Best way to learn (and stay motivated with learning) Kanji...

Oooo, thanks Tatsujin!

 

Where's part II?

 

link?

 

http://nihongo-dekimasu.blogspot.com/

Just surf around a bit, don't let the latest blog entry "fool" you by any means, I've found some tip top learning materials on this blog.

I found a good way to learn kanji other than the "Remembering the Kanji" book. Apparently there's a series called "Kanji de Manga" and it explains each kanji and uses examples in a manga setting. Book 1 covers the first 80 needed for the JLPT 4 Test...so far the series covers up to almost 500 kanji...quite useful.

Also a friend of mine gave me the entire 42 volume set of the Japanese Dragon Ball manga....but there's a lot of slang in there so some parts I'm just :shrug: and have to go by picture context. I reference English translations for those parts later.

Also a guy who translates manga as a hobby has set up http://www.mangatranslation.com you just scroll over the Japanese text and up pops the English trans...quite cool.

 

Thanks for all the links.

 

The only way is... practice, practice and again practice.
A friend of mine had the smart idea to put labels with kanji on the common objects around his house.
I suggest you this chatroom too, it's just for learners and you can find some Japanese people to practice with. http://www.apricotweb.com/

 

i did this too, it works! :thumbsup:

 

I found a group of japanese girls out here who want to become teachers. So I get to practice with them. And of course I have japanese friends on msn I sometimes chat with. But yeah, find someone who you can actually use it with. Search around in your community like I did.

 

Damn... he's got the Yen, he's taken the flight and he must already have the dictionary!

Meme fail! :-(

 

LoL! I almost posted it but then I didn't think it really fit that well. :lol:

 

I'm taking a rather unorthodox way of "learning" Japanese. Right now the only thing I "study" is vocabulary and kanji. Otherwise I just listen, listen, listen...all the time. I live here, but I have to work in an English speaking environment. My girlfriend is Japanese but until I can speak it well enough we speak in English (we email in Japanese a lot though)

But any waking moment I'm not working or having to speak English I'm surrounding myself with Japanese input. That's how I learned English as a baby...listening and imitation. Eventually my level of understanding will be good enough to mimic phrases and sounds and once that starts, I have plenty of people to practice with being in Japan...from then it's only progression

 

i've had a similar experience. i took Spanish for 2 years in high school. however, i learned more Spanish when i spent 10 days in Mexico than the whole 2 years of studying the language in school. surrounding yourself with the language and having people to talk to is the best way to learn a language. just look at Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai". he picked up Japanese in a snap! books and programs can get old fast.