How to Learn Japanese Kanji the Fun way (Heisig)
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- Опубликовано: 21 июн 2013
- "Remembering and learning the Kanji" - How to learn 2,200 Japanese Kanji characters using Heisig (stroke order and meaning) the easy, fun and most importantly - quick way.
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When I found out the Japanese writing system, Kanji, has over 2,000 characters I nearly packed up my bags and went home after I finished crying - but after discovering a fun and creative solution to the problem , which turned a hell of a task into a short, enjoyable one, I feel I have to share the method with the world.
The method revolves around a book called "Remembering the Kanji" by Heisig and is very popular for learners of Japanese who struggle with the characters. I highly recommend the book to all and it can be found HERE:
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/08...
Feel free to message me with your questions and like the video if you like it! If you really like it, why not subscribe and make all your dreams come true. (Subscribing to a RUclips channel is like blowing out candles on a birthday cake - so you can do this).
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For those interested in Japan, sarcasm and ridiculous things, why not check out the rest of my RUclips channel here: ruclips.net/user/cmbroad44...
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www.abroadinjapan.com/
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Japanese: Thousands of characters
English: "26. Take it or leave"
DNA: "I take four! k, thx, bye!" :)
Computers: 01001100 01001111 01001100
@@KristoffDoe 01001000 01100001 01101000 01100001 00100001
@@ranveerchavan23 that hit too close to home bro
engineering student has entered the chat
imagine learning for like 1 hour and be able to read :O (and then learning for another 10 mins to be able to read in different languages (with latin letters ofc))
*2000 basic characters*
*10000 characters overall*
F U C C
Each have multiple readings
*80000 characters in Chinese*
Dis might not be as difficult
Its more than 10k
@@driftingdruid Chinese also don't know all those characters. It's 3000 basic characters in Chinese language. Smart Chinese people know 5000-8000.
Tell that to people who start to learn Japanese; they will know what they are getting into haha
I great man once said, “there is no shortcut to becoming hokage
Stfu
@@yamum7454 no U
Cory in the house からですか
Big Bongマーカス why
Said the seventh
2013: "Kim Jong Un has no heart"
2020: 😳
This made me scream lmao 😂😂
What did he do?
@@pernille7662 I heard he is at death door.
@@pernille7662 heart attack
He's alive LMAO
I learned hiragana and katakana easily. I saw Kanji and died internally.
SpyGirl12345 same
me too mate, me too
Me too, Kanji is extremely difficult. It will take a long time to learn them but it will not deter me from learning Kanji.
@@williamjames4031 two weeks later... Are you still at it trying to learn kanji?
@@andy65pr38 yep, this is a long process, it will take 3 to 4 years to learn plenty of kanjis.
2,000 *basic* characters
a really educated person is supposed to know 10000 kanjis lol
O... k... I guess, depending on your purposes, you could get by only learning hiragana, but if you want to truly immerse yourself in the language, you're going to get really frustrated not knowing the basic kanji.
That's a good starting point, though.
People can live in the society and never write or read anything. Speaking is enough. by the way of you live there, you will know basic kanjis in a matter of time.
i guess u never read haha
As a Japanese, I can assure you that kanji is the most deep and interesting part of the Japanese language. I think you'll be surprised at the range of expressions once you master them. Good luck!
Thx
idk why but this gave me encouragement, thank you.
kanji’s hard 😔
ありがとう
@@isamarysanguinety312 I can relate
Here’s a fun one you may recognize!
日 Sun
本 Book (The book kanji has a secondary meaning, which is origin)
A “Sun’s Origin” is a Rising Sun. Japan is the land of the Rising Sun, and that makes the combo kanji “日本” mean Japan.
Kana: にほん
Romaji: Nihon
I had no idea 本 could also mean 元. Where did you read this?
@@kefler187 it’s just an alternative meaning. But book is usually more well known and taught initially since it’s more common. It’s not that it necessarily means 元 :) 本 is still different.
I use Wanikani to study kanji! I learned it there.
It’s very important to be aware of alternate readings for kanji, because it can change the meaning of many vocabulary. Like “book sun” for japan doesn’t make sense.
For example, 社長 means company president. But the kanji 長 primarily means long. It has an alternate reading of “leader” though. Connecting your knowledge that company president is made up of the kanji “company” and “long”, doesn’t make much sense and in turn would probably be harder to remember.
@@77ale Pure curiosity since jisho.org makes no mention of this. When my kanji dictionary arrives I'll look it up in that to see if it has it. I've never seen it used to mean origin. It's not to say it isn't used that way, I've just never encountered it. Thanks for the info!
