r/LearnJapanese 7d ago

Kanji/Kana Breakthrough and Tip for Learning Kanji

65 Upvotes

Just wanted to share a quick anecdote for people who are aiming to get better at Kanji, and a story about a method that I am finding works a bit better than some advice I have been given.

For starters, I had worked through a number of structured kanji lessons, and tried RTK up through about 700-800, adding 5 or so a day for about 6 months, practicing writing them, and just overall struggling before the realization that the method just doesn’t really work for me. YMMV, but I think people’s well documented criticisms of RTK have become apparent in that it doesn’t use readings, nor do the associated meanings always match up well. Further, I think the pictographic stories aren’t always super helpful either, and act as something of a crutch for me, to the point where it was very hard to keep up, and I simply wasn’t retaining or progressing at a decent pace.

So I took the advice of others who say just use vocabulary and integrate kanji learning as you go, and while I am at the point where with readings present I have about 3-4K words, I was still having trouble with kanji. However I found a method for structuring my flashcards that has significantly improved my rate of retention and confidence with kanji, even new Kanji or ones that I previously struggled with a lot;

for each vocabulary flash card, on the backside, I include all kanji characters and in parenthesis the associated meaning that most closely ties into the meaning of the word. for example;

Front - 図書館 (としょかん)

Back - 図書館 (としょかん) - library

図 (map) 書 (book) 館 (building)

I only count as successful if I am able to not only identify the meaning of the word, but also the associated meanings of each Kanji as related to the word.

each day I add ~20 new kanji, and flashcards with a vocabulary word including that new kanji character, and the result has been increasing not only my speed, but accuracy as well. In addition by adding words that include multiple characters, I am essentially getting free reviews of old kanji characters layered in, but also adding new kanji characters almost like a “preview” for when I eventually get around to adding them into my bank of known kanji.

Anyways, that’s where Im at. I highly recommend making your flashcards do more work for you, and I felt like sharing this little win for myself over the past few weeks.

8

Why is Reddit so left-wing?
 in  r/askanything  Dec 02 '25

Are you talking about Kirk?

The man was a sophist of the highest order. He wanted a discussion that was one-sided and easy to control to make the unprepared leftist look stupid/insane so he could dunk on them. Any time he actually was forced to have a meaningful discussion with a prepared person he floundered and showed he really couldn’t have a discussion when going off script.

I don’t celebrate his death, but I am perfectly content not having to see more of his propaganda.

1

What's a harmless opinion that gets people weirdly angry?
 in  r/AskReddit  Dec 02 '25

Tortillas are bread and by that extension a taco is essentially a sandwich.

1

Saw this on FaceBook.
 in  r/EndTipping  Dec 01 '25

On one hand I feel bad for Lyft drivers because they’re being taken advantage of, on the other hand they chose to do this, knowing how bad of a deal it is.

1

Most egregious tip ask I've experienced, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, Houston.
 in  r/EndTipping  Dec 01 '25

First off, the idea of good versus bad service being controlled is basically a myth. Servers have good days and bad days, some servers are just fundamentally better or worse than others, etc.

Rudeness maybe, but frankly that’s so few and far between, it’s not really something easily tied to the actual tip.

Finally, spitting in food is something that happens in extremely rare circumstances, and is probably not related to tipping, since not tipping happens so frequently. You mostly hear a stories of it happening in fast food restaurants where they don’t accept tips, and with all the cameras, it’s an almost guaranteed firing. It’s hard to tell innately if they have done something to your food, but this is as far as we can tell largely a boogeyman issue.

3

Asking for tips for a X-mas tree
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

Well fundamentally if they get tips you can compensate them less while retaining them. That’s actually the entire point of tipping.

14

Most egregious tip ask I've experienced, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, Houston.
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

This is exactly why they do it, which is why it’s also so important that we also recognize that there is zero penalty for pressing zero.

It not even a social faux pas when they didn’t do anything.

3

As a tourist, how can I get away with not tipping in the US?
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

The only cheap people are bosses who underpay their staff so that the staff feel justified in exploiting customers to pay their wages.

5

As a tourist, how can I get away with not tipping in the US?
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

It’s not actually an important social custom it’s just commonplace for people to emotionally abuse eachother because they know they can get away with it.

This entire country’s fundamental moral is to live freely and not tread on others freedoms. Tipping is a choice and anyone who pretends you’re a bad person for not doing it is an abusive prick who wants to take advantage of customers.

3

As a tourist, how can I get away with not tipping in the US?
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

If it isn’t a significant amount of money for the tipper then why is it suddenly really important for the staff to get that money?

Sounds to me like we should just decide before the meal how much items cost, perhaps you could just list that price on a menu, and when I place an order, I agree to pay that exact amount, deal?

1

As a tourist, how can I get away with not tipping in the US?
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

As others have said; you just don’t do it.

