I think most Japanese learners will agree that kanji are the trickiest part of learning how to read Japanese<\/a>. Not only are there so many of them, but some kanji have as many as seven possible readings<\/a>!<\/p>\n To become literate in Japanese, you need to know the roughly 2,000 \u201cStandard Use Kanji\u201d <\/strong>(\u5e38\u7528\u6f22\u5b57 <\/strong>\/ \u3058\u3087\u3046\u3088\u3046\u304b\u3093\u3058). These are the ones that often pop up in newspapers<\/a>,\u00a0magazines<\/a>,\u00a0novels<\/a>, advertisements and so on.<\/p>\n That number might sound intimidating, but I’ll show you the study techniques I used to master them below.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I’ve mentioned hiragana and katakana earlier, and I strongly believe that before you even think about learning kanji, you should master these two writing systems (collectively called “kana”) first.<\/p>\n Not only will they help you read kanji in authentic contexts (e.g., text with furigana<\/a>), but they’ll also help you nail your Japanese pronunciation<\/a> from the get-go.<\/p>\n For example, kanji in Japanese would be \u6f22\u5b57 (\u304b\u3093\u3058). If you read that with a native English accent, you’ll probably sound something like “kahn-jeeh.” In Japanese, however, you don’t roll your vowels the way you do in English. All of the Japanese vowel sounds have only one pronunciation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In case you need a refresher on what hiragana and katakana are:<\/p>\n Luckily, hiragana and katakana both have only 46 characters each. They’re also basically different ways to write the same set of sounds, so you can easily memorize them in less than a week with regular repetition.<\/p>\n Plus, you can get some much-needed hiragana practice here<\/a> and katakana drills here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you’ve mastered the kanas, you can move on to radicals. Radicals are smaller parts that make up most kanji. <\/strong><\/p>\n For example, the\u00a0kanji for \u201cautumn\u201d is \u79cb<\/strong>. Notice how it contains two parts: \u79be, which is the radical for \u201ctwo-branch tree\u201d or \u201cgrain,\u201d and \u706b, the radical for \u201cfire.\u201d<\/p>\n Learning the approximately 200 radicals in Japanese is important for a couple of reasons:<\/p>\n While radicals aren’t magic bullets that can smash all of the obstacles to your kanji mastery, they can still make learning kanji much more of a cakewalk compared to, say, rote memorization.<\/p>\n If you want to check out all 200+ radicals, read this thorough guide<\/a> or watch this playlist of video tutorials<\/a> on YouTube.<\/p>\n After you’ve got the kanas and radicals down, your next question would probably be along the lines of “Which kanji should I learn first?” or “In what order should I learn kanji?”<\/p>\n If I’m being honest, there’s no “right or wrong” order to learning kanji\u2014not for non-native Japanese speakers anyway.<\/strong> (Japanese students typically learn kanji from the least to the most complex in terms of meaning or definition.)<\/p>\n In the next few sections, I’m going to walk you through some possible systems you can use to learn kanji. Again, these methods aren’t prescriptive. Just go with whatever works for you, even if it’s not mentioned here!<\/p>\n With that out of the way, one method is to start with the 75 most common kanji below:<\/p>\n But if you want to learn much more than these 75 characters (and trust me, 75 won’t even get you anywhere near <\/em>basic literacy), you can also use frequency lists like this one from Wiktionary<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re already using or planning to use a guided system like Andrew Scott Conning’s “The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering 2300 Characters”<\/a> or apps like WaniKani<\/a>, you can just go with the order and method presented. <\/strong><\/p>\n After all, learning Japanese is already tough enough as it is. Why make it even more difficult by trying to devise your own study system from scratch?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Besides, you can always use forums like \/r\/LearnJapanese on Reddit<\/a> to see what other learners have to say about these systems\u2014positive or otherwise.<\/p>\n Another way to figure out in what order you should learn kanji is to check out Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) textbooks<\/a>. Chances are you’ll find kanji grouped from the easiest or lowest level (N5) to the highest or most difficult (N1).<\/strong> It’s not a perfect system, but it’s better than starting from nothing at all.<\/p>\n If you’re still undecided on what order to learn kanji in, you can also go by the number of strokes (lines that make up the characters) per kanji. Start with the kanji with the fewest parts and work your way up from there.