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Originally Posted by ryuurui
1. This is related to etymology of characters. To understand that it takes years of studies and practice. It's a never ending road. We all learn kanji till we die. Kanji are built of radicals, and there are 214 of them. They often suggest meaning or sound. This is quite tricky too, as many of the modern characters were simplified over years (even in ancient times). This will come to you with experience, but understanding radicals should help a great deal.
In word population, it is simple and logical, human mouth(s) >>> population. Also, please remember that kanji were developped pre BC and many meanings are borrowd, further, after incorporating them into Japanese language, some meanings were lost, confused or changed.
2. Do not learn them by heart. Try to learn new meanings and readings on the go, and preferably in compounds (more than 1 kanji)
3. I have answered this above. Learn compounds. Though you may memorize basic kanji, however the most simple ones, such as 上 may have up to 30 readings or more. They are the oldest charatcers derived from pictographs.
4. Once you get the japanese language bar you select kanji by pressing space. You need to know which characters fit given meaning, Japanese language is full of homophones.
Hiragana/katakana is a must. Do not read text in romaji (roman alphabet) but both syllabaries. Use kanji flash cards, they are quite useful.
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Thanks, that's a great help. I guess speedanki knows what it's doing, I'll have to use it more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KyleGoetz
Buy a copy of "Kanji in Context" and work through it. That's all you need to do for kanji. It has been my only kanji textbook since 2004, and I know about 1800 kanji now.
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I actually picked up "Japanese Kanji Power", which seems to be decent for what I need. There wasn't much of a selection in my city (it's pretty small) so it'll have to do. I'll do most of my learning online anyway.
Oh, and I forgot one question. ^^
5. Why do they actually keep using Kanji in their writing system? It seems like one of the most impractical things, considering everything should be able to be represented using their two alphabets. I'll still learn, but it seems like they have an unnecessary hurdle to learning their language, for native citizens as well as anyone learning as a second language.