3 tips for kanji improvement　

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#An average Japanese adult can read many thousand kanji. How can you tell the difference between 持　待　時　侍　etc plus many more lookalikes? The three main ways are through study of radicals, learning of stories using the radicals and flashcard work. Funnily enough this isn’t exactly how Japanese people learn kanji, however just because the native speakers do it a certain way is not determinative and if you showed this way to a Japanese native they should be able to see that this is an effective method. This is a contentious topic and I will deal with it in another post.

Effective kanji study is done through study of radicals (部首)　

部首 ぶしゅ radical (of a kanji character)

The below is taken from Wikipedia.

常用漢字 じょうようかんじ

The reference to “Jōyō kanji” is to the “guide to kanji characters and their readings, announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Current jōyō kanji are those on a list of 2,136 characters issued in 2010 … The list is not a comprehensive list of all characters and readings in regular use; rather, it is intended as a literacy baseline for those who have completed compulsory education, as well as a list of permitted characters and readings for use in official government documents”.

In other words, you basically need to know the 常用漢字 to be considered literate in Japan and of course they are very common, useful kanji. From the chart above, you can see that 20 radicals and their associated key word means that you will recognise something about over 50% of the 常用漢字. This is because knowing a radical can lead you to putting several components of a radical together to get to the kanji stories, which is the next tip.

Kanji stories

The basic concept of a kanji story is that every single part of a kanji can be accounted for in a short story, normally one sentence. I generally recommend the website kanjidamage.com to teach you all these. For more on kanji stories, check out my video linked below or the kanjidamage website.

Flashcard work

Finally, there is some kind of repetitive work needed to try and remember all these pieces of information. Firstly its best to do this via flashcards, preferably with SRS. I would recommend Anki which you can learn about here.

I was in Japan when I first learned kanji, and that is a big advantage as I was having my writing checked/corrected by many native speakers. However I used to go through my Japanese textbook and do the tests. I would also watch a lot of TV with my host family which are basically all subtitled plus I was in a normal Japanese high school trying to read Japanese.

It was only when I got back to Australia that I found out about flashcards and particularly with the introduction of smart phones around the late 2000s was I carrying a flashcard app in my pocket which I would run through every day on the bus etc.

I also purchased a Nintendo DS ‘game’ for the 漢検. This game is really only a revision tool, so I would need to do work in my textbooks etc and then use this software to practice reading and writing but I found it a very useful revision tool.

Bonus

Let’s look at that word itself. It’s really two words, 常用 and 漢字.

The definition of the first word:

常用 じょうよう habitual use; daily use.

The individual kanji are listed below:

常

usual, ordinary, normal, common, regular, continually, always, long-lasting
音: ジョウ 
訓: つね, とこ-
JLPT: N2

用

utilize, business, service, use, employ
音: ヨウ、-ヨウ
訓: もち（いる）
JLPT: N3

if the 音/訓 concept is new to you, check out this video (42:00 timestamped) I did on kanji:

So what happens in my head when I see 常用? I basically think in terms of keywords associated with kanji. I think common, usual, normal + use; Chinese+characters.




“Why should I care about what some Australian has to say about the Japanese language?”

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When I tell people I teach Japanese, the reaction from everyone is always,

“You teach Japanese?”

I wasn’t born in Japan, didn’t start learning it seriously until I was 15 and have probably only spent about 2 years total in Japan. Why would you ever listen to what I have to say about the language?

I have JLPT N1, I have a major in Japanese from a good university, I failed 漢検 at level 6. Does that matter to anyone? If you make judgements about someone’s ability based on whatever piece of paper they can show you, particularly in the world of language competency it’s probably not that good of a predictor.

So what’s my elevator pitch to you? Well of course seeing as I’ve got to a certain level of competency, I can at least offer that I can tell you the things that I know, explain them as a fellow learner and be the kind of living proof that such a thing is possible. For example, I can chat to Japanese natives about topics or events that I am not familiar with, ask questions and understand the responses at native speed. See for yourself:

“Not bad”, you say. “But so what? You edit the videos and these are your friends so they’re just being nice and speaking in easy Japanese”.

At this point, I can only offer you anecdotes and personal experiences and you can judge for yourself (if you are willing to believe that I am telling the truth). When I worked in Japan for a year at a hotel, I had to answer the phone and direct customers from wherever they were to the lobby so that I could check them in. This resulted in the regular occurrence of guests coming in, seeing me behind the desk, then walking back out the doors to check they had the right building. Generally after I greeted them and got them to do the paperwork came the inevitable,

Wait, that was you on the phone?