@@kefler187 yeah! I checked jisho too, I was a little surprised it wasn’t there either haha! When your dictionary arrives, let me know if you see it!
At this point I just think it’s exceedingly rare to use those secondary meanings. I haven’t encountered more vocab that relies on that meaning since 日本. I know they’re out there tho :)
It’s helpful as well since it doesn’t change the reading of the kanji either. But hey, np!!
@@77ale I just asked a Japanese person and they confirmed that kanji can mean "origin". Weird that a dictionary wouldn't have it. Just when you thought you knew a kanji XD
I noticed that compared to tree(木), book(本) has one additional dash. I just think of the book kanji as a tree that got "slashed" (by the extra dash) for its bark to makes pages for a book
Kanji for woods is two trees, the kanji for forest is three trees, the kanji for rest is a person and a tree, the kanji for school has a tree. Hahahaha
Brilliant
now i'll never forget this. thank you
I just remembered it because the word 日本 (nihon) is literally everywhere. Hon = book.
Jon Stark I think of it as a book under a Xmas tree. Perfect gift. 😂
Even I Japanese had a hard time to memorize kanji characters. I'm so impressed with how foreigner learns Japanese including Kanji Characters.
It must be frustrating to have to learn two thousand individual characters in order to read your native language... But on the other hand it looks so beautiful. Positives and negatives I guess...
@Brea Hogenkamp It takes 9 years for even Japanese to memorize kanji.lol
Brea Hogenkamp with correct learning techniques Kanji won't take you 9 years!
Brea Hogenkamp what apps do you use?
@Brea Hogenkamp we can be japanese partners eheh I'm using duolingo and lingodeer. Also downloaded some japanese books
I've picked up learning Japanese again after watching your 'Fluently in 6 months' video. I've also got a Hiragana & Katakana chart out so I can cross reference the symbols & begin to learn the patterns as well. I soon figured out almost half of the symbols were Kanji & with a little research, that they were like hieroglyphs but made more uniform over time (only just seen the term is logographic). As soon as I knew the distinction between the 3 main characters I was hyped! Nearly every Kanji symbol I've seen so far still holds the original story it's trying to portray for it's meaning & learning them looks like a ton a fun. Definitely grabbing the book, thanks!
WOW I didn't think I'd see lord spink here - I LOVE YOUR APEX CONTENT - and living the japanese content too!
How's it going
Grats. Ive tried on and off to learn Japanese for years...im really really bad at it. The will power of sticking with it constantly till it stays with you is the hardest part.
@@Berstich I do understand you, I've try several times, and eh nos to it I knew my wife, but seem here learn it so easy when I can even remember correctly katakana sometimes, it's a pain
Other people: kanji is difficult and we can only read hiragana and katakana
Chinese: kanji is the only thing we could read
So should I learn chinese before kanji?
@@MarvelRandomiesSome characters do not have the same meaning in japan so probably not. After all Chinese and Japanese is not similar enough to warrant relearning grammar, pronunciation, etc.
If you already learned Japanese, most kanji you learn is basically learning Chinese.
@@MarvelRandomies This is old but I will answer anyway, I'm HSK3-4 rn in Chinese and my teacher told me not to learn Japanese until I am hsk5+ because you will get quite confused if you start before. So yes you can learn Chinese first but you have to grind for about 5 years before starting japanese
@@MarvelRandomies Probably not. But if you know Chinese beforehand, learning Japanese will be much easier. Although the pronounciation of the words are different but some of the kanji and Chinese characters share the same meaning. Like 本 can mean 'book' in Chinese and Japanese. But not all share the same meaning, an example would be 青 which means 'green' in Chinese but 'blue' in Japanese. Some kanji can sound somewhat close to the Chinese pronounciation therefore it could be easier to remember the kanji.
@@yukiko_akiyama about the "green" kanji, japanese centuries ago refered 青 as blue and green so its partially correct
duolingo: *do your lessons or you will not see you waifu*
JUST TEACH ME THE KANJI AND PRESENT IT WITH FURIGANA DAMIT
*M O T I V A T E D*
@@lekhapratap1652 ye S
Lol, exactly
XD
'I'd end up with the last supper, instead of the healthy delicious salads that i thought i had ordered'
LMFAO LOVE THIS DUDE
1k likes and no comments? hmm.
@@36sham74 ikr but then again y'd you reply to a 2 y/o comment
Me: *learning Japanese*
My dad: you’re learning a hard language, learn the language I’m currently learning rn
Me: but what language?
