigana 13.9%
If you look close enough, I think you'll notice there's a lot of valuable information here.
First, the dreaded idea of writing out kanji being useful!? Although many learners and academics will tell you that repeatedly writing won't help, then why are 68.7% of Japanese people saying it was a useful method for them? My guess is the issue of "context".
When Japanese write out kanji they are studying, the characters are often those they have encountered in some fashion already, be it through writing or reading. The relative familiarity they have with the characters already makes the act of writ repetition more of a reinforcement rather than a strict zero to something learning method. Additionally, the books they use when studying kanji, be they school textbooks or Kanken books, are often full of loads of information. Kanji are usually accompanied by example sentences, words and compounds using the character, details on on and kun readings, radical information. This high degree of context makes each and every character relevant, which brings it to life and makes it real.
On the other hand, non-Japanese learners will often take a less context-oriented approach to writing out kanji. I remember years ago when I would just take a kanji from my textbook and start writing it out in my notebook. I'd write it ten or twenty times, confident that I would remember it when I woke up the next day. But I usually didn't. Back then it just got me aggravated. Now I can look back and see how it wasn't a very good approach. You can't just tear kanji away from any sort of context and hope to master it.
If you want to learn how to write kanji, you need to practice writing. But you can't do it within a vacuum. You need to supply yourself with context. You need to read as well. You need to practice writing in a variety of situations. Interaction is key. As a non-native speaker of Japanese, you need to take the effort to create a similar environment for yourself that native speakers enjoy.
This links up nicely with the 15.4% of native speakers who reported that learning about radicals and the construction of kanji help them learn. While many beginner and intermediate learners may shrug off learning the names for radicals, or even identifying them, is this a wise path too choose? Simply taking a few minutes to define the structural differences between such characters as 持 侍 時 can open your eyes to a wealth of information. Three characters with "ji" as the on reading. The specific meaning of the character defined by the radical. There's a lot of good stuff here for those willing to take the time and effort to pull back the curtains a bit.
Lastly, the final two statistics are quite enlightening. Native speakers are reporting at similar percentages that furigana both helps and hinders.
Reading text with lots of furigana 14.2%
Reading text with no furigana 13.9%
Many learners will argue that furigana interferes with learning of kanji. They will say that having an "easy answer" available derails you from seeking out the answers yourself. While I agree to a point, I think there is some leeway for allowing furigana in to your learning regiment.
What's important is discriminating between needing to know the reading of a character versus needing to know its meaning. If you know what a particular kanji means and have simply forgotten how to read it when hitting upon it in a text, then having the furigana does no real harm. Sure, you could have taken the time to look it up in a dictionary. And while I will agree that this type of reinforcement is useful at times, it can also be obstructive. Your mileage may vary.
However, if you are reading something and hit a kanji you have never seen before or cannot recall the meaning of, it's important to rely not only on the furigana, but to also check the meaning with a dictionary. Knowing how to read a kanji is not the same as knowing what it means. Looking at troublesome kanji in text one character at a time and learning how to respond accordingly is a skill that must be honed with time. Finely hammering out these skills will make things a lot easier in the long run.
Just a little bit of advice from native speakers--and myself. *ahem*
2 comments:
Please post some resources we can use to study kanji in context, otherwise your advice is simply relative, or theory with no personal experience, and as such unreliable.
Well, this connects pretty much to that what I told one of my friend who is studying Japanese. Studying kanji just by itself doesn't get you very far. As she got her new kanji book (Kanji masutaa 2kyuu kanji 1000) and started practising and filling out the workbook-like fields. I asked her if she also tried the tests in the book which one would encouter after every chapter and a big one every once in a while and she said no, that she was just learning the kanji, not the words. I possess the same book and I started off writing out all the words and all the kanji and tried to repeat the writing of the words and kanji as long as I could finally remember them. It helped for some kanji but for most kanjis I hadn't seen before nor heard the words they were linked to I just couldn't memorize them. So I postponed my studies from that book. I don't say it's not good or anything. On the contrary I say it is the best kanji book to use after finishing the Basic Kanji Books BUT vocabulary wise most people are not up to that book. So I thought it would be better to continue that way I got my mother tongue (Estonian) and German knowledge. By listening... Small kids can't read, can they? The answer is obviously NO. So they pick up the language by hearing, right? And when kids start to read and write they are usually around 4-7 years old. And I can bet that any 5 or 6 year old kid can beat most adults who are trying to learn the kid's mother tongue. Why don't we do it then? Somehow we want to mess up the normal order which doesn't lead to success in most cases. So first goes listening, then reading and almost parallel to it writing. So why the hell can't you guys read? Because you don't have the memory and feeling of the language which means you don't understand spoken language and you can't speak as well. So if you get stuck in your language studies, think about the order. This is especially true for Japanese or other languages which use a different writing system than the latin alphabet (assuming that most westerners use it) but also applies for other languages. I picked up German from the TV as a kid. I used to watch cartoons all day long. Many of my school friends did the same. Their German is excellent. You just sit and watch and watch and suddenly you realize that you can understand everything and if you watch a little more then you discover you can repeat the same words they did on TV and even make sentences which make sense... Nowadays the things have changed a bit in Estonia and children watch American and English production more than German so their English is fabulous. Some kids don't have an accent at all. You couldn't tell the kid was not a native speaker. So do everything possible to get a listening chance. Movies or cartoons are nice but usually the language spoken there is too one-sided. Normal TV is the best where you have also ads, documentaries, news, weather forecast and of course anime, movies, doramas and the usual stuff we can now download from the internet...
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