Advice on Learning Kanji
 

I've begun learning some kanji and already I'm hitting a brick wall. I can easily associate the meaning and the kanji but I'm having a hard time remembering all the readings. If I can use the kanji for existing vocabulary then fine. My kanji guides casually give a reading but fail to associate that with a particular word.

How do others learn kanji? Would it be ok to just learning the readings for the vocabulary that I know then as I expand my vocabulary learn new readings for known kanji?

I would be grateful for any advice.


Thanks

I try and learn words. When you start out in kanji you get a lot of concrete nouns that make sense to learn as single kanji like 木 and then as you go on, you get a lot more kanji that by themselves basically have no easily translatable meaning like 御. And yeah, trying to learn that as ' means honorific but not actually the ~word~ "honorific" because that's something else' is a big headache.
I would say your plan isn't too bad. If you build a strong foundation, eg, knowing 集める as 'atsumeru', then all you need to do is keep an eye out for the irregularities such as 集権 where the same kanji is read as 'shuu'.

I think a very (very!) general rule of thumb is if it is "Kanji A+kana as verb" or "Kanji A +Kana as idiom" Then it's the kun reading. If it's "Kanji A+ Kanji B (+kana)" or "Kanji B + Kanji A" then it's the on reading.

For me, to learn Kanji, I write it over and over again whilst also writing the different readings. Write down words that use the Kanji with the different meanings and then the kana for them. Perhaps figure out a little mnemonic within the kanji for the different readings?
At least for myself, repetition and association is key.
And having a good resource, such as a really good book or Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten for the DS are great. (The DS game has English->Japanese->Kanji and vice versa capabilities)

For reading, just start making flashcards from a list of JLPT kanji and vocabulary. Use Anki on your computer for this. This will occupy your time for two to three years if you're diligent, and if you are not, for five or more.

While doing this, just read newspaper articles you get off the Internet.

Enjoy your Japanese literacy!

Also, write often, and use as many kanji as you can. This will force you to learn the kanji. Write kanji often.

There is no trick to learning kanji. You just write and read them constantly and you'll get there in a few years.

Isn't overuse of Kanji a bad habit?

Yes. But for the sake of simplicity (I'm not writing a hundred page essay on how to learn kanji on this site), I just said to write tons of kanji all the time.

I had a feeling someone would ask about that, though.

If you want my opinion asking how to learn kanji is a waste of time. Everyone's brain "files" information with different patterns. What works wonderful for me doesn't mean it works for you. You know what is the best way for you to learn, apply it to kanji.

I think a book called "remembering the kana" is really good and can help you.

"overuse of Kanji"

What does that mean?

Like obsessively writing 子供　instead of 子ども　or 有り難う instead of ありがとう. Or, I suppose using ateji over kana for certain words. Country names, for example, or 苧環 rather than オダマキ

I'd say with most learners, they tend to do the opposite and under-use kanji. By the time you start coming across things like 有り難う you're usually wised-up enough to realize that's OTT. Although stuff like 子供 and オダマキ can be more practice, trial and error.