My dad: Chinese
Me: の
Edit: haha, My dad stopped learning Chinese because he got bored, lol. I’m still learning Japanese but lately, I’m taking a rest.
lmao
Hahahahaha の😂😂
我 铺 明 拍
I'm not sure if that how it's written
Edit: I haven't done Chinese for over Six years
The only japanese word i can read..
do you mean
*いいえ？*
I hate when I find the most helpful and interesting videos at midnight
Y’know what’s funny, I’m watching this at midnight
Put them in a playlist or something for reference
Me too
Midnight? Gosh that's early.
Funnily enough, kanji is just mandarin with a DLC
Mandarin is kanji with a dlc
yes
Kanji is the Mandarin DLC for Japanese.
*hanzi with DLC
@@nofood1 in chinese, one kanji usually has one meaning and one reading. In japenese fjkodlfjkd;lfjdlkfd
I'm studying for a spanish test, why am I watching this?
japanese is more interesting
They are both equally interesting
@@RoadToN1 Well, Japanese has a larger "alphabet" as well as a more "confusing" writing system. Since it is so different from english, it's understandable that people would find it more intresting. Because of how different and forgein it is.
Lo aprobastes?
😂😂😂😂
Hiragana and katakana: How many characters do you want?
Kanji: *Yes.*
Kanji: oh I'll take your whole stock, please and thank you.
3:32 If anybody is wondering the song is kyu sakamoto - sukiyaki
from up the poppy hill
Yang baju merah jangan sampe lepas
Actually its not the original title. The original title is different, because I heard that westerners had trouble pronouncingnit so they just called it the sukiyaki song
Well now I’ll never forget the kanji for Sad
Thanks
Update one year later: you’ll all be happy to know that I do, in fact, still remember the kanji for sad.
Kanashii.... :'(
悲しい😭
actually i'm impressed i remember 10 minutes after watching the vid
"Kim Jong-Un has no heart. SAD"
- @realdonaldtrump
Asado honey B
Asado omg
NAILED IT
The fact that this mnemonic even works is what makes me sad.
Covfefe
I'm Chinese, and when I saw the Kanji characters at first, I sighed a breath of relief, but when I saw that the pronunciations were entirely different, I screamed inside my head. Though, I can still understand what most of the characters mean.
Started using this book just recently and it's fun to see how much our experiences with it are the exactly same!
I'm 1500 kanji in and you LIED TO ME CHRIS!
OH GOD THIS IS BORING
AND IT TAKES SO LONG
BUT I CANT STOP NOW CAN I
I wonder what's worse. I'm learning Mandarin. So in the end I'll have to know around 5000 characters minimum. So more than there are kanjis. BUT, in Chinese, characters usually have only one pronunciation, sometimes two, rarely three... BUT Chinese has tones.... so... I don't know... Is Japanese harder? Is Chinese harder? Chinese grammar is definitely easier...
@@jdfromparis6230 Since Japanese has 3 writing system, it def harder than Chinese.
Pronunciation wise, Chinese is harder as tone are very important to it. Japanese also use lots and lots of English loan word so that will make it easier.
@@Vysair Yeh, although the 2 writing systems are actually pretty easy depending on your work ethic.
So true.... And sad.
木: tree
本: book
The tree has a line cutting through. Then the leaves are turned to paper. With paper, you can make a book. Easy
Big Brain
日本人じゃない hope it was helpful
.....
That's how I remember it
Kanji is actually very easy for me to distinguish because Chinese was my first language and I spoke it for more than 6 years without knowing any other language. I completely became a Canadian when I was around 9 though.
But the original meaning of 本 is"root" or "inherent"
I took japanese for 2 years in high-school and between this channel and duo lingo I have learned more nihongo than I ever did in high school, also I'm moving to okinawa next year so this definitely helps. This channel is funny, entertaining and educational. Keep up the great work!
It's really cool to see this video after so long. It's still fun content and helpful. Definitely love to see how you've developed over the years.
Me: *"I'm so good at Japanese."*
Me: **Hears people talking and writing Japanese**
Also me: *"Oh. Nvm."*
早まるな
Exactly how I feel... I finish my daily Japanese lesson, and say: "Hey, I think I'll go talk to some people in Japanese." The same thing always happens:
me: こんにちはー
some random person: *_KANJI AND ADVANCED N1 GRAMMAR + VOCABULARY_*
That happens to me xD
@@ei-on4eb i feel you
Me and Korean.. (sigh)
"People who have nothing better to do"
Felt that one.
