An open 日本語 question
To the oppressively tiny Japanese reading-and-writing subsection of my limited readership, I pose a question:
What is your most trusted method of remembering kanji? Rote memorization? 部首(radical)? Something else? How, for example, do you remember 詰める (which is easy to remember but good for my example), whose radical has absolutely nothing to do with the act of filling or plugging?
Additionally, what percentage (if you will) of importance would you place on visual recognition versus ability to write? I instantly recognize 教える for instance, but often forget how to write it.
What say you?
Comments
My most trusted method of memorising kanji is encountering them in context a lot, like in novels. Also, the first time I look them up, I take note of why they are like they are (if I have time). For example, I just looked up 詰: obviously 言 + 吉, with 吉 as the "sound" part (the ex-Chinese reading is "kitsu" or "kichi") and 言 as the "meaning" part. 吉 used for sound also usually adds an extra bonus meaning of something like "tighten" (eg 結ぶ). The first meaning given for the kanji in my dictionary is なじる, which means "blame", i.e. tighten the noose around someone with words... and I guess the stuffing kind of came from the tightness somehow? Anyway, it all vaguely hangs together. (Most kanji aren't that complicated.)
As for writing kanji, I've totally ignored that up to this point. You have to actually physically write them so rarely that it hardly matters as long as you can choose the write one when typing. (Although it is kind of embarrassing if you can't at least write your address and stuff.)
Posted by: Matt | September 15, 2005 10:00 PM
Matt's right about context.
From my own experience, though, the first period of kanji understanding developing in any remarkable fashion was as I was a student at Jochi Dai and took a 5 days a week, 3 hours a day intensive Japanese class.
More than the class time itself, I had to study every free moment I had. A daily forty minute train ride and weekend stops at the local Starbucks.
You obviously can't do that. So, context. And read books/manga above your level.
Posted by: roy | September 16, 2005 4:08 PM