Re: [tlug] Remembering the Kanji

[Nikolay Elenkov <goibniu@example.com>]

Sorry for hijacking this thread a bit. Even more off topic, just a few 
thoughts on learning kanji.

steven smith wrote:
> 
> A java practice tool (I still haven't quite got it working but am trying 
> to use it on Solaris 7) called KanjiGym (http://www.kanjigym.de).

This looks nice, but it says nothing about the reading of the kanji. If 
you got the strokes right that hardly means you know the kanji, IMHO. 
And call me old-fashioned, but the best way to practice writing kanji is 
pen and paper (at least I don't use a brush :))

> 
> And I found a very nice set of flash cards in PDF format at 
> http://www.polarcloud.com/node/39.  Actually there are two sets and I'm 
> still digging through them.  The first set has 345 pages double sided. 
> These look useful in general for learning the basic character set.  I 
> think the second set of cards go with Mr. Heisig's third book in the 
> Remembering_the_Kanji series.


Those are not too bad, but have no compounds. And it is virtually 
impossible (and often useless) to remember all the on/kun readings of a 
kanji without associating it with some (widely used) 熟語. For most 
people I know「却」 is 「返却」の「却」 and not　「かえって／しりぞく」. 
IMHO, if you know 600 kanji and 3000 compounds you know a lot more 
Japanese than if you know 2000 kanji alone (stroke order, reading and all).

As for kanji cards in general, are they really helpful? I have never 
used any and shuffling cards hardly seems an efficient method of 
learning to me. Never heard of any Japanese people using them, and they 
should know best about learning kanji :) (but then again, they do use 
cards for 英単語).

> More info at http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/welcome.htm which it is 
> my impression is a site the Mr. Heisig is active at.

I looked at the sample chapter and it, too, has no readings and 
compounds. Is the whole book like this? Not very useful if it is. Kanji 
is just a means to read and write Japanese and there is not much value 
in knowing just the character itself.

On a different note, stories might be helpful to remember a kanji, but 
associating a lie-detector with 「鎮」 is going a little too far, I think