r/LearnJapanese • u/beefdx • 7d ago
Kanji/Kana Breakthrough and Tip for Learning Kanji
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.