*and now, quarantine.*
Euna C lol
God, he picked me out like a dark stain on a white shirt
I think he called us out specifically
How do you pronounce your name???
Ordered it! Your videos are great, thanks for what you do. You make the idea of traveling to Japan seem so much easier than I originally imagined
every time I finish one of your videos I do get a more positive outlook while laughing out loud! you're awesome man.
How to learn kanji:
Learn Chinese
How to learn Japanese grammar:
Learn Korean
How to learn hiragana &/or katakana:
p f f t
That's something I never struggled with (except katakana 'shi' and 'tsu'... Those little dashes are so similar but so different). But generally, both alphabets take their shapes from kanji with similar sounds. If you wanted to learn in reverse like that, then finding the kanji that matches 'a' and identifying the visual elements would help.
I learned hiragana and katakana in a week as of today. No problem. Now kanji....AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH...
@@amandasmith7210 shi: smiling face look at rigth
tsu: smiling face look at left
I'm studying Korean and Japanese lmao
LOL, great someone like me... but I'm dying soon with kanji
Every time when i'm stuck with Kanji, i watch this video "Can Japanese actually write Japanese kanji?" It's kind of a relief 😄.
Short answer: no
Long answer: Yes but actually no
@@tacticalpops It's more like asking them to draw an entire map of the U.S with all the states in the right places.
@@aweik4937 If you gave me an outline of the whole country I could probably do that with moderate accuracy
@@tacticalpops But Americans have trouble spelling pretty much any word to begin with.. Try asking a European and you'll go a lot further friend.
>Dutch, Swedes, Polish speaking better English than the average American. FeelsBadMan
Writing and reading or using ones phone to type and recognize the correct kanji use different types of memory. I am terrible at recall memory, but have pretty okay recognition memory, so I can read kanji and type, but if you ask me to write, not so much.
I was so excited when I went to Japan and could read the Kanji on the toilet. I've only learned 35 Kanji so far. Looking forward to trying this strategy, Chris.
With a bit of experience I can honestly say that everything in this video is true. The book makes learning kanji incredibly easy. I haven't finished the book but I can write 200 kanjis out of thin air without much trouble.
lol i'm chinese and kanji is easy for me
i fail at all my chinese tests
I agree that, while Kanji is possible for me to learn, Mandarin and Cantonese are freaking terrifyingly difficult.
I've heard of a chinese man struggling with Kanji because he didn't know which Hanzi characters we actually in Kanji or not
it's pretty much the opposite for me Chinese characters are waaayy easier than Japanese 😂 I tend to read the kanji in Chinese first before quickly switching to the Japanese reading.
As a Chinese person, I tend to read all the kanji characters in Mandarin and then read the rest of the sentence for context...
Emily CJW sameXD
Learning kanji is like balancing on the edge of madness and “ah ha” moments while laying in a pile of memory cards and sadness lol. Worse is trying to explain your method to other people and not sound crazy.
haaa yes...
I felt that 😤
9:32 i'm actually leaving this video with a positive outlet, i started learning kanji a week ago (already knew hiragana/katakana due to a failed attempt to learn before) and i'm currently at 127 vocabulary words, even though i have a hard time remembering half of them, or not remembering some at all, i still got more motivation to learn more thanks to this video! i learned about your channel only something like a year before but never checked out old videos, now i'm finding a lot of "hidden" gems, thanks a lot!
stumbled across this video in my recommended. i have no plans to learn japanese any time soon, but i really enjoyed watching this video. thank you for uploading.
"5 kanji a day, keeps your sanity at bay." - グレース
(I literally just popped up in my head lol)
I laughed my ass off AND learnt something. Thank you man, this was absolutely amazing!
BrightonDestiny fuck my life you're gorgeous. Are you actually from Brighton?
Lol whot. No, I'm from Norway, haha
omgXhealXdoch *awkward silence*
Fraser Craig Cringey memory.
wow that's unexpected. Since when are you interested in Japanese Annika?
5:45 "kim jong un had a heart"
not anymore
LMAO
👀👀👀👀
bruh
Lol. But he actually says "and a heart" I believe
THANK YOU FOR THE SUGGESTION!!!
I have a problem with Kanji, and I'm really happy I found this video!
You learn kanji thoughout your life.
You never finish learning a language, even your mother tongue.
That's true my native language is Spanish and I've still been learning different things about it as time goes same for English and I'm trying to learn kanji now
same
I'm more or less fluent at 11 languages, there's a point where I think that's enough and move to the next one. Tho yeah, as I do recaps to stay in shape I always learn something new. Tho that saying works for everything, you never stop learning skating, snowboarding, physics, astronomy, photography etc.. unless you quit.