This has happened in other various ways, for example I was in some place chatting in Japanese and someone behind me turned around and saw who was speaking, and was surprised not to see a Japanese person but me.

So can I offer you the guarantee that I speak perfect Japanese and can read the equivalent of Shakespeare in Japanese? No.
Can I coach you to improve your Japanese and show you the way to get to the same level as what I outlined above? Yes.
Have I helped many people get over hurdles with Japanese that they had been stuck on for years? Yes.

Send me an enquiry through the website or acejapanese@protonmail.com and get started on truly learning Japanese today.

JLPT is finished, where to next?

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For a lot of you, the JLPT has been your major Japanese-related goal for the year. Now it’s over, this can bring with it a corresponding reduction in Japanese study. Drilling Japanese for the JLPT is effective for pass rates but probably unsustainable in the long term, nevermind whether such study gets you to your ultimate Japanese proficiency goals.

Food for Thought

Consider the following

Consistency is the key to improvement

Basic fluency can be measured in a language and would include knowing a certain number of words, grammar points and kanji. So if you say that 3 thousand words, 100 grammar points and 500 kanji is the level of fluency you’re going for, it is an intimidating amount of data to remember.

But if you break it down to a year study plan, that’s 10 words a day, 2 grammar points a week and 10 kanji a week. Easily doable without paying for any textbook or any service whatsoever and would take 1-2 hours per day.

Gradual accumulation and revision is what worked for me and is much more effective than any style of cramming. So you always want to have some study plan in the background to ensure this process continues.

‘Breaks’ can quickly turn into ‘haven’t touched it for 6 months’

Pretty self-explanatory. Be careful that although you may have set your goal to be JLPT, of course the JLPT is not your only goal, and if it is you should get additional goals! So if you do want to take a break, do it but set a ‘return date’ for when you will resume study. Given that the JLPT is in December, I used to take a break until 2 January.

Having said that, I’ve tried to include Japanese in many parts of my life so I still am exposed to it daily. This can be things like putting your phone/operating system into Japanese, subscribing to Japanese channels on youtube etc. This is because often inertia/procrastination stops someone starting something, but once you get started you’ll get into a rhythm and get something done. So your main task is keep up even little bits of Japanese study rather than taking a total break from Japanese.

Use the opportunity for new goal identification

Goal setting is integral for success in life. What are you workings towards? What efforts are you making each day to achieve this? Have you achieved your goals already? Constant review should be undertaken to make sure you are updating your goals when they’re achieved, reviewing your progress to consider your strategies and of course some sort of visualisation/writing down of goals.

So perhaps you’re confident you passed whatever JLPT level you went for. OK, what next? The gaps between the JLPT levels are quite large and the exam is not cheap, so perhaps you don’t want to do the next level next year.

Plan for 1 year – read something lengthy

My suggestion would be to get some Japanese novel meant for young adults, a graded reader or pick a bunch of articles from mainstream Japanese news sites, and make your goal be to read it/them all and drill all the vocab/grammar/kanji you don’t know over the year.

Plan for 1 month – vocab and grammar improvement

Pick any piece of Japanese, preferably longish and above your level. Read through it and add all words, kanji, grammar into your Japanese notes. Try and spend 10 minutes every morning revising via an SRS system like Anki. Make time throughout the day to explore the kanji, words and grammar by googling them or using online dictionaries.

Japanese Counters 助数詞 – Beginner to Intermediate plus example sentences

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Compilation of common Japanese Counters 助数詞 for beginners・intermediate/highschool/JLPT N5, N4 and N3. I’ll be covering the following counters: 円, 冊, 人, 名, 枚, ページ, 頭, 匹, 足, 台, 階, 歳, 杯, 個, つ, 羽, 本, 点, 泊.

I reference a few webpages in this video, I would really recommend you check the following links especially to see how the various counters change in pronunciation

https://www.imabi.net/countersiikovstsu.htm

https://www.imabi.net/countersi.htm

https://www.imabi.net/countersvi.htm

Easy tips for understanding katakana words

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Understanding katakana words can be tricky, but I’ve got some tips that you can use yourself to work out what these words are. Mio is helping me out with this video and gives some great comments in English and Japanese. Katakana is a big part of Japanese and just knowing the characters is not enough. If you find you can’t consistently read katakana words, have a view of this video and let me know in the comments below if it helped out!