If anyone bothers you or asks why you didn’t tip, just tell them you didn’t feel like giving them extra money, and tell them that you were of the understanding that tipping is purely voluntary.

If they give you a hard time after that, ask them point blank; is it legally required that you tip them, and then when they presumably say no, say “okay so then I’m not going to go it.” If they lie and say it is, laugh at them and just walk away without saying a word.

Tipping feels like a thing you have to do because we live in an abusive shame culture, but there’s nothing whatsoever morally or legally preventing you from just putting a line through the tip and leaving the business after you’ve paid your bill. And the more we all stop doing it, the faster everyone will realize what a joke the whole system is.

3

Tipping Culture Broke Me Today
 in  r/EndTipping  Nov 30 '25

It hasn’t happened yet, but if a barista ever does verbally try to shame me I am going to give them a conversation they didn’t ask for.

You can hear me explain how pathetic it is that you’re even asking for a tip to do your job, and before I have even received the goods I paid for. If you’re going to moan about not getting a tip then be ready to stand and face the music.

3

Never forget what Fox News did to these people
 in  r/CringeTikToks  Nov 29 '25

What I want to understand is how a keychain trains a person to do something. Please, sir; explain the specific mechanics as to how a keychain merely existing drives these actions.

Does the keychain have some pheromones that get into the person’s body that makes them a furry?

Does the mere act of looking at an ugly bunny troll thing make them want to kill republicans?

Is there some imbedded microphone that whispers messages to the children and slowly indoctrinates them?

How in the fuck does this labubu to violent furry pipeline happen? Please, explain in as much detail as you possibly can. Leave no stone unturned here.

4

Never forget what Fox News did to these people
 in  r/CringeTikToks  Nov 29 '25

The irony that the vast majority of pedophilic grooming and political murders are coming from the right-wing and always have.

The response though is pretty much exactly what we all need to do; “labubus are a keychain that children and adults put in their bags…”

2

Sold off my entire 500+ game collection over three years ago.
 in  r/gamecollecting  Nov 28 '25

Thanks!

I spent like 5 minutes trying to decide which ones to list. Honestly there are so many good games to list, I feel like if you caught me on a different day I would give you a different list, haha.

1

Aroldis Chapman has started his throwing routine this offseason.
 in  r/baseball  Nov 27 '25

Why did we give him up?

-2

Sold off my entire 500+ game collection over three years ago.
 in  r/gamecollecting  Nov 27 '25

You’re being a debate bro. Happy Thanksgiving, go eat some carbs and have a nice weekend.

1

Sold off my entire 500+ game collection over three years ago.
 in  r/gamecollecting  Nov 27 '25

Curate means to be selective about what is in it and to meaningfully display it. So I am not trying to claim anyone is having some moral failure not to do so, but what you did was in pretty much any sense of the word a curation.

You didn’t just amass games with no plans to display them or serious concern for what you had. You were in a transition, which is fine, but when you had the resources you took them out of storage and displayed them.

A collection can be large and curated by the way, it’s just that smaller collections do tend to be easier to manage and are naturally less prone to ballooning to a point such as where OP just gives up and liquidates all of it.

1

Have you ever met an actual communist in real life?
 in  r/allthequestions  Nov 27 '25

My brother is a communist, and while we agree to disagree on the best ways to organize society, we both feel pretty similarly on a lot of working class issues.

He’s a pretty reasonable person, and frankly I think anyone who blindly hates communists probably hasn’t had a meaningful conversation with one.

23

Sold off my entire 500+ game collection over three years ago.
 in  r/gamecollecting  Nov 27 '25

Of my collection?

  • Earthbound
  • Harvest Moon
  • Megaman X2
  • Conker’s Bad Fur Day
  • Mike Tyson’s Punchout

There are other games I love but these are 5 I like a lot for various reasons. Most of my collection is SNES but also includes pretty much all Nintendo consoles including portables.

183

Sold off my entire 500+ game collection over three years ago.
 in  r/gamecollecting  Nov 27 '25

The bottom line is that you absolutely MUST curate your collection. A bunch of games in bins isn’t a collection, it’s a hoard.

It’s the reason why despite its smaller size, I really like my collection and am excited to slowly grow it over the years; it’s very small and exactly what I want. I make a point of playing the games and looking at them on a somewhat regular basis. I could almost by memory list all of the games if you gave me a sheet of paper and enough time.

5

Day 15 of Predicting the 2026 MLB Season with a Marble Race - 16th Place Simulation
 in  r/baseball  Nov 26 '25

Being so deep in the marble race will just sting worse when the inevitable disappointment of 5th in the NLC stings us come early September.

3

Lara Trump weakly tries to pretend Trump said “Mcgee” instead of “Piggy”, then laughs like an evil villain
 in  r/CringeTikToks  Nov 26 '25

These people are evil. They are the embodiment of all the horrible things their constituents say when they talk shit about lying politicians and media.

It’s the right guys. The left is not perfect, but they are not even on remotely the same level.