*cries in Japanese bc I have to review and memorize 1000 漢字 over the summer*
ATTENTION EVERYONE WHO WILL USE THIS METHOD:
This method is indeed awesome and is the best way to learn kanji. But there's one fatal flaw the book have and which Chris has used, and this is the reason why Chris still after 6 years says he doesn't know kanji well.
It's because the book instructs to practise being able to write a kanji upon seeing a keyword. This is wrong, as many people can report that this does not make you able to read. You should instead do as following:
1. Go through the book learning how to write 15 new characters per day (you can change the number to your liking)
2. When you create flashcards put the kanji on front and the definition on back
3. Learn Japanese and practise reading (takes some time)
4. When you feel confident reading Japanese go through the book again but this time do it as Heisig reccomeds, that is flashcards having keyword on top
5. Congratulations you are fluent in kanji
GogL0L ありがと！😁😁
You don't learn to read, because that's in the second book. Heisig specifically says this at the beginning, that first you learn how to write them and then learn how to read them?
@@velocity7173 "Read" in this meaning means being able to recall the meaning. I would advise people to not use the second book (but the third book is good). This is because we're actually not learning the characters in rtk we're just making entries in our brain so we can learn the complete meaning through context . Memorising sounds to characters does not lead to fluency except if you already know Japanese, this is why Japanese school children can do this.
I would recommend watching a video by "Matt vs Japan" called "Why 'Remembering the Kanji' is the best way to learn kanji". Matt achieved native fluency in reading Japanese after 4 years.
One important thing to mention is that he in the video has corrected the video in a new video. The correction he makes is what I mentioned in my original comment and that going through RTK 1+3 before learning japanese is overkill and its enough to learn the top 1000 used in RTK 1.
Furthermore I would recommend the method or "approach" that he has made called Massive Immersion Approach. I highly recommend reading through that website if you actually want to be fluent in a language. Traditional langauge learning methods are obviously flawed as there are countless of stories of people going through 3 years in university learning Japanese and they still can't understand a fraction of normal speech.
What if you dont even have the book and cant get it without paying way too much money
LOUDER FOR PEOPLE AT THE BACK
Just wanted to say thank you for recommending this method! I finished the book in June and haven't revised kanji since then because university got busy. It is now December and I'm back to studying Japanese and I'm recalling kanji with relative ease. Heisig is the MVP!
As an English speaker, I had an extremely hard time learning Spanish (supposedly the easiest language for English speakers to learn) if I can't learn Spanish then I think it will be impossible for me to learn to speak/write in Japanese. I'm always impressed with those who know how to write/speak at least 2 languages (sometimes I get jealous but I'm more often impressed over being jealous). Good on those people and I hope them the best :)
Well... I know Filipino and English
If learn Japenese I might be a trilingual ( if I can )
There are a lot (a looooot) of videos on RUclips (particularly I'm speaking of non-Japanese, talking about Japanese culture or how to learn Japanese), with people trying to interject humor into informative or instructional videos, and just failing miserably. It makes the videos not only not funny, but annoying to watch as well.
You however, Sir, are both funny AND highly informative and helpful. It's probably in part because you are British, and good humor is just in your 血 (lucky man). But your videos are good. がんばってくださいね？ Do you're best! You're ahead of the rest!~
KuroNeko I’ve learned 血 thanks to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s その血のさだめ lol
Also, while 血 is blood, for no fucking reason 皿 is a dish, total wtf
Samuel Prevost
Revenge (usually ending in blood) is a “dish” best served cold.
You could say that the line on top of blood is the knife, and so in dish, the knife was taken out, and the dish (revenge) has been completed.
@@11leap why did this help me so much
His attitude is great I love it
た: That’s funny. Is that the Parthenon?
と: Yes, and it’s bleeding.
た: Why is it bleeding?
と: I have no idea. Marble can’t bleed, can it?
た: No.
60 Kanji per day is crazy, though. I'm already forced to regularly re-learn old Kanji that I forgot while doing 5-10 new ones per day in the anki droid app and it takes me between 45-60 minutes a day to clear all my cards. I'm currently at Kanji #1312
I'm the same as you, 10 kanji per day and need to re-learn a lot of them, but I think it's somewhat easier for him memorize because he is in Japan, Idk if you live in Japan or not lol
@@simonrojascaceres2761 he is forced to do it... it's survival to know kanji in japan
Yeah, that must be hard
Right now im 14 so im taking it slow. Im planning on taking better lessons in the future. The fact that i know better kanji than katakana concerns me...
