~ Ways to remember Kanji ~

[ARose]

Ok, well... I thought maybe we could help each other remember some Kanji! I've heard from a few people that some of them look like the words the mean, so let's share some explanations! Even if they're off the wall it might make it stick in someone's head.
(I hope I explained this well...)

I'll start:

雨　あめ
Rain - It looks like a window pane with rain drops on it

[VampireGirl1314]

Originally Posted by ARose

Ok, well... I thought maybe we could help each other remember some Kanji! I've heard from a few people that some of them look like the words the mean, so let's share some explanations! Even if they're off the wall it might make it stick in someone's head.
(I hope I explained this well...)

I'll start:

雨　あめ
Rain - It looks like a window pane with rain drops on it

I understand you i think that you should just say it over and over again.>^_^<

[SSJup81]

That's how I remember "ame". I just think of it as a window with raindrops. Too bad I can't think of any other Kanji I know by remembering something. Some I just know them when I see them.

I just thought of a couple.

川 (かわ): River. I remember this one because it looks like a flowing stream.
山 (やま): Mountain. It reminds me of a mountain.
中 (なか): Inside. I just think of it as the line being drawn inside the rectangle. Lame, but that's how I remember it and know it when I see it.

[Nathan]

A lot of kanji are easy to remember based on its looks.

傘　→　looks like an umbrella!

魚　→　Like a fish

長　→ long (a build up, hold on)
友　→ friend

(Stealing a joke from Nagoyankee)
髪　→ Hair (a long time friend!)

[ahlyn7]

勉強 (べんきょう)
質問 (しつもん)
高い (たかい)
狹い (せまい)
家族 (かぞく)
結婚 (けっこん)
便利 (べんり)
健康 (けんこう)
意見 (いけん)
君 (きみ)
砂糖 (さとう)

some kanjis have quite similar pronunciation as Chinese words

[SatoriOne]

The best way to learn kanji is to read materials with furigana. Try manga that is written for young boys. The more you read the more the same kanji come up and the sooner you can memorize them. It is also a good way to improve your overall language ability.

[Seiryuu]

The thing with certain kanji is that they are based on pictographs.

After that, you can use the radicals to change the meaning plus some retain their pronounciation.

[Rogozhin]

What I did at Japanese school was encounter kanji in some context (understand how they're used in the context), write them each out ten times (this was checked by the teacher) and take quizzes to assess how much I retained. I also learned a crapload of kanji through manga with furigana.

I think a good way to remember kanji is to try to remember what single kanji generally mean. For example, if you can remember that 生 generally means "life/live", then it'd be easier for you to understand and remember that 生物 is "organism", 共生 is "symbiosis" and 生放送 is "live broadcast".