<\/strong> This method has the advantage of not overburdening you with really complex kanji<\/a> early on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most kanji textbooks and print Japanese dictionaries have an index of kanji according to stroke order, such as “The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course” I mentioned earlier. They also order kanji according to other criteria like the radicals used, so have fun with it!<\/p>\n Speaking of strokes, you might think that stroke order<\/a> doesn’t really matter when you’re learning kanji. After all, what’s important is that the characters are readable once you’ve written them down, right?<\/p>\n Not quite. There are a number of reasons stroke order is crucial to mastering kanji, as tedious as it is to study:<\/p>\n So, don’t neglect writing just because we live in a digital world. It’ll give you the leg up you need to learn kanji more concretely. Try out Japanese Kanji Study<\/a> for Android or Learn Japanese Kanji<\/a> for iOS to practice typing new kanji on your phone<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In other words, learn kanji using mnemonics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mnemonics is the use of stories and associations<\/strong> to learn a new skill or create a new memory. A mnemonic can be anything (a word, picture, song or acronym), as long as you can easily link it to the kanji you\u2019re trying to learn.<\/p>\n For example, the character for “person” (\u4eba) looks like a human without arms. Likewise, the character for “tree” (\u6728) has horizontal and diagonal strokes that look like branches and one vertical stroke that looks like a tree trunk.<\/p>\n I tend to make up funny (and often absurd) mnemonics, because these help me recall kanji much faster than more serious associations. This is personal to me, though, so just go along with what seems to pop up most easily in your brain.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you’re not too confident in your ability to form mnemonics, don’t fret! You can also pick up books like “Remembering the Kanji”<\/a> by James Heisig (possibly the <\/em>most famous book on learning kanji aimed at non-Japanese speakers) and “Kanji Pict-O-Graphix”<\/a> by Michael Rowley, and use the mnemonics they recommend instead.<\/p>\n I’ll grant that drills aren’t the most entertaining way to study, but it gets the job done. I learned a lot of kanji mainly by using flashcards<\/a>, as follows:<\/p>\n Whenever I learn a new vocabulary word, I always try to learn the kanji for that new word.<\/strong> I also look at other vocabulary words with that kanji to see it in context and better understand the nuances of the character.<\/p>\n Luckily, most kanji learning materials offer common vocabulary items for each entry, such as:<\/p>\n Let’s be real: Japanese textbooks aimed at language learners can get a little stale over time.<\/p>\n To switch things up, you can always read things like:<\/p>\n All reading and no watching make studies duller than they need to be.<\/p>\n Why not maximize your Netflix subscription<\/a> and switch on the Japanese subtitles for that J-Drama<\/a> you’re watching? Alternatively, check out other websites where you can legally watch shows with Japanese subtitles.<\/p>\n You can also try a language learning program like FluentU<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n How to Learn Kanji Efficiently<\/h2>\n
1. Learn hiragana and katakana first<\/h3>\n
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2. Get to know kanji radicals<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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3. Start with the most common kanji<\/h3>\n
![\"75-common-kanji\"](\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/site\/\/6\/75-character-kanji-inforgraphic.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n4. Let guided kanji systems do (most of) the legwork for you<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Study kanji based on their JLPT difficulty level<\/h3>\n
6. Start from the characters with the least to the most strokes<\/h3>\n
7. Don\u2019t neglect stroke order (and writing in general)<\/h3>\n
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8. Associate images with kanji<\/strong><\/h3>\n
9. Do regular flashcard drills<\/h3>\n
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10. Learn the kanji of new vocab<\/h3>\n
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11. Read Japanese media that interests you<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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12. Watch shows with Japanese subtitles<\/h3>\n
![\"FluentU](\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/site\/\/6\/NativeAd-Japanese.jpg\")
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