That sounds more like a memory issue
thank you for the advice, I just ordered the book and am excited!
this man is just too funny, whenever I have a breakdown while I'm studying I just come here and watch him and I swear I feel better
"and i was very excited to learn all 25 characters,
but there's not 25." i cRACKED UP
When you get yeeted by life
100 characters in 4 days. My memory isn't perfect but I did remember over 90 of them without reference. It really works. The key is to do exactly as it's instructed in the book and to do at least a lesson a day. It's fine if you miss a day here and there but 5 days a week sounds fine. On the days you don't do a lesson, just review what you've already learned, especially the most recent kanji.
hahaha, so did i, with the same experience!!! %^^
How far along are you in your Japanese?
Wow I'm late. Low intermediate. I can follow dialogue if it's not too complex. TV shows are doable. I've only tried 1 non-subbed anime and I got oh maybe 50% of it a couple months back. Documentaries or Politics are still over my head most of the time. I can make out a lot of words but there are too many unknowns.
I can also read maybe 4th or 5th grade level material well enough because the vocabulary isn't complex and the kanji is sparse. You see even though I've got a lot of kanji now, it still might take some time before I know the associated words. I'll get there though. I decided to take my time from now on. Before I was in a rush.
I can't believe I was already lowkey doing this when I started studying. I'm glad that there's an actual book that would help me as a reference. Thank you!
All jokes aside, this video is actually helpful for learning kanji. Also, Chris thank you so much for the book recommendation. I had reached a point that I could not memorise any more kanji and this video finally helped in getting my gears moving!
I've been studying Chinese for four years and I just started teaching myself Japanese and the Kanji reads exactly like the Chinese. My problem now is that I keep saying all the Kanji in Chinese >_
Actually Kanji originated in China because a long time ago Japanese did not have a writing system. So that is why the readings are the same. Or at least that is what I have researched.
Can you share to me how you remember Chinese reading for kanji? This is the most hard part for me in Japanese
“Yeah I like mao-
DAMNIT NOT AGAIN”
Big oof
Вероника Воронова
Note: Since you said “CHINESE reading of kanji”, I wrote it in the perspective of Chinese, which means I don’t know if it works well with Japanese kanji.
Most of the Chinese characters are made up of radicals, like “口” (mouth), “氵” (water), “艹” (grass), and “木” (tree, wood). Radicals each convey a meaning, and when a Chinese character contains one, it’s usually related to that meaning. If you recognize one, you’ll be able to memorize the character’s meaning more easily. For example: “吃”, meaning “to eat”, in which the radical “口” shows that it’s related to the mouth.
Side note, there’re also radicals indicating the pronunciation of the word. These are called “声旁” (phonetic radical) in Chinese. (Like in “河” (hé, river), radical “可” (ké) determines a part of the character’s pronunciation) Finding them will help you memorize their pronunciations.
And as mentioned in this video, you can use your imagination to picture an image in your mind as you read the character. For example: Think the character “目” (eye, btw it’s also a common radical) as a vertical eye. Think “好” (“hǎo” or “hào”, in this case, “hǎo”; meaning good) as a woman (女, nǚ) holding a child (子, zǐ) who just borne.
In conclusion, learn radicals and their meaning, use your imagination, and practice writing and reading them!
I'm crying oh my god. When I go to Japan I'm just gonna go around saying "The horse is necessary!".
This was really helpful
Thank you so much
I've been learning Japanese for some months now and Kanji is really hard to memorize but this makes it so easy
I got this book based on this video a few months back. It's brilliant and the way the little stories are written at the start to describe the kanji radicals somehow just lodge in your brain. It really sticks without a whole lot of effort. Thanks for the suggestion chris if you're reading this 👍
"Kim Jong-Un and heart, which don't really go together" sentence of the month
Man you're telling me 😬
It's kinda funny given some of the news lately-
Kanji?!?, Kanji is one of my favourite characters from persona 4!
GET BENT
You saying I like dudes?
I think you mean Kakashi
I'm gonna RENOVATE YOUR ASS!!!
Katawa Shoujo's Kanji's ftw
Whenever I’m reading a Japanese sentence, I’m so glad there’s kanji as it makes the whole thing more comprehensible.
This was great! Thank you for sharing!
Albus Yodabond, I salute you!
I can speak 2 languages
and all my needs are satisfied
if i learned japanese , then subs will feel like dubs
and then those subs will bother me
You can always watch the original with no subs.
