Handwriting & Other Questions
 

I'm not sure how to delete a post. Excuse my inexperience with forums.

1. Your お、ふ、ほ、み all are wrong. Your お shouldn't have a loop at the end of stroke #2. It's hard to say in words how your ふ is wrong. For your ほ, the right hand side, the top horizontal line should be flush with the vertical part—the vertical part should not extend any higher. Your み's horizontal stroke makes an s-curve type thing and it shouldn't. Oh, also your つ shouldn't be so high up. It should be lower down and look like a つ rather than a ー (which is what it looks like to me). Without context I'd never guess it's a つ.

It's readable, though. Your penmanship will get better if you pay attention to the details. Also, if you are sloppy now, your kanji (which require greater attention to detail) will be terrible.

2. Learning words while only knowing hiragana? Buy Kanji in Context. You can learn the words and the kanji at the same time. It's hands-down the best kanji book ever devised.

Sweet. Many thanks. :vsign:

Also, yes. I am using Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura's Let's Learn Hiragana there are many words in it that are written using only Hiragana, while realize it's important to learn Kanji, and I fully plan to, I am taking it slow, but would like to learn some of the basic words, especially as what to call things as I am learning. I have figured now though that Flashcards including the words and not only the symbols may be a good way of picking up some words while still practicing Hiragana.

I'll be honest: One of the biggest failings of Japanese language instruction is waiting too long to introduce kanji. If you know hiragana, learn katakana. If you know both, start kanji immediately.
While you're learning katakana, just start going down the list of words appearing on the JLPT N5. Just Google "JLPT N5 vocab list" or something.

Knowing kanji ASAP is important because, just like with Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots in English, it will make your vocabulary grow fast and much more easily.

For hiragana, you can look up my blog (Hiragana Etymology | Beyond Calligraphy) I will be writing both syllabaries (both kana's) by hand. Since I am writing with a brush it will be easier for you to comprehend the details. Also, knowing which kanji was used as a base for creating kana characters will guide you through the learning process of writing.

ryuuru - Thanks for the tip, I bookmarked and will check it out for sure. I read a little about this as the book I'm using touched on it but didn't go into detail. Thank you very much for this.

KyleGoetz - I see your point and thank your for your input. While I am almost through with Hiragana and have been working today and will continue to work towards writing my letters more carefully and skillfully, I will continue to Katakana, and Kanji as soon as possible. Very good advice. Thank you again sir.

:eek: kanji are not letters :) Kanji are characters (logographic script, in great simplification), and kana's are syllabaries.

I am lumbered with things recently, and my etymology project slowed down, but I hope to pick it up soon and all of the kana should be up and ready to learn.

While I agree that hiragana → katakana → kanji is the proper path to take for the writing systems... I am a strong believer that no one should be learning kanji for words they do not yet know. You see this all the time, and I think it seriously screws up learning. If you learn the kanji at the same time as both it`s reading and it`s meaning (with the meaning being learnt in another language), you`re shooting yourself in the foot.
I see way too many Japanese learners who may know a bunch of kanji, but they don`t know more than a handful of words. Being able to say "oh, that kanji means such-and-such in English!" is ok for trying to skim over something and getting a very very basic idea of what it could possibly be about... But unless you actually know the proper usages, knowing the meaning isn`t going to help you much.

I say learn hiragana with katakana on the side, and work hard on learning grammar and vocabulary... THEN, and only then, start learning kanji for the stuff you already know. When you are advanced enough that you can learn new kanji you encounter by looking them up in a Japanese language dictionary instead of learning kanji = meaning in English, start learning new ones.

It`s really sad to see learners struggling over memorizing countless kanji when they can`t even make a proper sentence half the time. There are other things that are more important.

My apologies. Only been two weeks. I know very little, which is why I am here.

Thank you for your advice and opinion. I will keep this in mind as well. I personally am only interested in one step at a time as to retain the most and not overwhelm myself. I am also finishing up my bachelors degree simultaneously and working full-time. For now I am working on finishing Hiragana, and learning the basics of word structure and sentence structure, from there, Katakana. From there I have not yet planned where to go.

I think this is a much better, more well-thought-out post than mine above it. But at some point as an early intermediate, I think focus should be made on cramming kanji like mad. By that point, you probably know words that make use of probably a thousand kanji (if written in kanji). Also, you're probably about ready to start learning lots of new vocab to make the push to advanced. I know my vocab got a lot bigger, and I've been able to read a lot more hardcore literary and non-fiction essays without a dictionary because of my use of Kanji in Context (which isn't just about learning the readings of kanji independently of vocab; it integrates the two—perhaps you learn two or three new words and the kanji version of a word or two you already know, for each kanji entry).

I`m not familiar with that book so can`t comment on it...

But I am of the belief that cramming kanji at any point is not really a good idea. The same with straight vocabulary.

In my opinion, the ideal way to learn kanji would go something like this;
Learn a word in context and become proficient in using that word.
Learn the kanji used in that specific word and context.
Encounter a new word using that kanji.
Learn the new word in it`s context.

And so on.
I really feel that it is overwhelming to learn a kanji and then multiple new readings and meanings at the same time. If you do not know the other meanings and readings independent of the kanji - then you don`t need to learn them yet.

This prevents any link between the kanji and meanings in English, and keeps the words clearer as someone is not trying to learn multiple (possibly similar words) at the same time and out of context (a recipe for confusion).

Learning new words at the same time as you learn the kanji is alright after a certain point, but as I said above - that point should be when you are able to learn the new word *in Japanese*. (ie. not have to look it up in your native language.)