How To Learn Kanji: An Unique Methodology To Stop Grinding And Really Learn The Japanese Characters!

How to learn kanji in a truly effective and efficient way is one of the most known issues that any serious Japanese language learner like you must face sooner or later, whether you are enrolled in a Japanese class at your local University or College, or you decided to learn by yourself using books, online courses or similar material. Whatever the scenario you are in, an unfortunate repetitive aspect of traditional Japanese teaching is the perpetuation of the most common methodology of teaching kanji, which I will refer to as "grinding".


The "grinding" method (it might be familiar to you already) consists basically in being presented with a given kanji's stroke order and main readings, and memorizing them through "brute force" repetition, usually in the form of doing kanji drills (writing each kanji several times) and/or studying the characters using physical kanji flashcards or plain flashcard software.


Although sometimes presented with some small tweaks and worked with some complements (like pictograms, radical lists, etc), the method of grinding over kanji is almost assumed as an axiom of learning Japanese; it is assumed as a "necessary evil" that any learner has to get through in order to ever be able to read in the language, and shockingly, it is used in native schools as the main process of teaching kanji to Japanese teenagers and children.


As you might know (if you are learning Japanese), grinding is not really a fun nor rewarding experience. No matter how many times you grind through a particular kanji, it doesn't stick in your mind unless it's a non complex character, or you "cheat" and recall it by relating it to some other thing, like a pictograph or even a story. After years (yes, years!) of grinding, many Japanese students quit out of boredom and frustration, without getting even a bit close to actually knowing a small percentage of the Joyo kanji (2136 general use characters).


Some really serious students do manage to get through these years of mind numbing grinding after a good ammount of pain and perspiration. And a minority of them, also serious about learning Japanese, ask themselves: "Isn't there a better way to learn the kanji?"


The truth is that there ARE better methods for learning kanji, that are not only A LOT more effective for long term memorization than plain grinding and drilling, but also enables you to learn a lot more kanji in a fraction of the time required by such a methodology. One of these methods, developed by professor and philosopher James Heisig, works based on the following premises:


1. That the writing and the reading of kanji should be worked separately; not together as it is traditionally taught.
2. That our imaginative memory is far superior than our visual memory, and should be used to our advantage.


The objective of Heisig's method is to give you the skill of recognizing and write any kanji, while also remembering the "meaning" of any of them. All of this, before knowing the real Japanese reading of each kanji and kanji compound. The method works as follows:


First, each individual kanji is constructed using building blocks called primitive elements or "primitives". Each one of these primitives may be composed of one radical, a conjunction of radicals, or even a full kanji. Each primitive is assigned a name, based on its pictographic representation, its relationship to other primitives, or even arbitrarily. Also, each kanji is given a unique keyword or "meaning" in your native language, like 'practice', 'horse' or 'farm'. Once you already know the primitives that make up a certain kanji, you create a mnemonic story that relates each one of the primitives to the keyword of the kanji.


For example, let's say we have a kanji with the keyword 'elbow' (the character itself can't be shown here, unfortunately), and its primitive elements are 'flesh' and 'glue'. Thus, if I want to remember the kanji as 'elbow', I can come up with a story like this:


"There is no 'flesh' being 'glued' to your elbow; if you feel it, it is just your skin and your joint".


As you can see, unlike relying on rote visual memory, this method involves the use of imaginative memory to actually remember each character. Forging a story involving the few primitive elements that conform any given kanji (which are usually from 2 to 5) is far easier, fun and a lot more effective than trying to memorize 20+ almost unrelated strokes.


In conclusion, by working with this method for learning kanji, you'll be able to recognize and write virtually any kind of kanji from memory. And after doing so, you have to learn the actual reading of the kanji, but given that you already KNOW each kanji, learning their Japanese readings will be piece of cake. Think about a person from China trying to learn Japanese; that is the same advantage you will get once you use Heisig's method.


Allright... now, if you are really serious about learning the Japanese language, do yourself a big favor and stop grinding already! Embrace the opportunity of learning the writing and meaning of 3000+ kanji in less than one semester (and not several years!).


So, if you really want to know in depth how you can totally implement this method for your own studies, and want to get started right away, then be sure to check out this Squidoo lens on how to learn Kanji!

Also, if you wish to discover the very best way to learn the Japanese language by doing very fun activities, check out this page on how to learn Japanese online!

- Article written by Santiago Madrigal.