😂😂😂
Just turn off the sub then, Most websites let you do that nowadays
Can't argue with that logic tbh
i speak 3 languages but one more cant hurt can it. Also you can just watch the non sub version
A standing ovation to all Chinese people. They're entire language is kanji
I know this was uploaded forever ago, but I just now found it and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this! I am learning Japanese as part of my core requirements at uni (also because I'm a huge nerd) and will be starting to learn kanji in the upcoming semester. I was so nervous about it, but this video helped ease my mind about the whole thing and I think will be a great help
@@TwinPkVideos Thank you for the advice!! I will certainly keep that in mind :) Though, I had been mostly referring to the memorization technique of making stories/associations for the....primitives, I think they were called? in order to help remember their meaning. I think that technique alongside the learning I'll be doing in class will be very helpful :D
I literally said NOOOOOO.... :O when i heard, "each kanji has multiple readings", WHYYYY :L
LOL no, there are on-yomi and kun-yomi, but there can be multiple of either. I would say very little kanjis have just one reading (or even two).
+DY4Y I agree
I came for Albus Yodabond.
Ik this is a super old video but the algorithm recommended it to me and it gave me that extra boost of motivation that I needed to stay on track. Thanks so much, Chris. I watch many of your videos and I love your content whether it's the new ones or the old ones. Keep doing what you're doing.
-- Roan E. J
why do I get recommended this like every Christmas. IVE ALREADY LIKED THE VIDEO, CHRIS U CAN SO STOP
when i first looked at this after finishing hiragana and katakana i thought that this method wouldnt work for me but i tried it out and after 4 days i have learnt 70 the first 70 kanji in the book which i think is absolutely phenomenal
That's amazing! Best of luck to you on the journey!
thank you
Abroadin Japan I have a question how long do you study one kanji (story)? I'm asking this because this method maybe difficult for me, because I don't really a creative artist kind of mind. So I see this method is being difficult for me however, of the 8 - 10 years of studying Japanese kanji was always so so to me. I know some but I would like to increase that, and willing to try something new in doing so. In fact I was told by many Japanese teachers to don't worry about writing kanji, because of the technology, most kanji's can be written by using the computer. (sorry I'm rambling) Can you please reply to this message on how many hours you spend on one kanji (story) as I would like to call your interesting method? :)
when i did it i just wrote out the story and kanji then moved on, then tested myself after 50 or so
IAmNateDogg oh ok thanks
I learnt Chinese first, and learning Japanese afterwards made studying a lot easier!
That's exactly what I was thinking. I need to improve my Chinese first, then learn Japanese.
But how you memorize the word to read
Cause not all of them is same right?
Willyan Kiundharta Japanese have multi readings for each kanji.You need to remember the words’ pronociations reading a character in Japanese is nonsense
Personally I'd prefer to learn one language instead of two though
The only thing about that is some characters in Chinese have slightly or completely different meanings from how they’re used in Japanese.
PLEASE DO MORE OF THESE!!! Amazing!
Thank you so much for making this video Chris, it helped me a lot, even in 2021 :D
I've just ordered the book and I'm gonna try it out :)
1:06 HAHAHA I keep laughing at "O-oh yeah, I live alone" after the music lmao!
This method is how I learn all my languages, to be honest. Even if there's not a picture to go with it in languages that don't use symbols like japanese, making a story or connection to another concept helps loads
Great video. This video helped me find the book I need, which ended up not being Remembering the Kanji(which looks lovely), but The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji
I think this was the first video of your channel i stumbled upon. Must have been at least 5 years.
"A horse is necessary!" - I have never laughed so hard. I have been watching your videos for a while now, filmed well, very interesting and funny monologues, and great atmosphere (music etc). SUBSCRIBED!
“Come in here look at this!”
...
“Oh yea I live alone....”
Haha my future
@Eyob Tezera Nice
It's all context clues and how you look at it. That's how I learned to understand Spanish in my early 20s, or at least understand what people are saying when everyone is talking very very quickly when you're very suddenly immersed in the language and your only Spanish speaking friend refuses to teach you. I don't remember much anymore, but I knew I could pick up on the gist of everything that was happening from what I just had to learn. It's context clues and correlation. You were correlating what you viewed as pictures into things you can use as a memory. It's a very good way to go about it. Good job.
This is a great recommendation! Thank you! Will give it a try!
if you can’t remember every characters, don’t worry.
i’m chinese and even i can’t remember all of them.
Best username
Didn't Mao simplify the language? Or am I just remembering something wrong?
@@sumvs5992 he simplified hanzi and looks... weird...
