Thanks ~ Yeah, they really do! I have a really good sheet that my teacher gave me though, and it has some really good ways to remember them. I think I'll scan it in because it'll help a lot of people learning I'm sure.

Told ya didnt i? once you convert to kana it all just fits together!

Kanji taught in Japanese school from 1st to 6th grade
I am not sure how reliable it is this, but actually this is also the order I use to study my kanji and when I say study I mean learn all their readings and meanings. Well the meanings for which they are mostly known since many of them have too many to study like that, you need to meet them in phrases.

So far I am at 100 kanji studied, most of the first grade and some from the second and third (trying to get most of the verbs first). That doesn't mean I know only those 100, but I know those 100 in all readings and meanings.
I tell you that it is a hard job and I admire a kid in Japan who learns 200ish kanji a year (it took me like 3 months to learn those).
However you have to consider two things when you mention how much a Japanese kid learn in one scholar year: first, his brain is empty and it is less harder to fill it with new kanji. He doesn't have another language that takes up part of his brain and thus he doesn't have to try to translate every single bit of information he receives. Second, a Japanese kid lives in a Japanese full immersion situation in which he already has the basic of Japanese, thus he already knows the word whose kanji is about to learn and how to use those words.

yep exactly

you're at a "disadvantage" from the beginning. so nothing will help you more than hardwork and dedication :D :D

there's a guy who has a proven theory (worked on himself) about learning japanese thru immersion ( All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency. ) it's very interesting, but also very dedicated. Of course he was in Japan when he did this too. If anything it's an interesting read. XD

Very true, though
I was agreeing in the first place. :rolleyes:

Kanji and Hiragana are most commonly used.
Katakana is used for onomonapeic words like bow-wow or cock-a-doodle-doo. It's also used for foreign and tailored words, such as aisukurimu (ice cream), and names; japanese or not. Although Kanji is also used for Japanese names...

what is your problem

Yeah, I had to teach myself.
It was by luck that I chose to start with hiragana(I just thought it looked cool and old fashioned), and I just rewrote it again and again, and eventually I memorized it. I had decided to just screw Kanji, I mean, there's furigana(that's what it's called, right? The stuff above Kanji) right? Wrong! But I procrastinated, and learned katakana. I like it a lot, it looks so...high-tech! And people don't believe that I can write in Japanese until I use A) Kanji or B) Katakana. So sad hiragana, my absolute favorite, isn't even recognized by ignorant American children. Anyhoo, now I'm currently learning kanji, and I regret not starting from the get-go. I love the way Kanji looks in a sentence.



Speaking of which, I have a fun anecdote to share!
Once upon a time, I doodled on my chemistry desk. It's black and in the black, so you can only see my pencil writing from that desk, maybe the next one over. And I wrote "baka" in hiragana, erased it, rewrote it in katakana, and doodled some more, and erased all but "baka" (I did the same thing at our rival HS by writing it on the board mwahaha!). A few days later, I was taking a test in chemistry..and wrote "baka na" on the desk. After I finished the test though, I noticed more pencil writing, and it said in Kanji "Nippon jin" then in hiragana "su ka?" Idk what happened to the "de", maybe it doesn't matter, I haven't studied enough. And so I SCREAMMED!!!!!!! in my head, and wrote back "Iie, demo nihongo o naraimasu." and I'm eagerly waiting a response! Yeah...it made ME happy!

Actually, the AJATT guy claims to have become fluent in Japanese before ever visiting Japan. That's the whole point of his method; immersion is the only way you'll ever really learn a language, and you can bring the immersion to yourself anytime, anywhere.

He also has some interesting methods for learning vocabulary and grammar that are worth looking at, especially since they apply to any language.

First, school teach hiragana. And Katakana. First year, book write many, many hiragana. Book middle teach simple kanji if story, like, 田、火、日、山、大。 And number. 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十。