@@sumvs5992 Simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, HongKong, Macau. However only around 300 - 350 characters were simplified beyond recognition i.e 車 --> 车, and around 2000 -3000 are simplified due to radicals being simplified i.e 煩-->烦 ， 語-->语 so are easily recognisable. However, most literate Chinese people can read both no problem, only struggle to write traditional as they are not used to writing them. Chinese has like 85,000+ characters, so think of simplified characters as just having to learn 350 extra characters - not a hell lot different to traditional
I thought you were Korean.....
Captain Jack Sparrow... that's who you remind me of... I love your humour and I think you're absolutely brilliant. :)
Haha, thanks I'm delighted! I always wanted to be a pirate and now I feel a step closer :-D
Wow! Thank you so very much! Kanji has been soooo hard to learn. I will definitely get this book! Thank you! I love the method that you are teaching, I will try this. Neat to see the world of Japan open up as you are able to read Kanji. Thank you sempai-Albusyodabond! Funny hearing Kyu Sakamoto’s Ue o Muite Arukou (Sukiyaki) in the background. The title means, “I look up as I walk” and has nothing to do with Sukiyaki, but for Americans, it was named Sukiyaki. Credit for this information goes to Dearly Departed. Mr. Sakamoto passed Aug. 12, 1985 in a plane crash. I enjoy your videos immensely, you make learning so very fun. Please stay well.
I love the fact that you're using "Ue o Muite Arukou" as the Background song. It's so chill. ("Sukiyaki" is another name it goes by.)
I was so happy too the first time I understood 大 and 小 at a restroom!
not to take away from this video, because i do agree that writing it out and memorizing the meanings of the kanji is an important thing, but there's a site called wanikani that uses basically this exact same method of using anecdotes to help you remember the kanji and also the sounds they make and such! it's what i use and it's fantastic
I forgot about this site! Thank you so much!
I wonder if it work best if you use your own imagination to create stories instead of learning other people stories or of it's equally useful 🤔
Andrea Rubiño sometimes i think the wanikani mnemonics arent good for certain ones so i make my own for them but for the most part they are pretty good
I love Wanikani, but it's subscription models are crazy for my liking.
1 - Monthly
2 - Yearly
3 - Lifetime
Where's the 3 or 6 month subscriptions? 😒
Yes having a more positive outlook on life that’s great thank you
I have used this method while studying kanji, even with my ADD it does help memorise them, slowly but surely learning the meaning of the kanji is much easier than first learning their phonetics first. Loved this video, wish I'd seen much earlier
Easier to learn Kanji when you know Basic Chinese
*Basic*Chinese has 2000+ words
SHIET
SHIEEET
(I’ve never watched The Wire, but I remember the quote from Suits)
No swearing on the internet allowed
9000paperclips chill out, it was just a quote
Clarissa De Simoni who u tellin to chill out fam
Clarissa De Simoni respect ur elders innit
Okay. Not only is this pure comical genius, but this is genuinely the best video I’ve found on Kanji throughout all of RUclips. Thanks!
Man you help a lot.
Gave so much info.
Thank you.
Coming back to a very old video to say this along with the Human Japanese app has been the best experience with learning Japanese!
Haha I'm attempting to learn Japanese and I'm Chinese, so the words in kanji are pretty easy for me as I can write them and the meanings are almost exactly the same ;except for the pronunciation which are both so different, it puts me off learning Japanese D: But I'm determined so wish me luck haha
teandcoffee That's awesome - you've definitely got a great advantage though! Good luck
teandcoffee Same for me, except I am not very good at writing Chinese. Technically, the On readings of Kanji came from China, but...that doesn't mean it sounds anything like how you pronounce it in Chinese. For example, the Kanji for in (中: I think if it as "middle") is pronounced as "Chuu" in Japanese, but in Chinese, it is Zhōng. Nothing alike! ;-(
capsule
I think it's quite similar.
Ch is basically Zh
ū is at least closer to ō than ī or ā
Since they have multiple readings it can also be "naka", "ata" or "uchi"
teandcoffee haha i'm not chinese (well, i'm a chinese descent) but i can read chinese just fine, i know the meaning when i read it but just can't seem to learn it in japanese, still struggling through hiragana and katakana though...and i have 6 months before moving to japan ;;
me too! it's really easy to understand some words though they have different uses. we have a great advantage :)
This video is actually wonderful and makes it feel like my studies are somewhat more doable and less totally, horrifically daunting. Thank you!!
love that you played ue wo muitte arukou in the background, that's my karaoke jam!
I love you for that advice, thank you!