Re: Help With Learning Kanji

metaphist wrote:
Kevin Wayne Williams wrote:
If your goal is to be able to sight read Japanese text at speed with
correct pronunciation, run away from all meaning-based systems as
quickly as you can. Your studies should always be based on associating
kanji and kanji compounds with Japanese words. If you need to associate
the Japanese words with English words at some other step, fine, most
people studying a second language do that, but don't associate the kanji
or kanji compounds with English.


Just for the record, you can basically consider me starting fresh in
terms of kanji. I only know a handfull right now, based off of those
used in the examples of the grammar lessons I took. I could recongnize
maybe 15 or so off hand, and could only write the extremely simple ones
from memory (kiyou, nani, miru, hito ect.). I know all the kana,
though.

Do you think it would be more effective to learn to sight read first,
then associate meaning to the spoken word second? Assuming I'll be
working all the angles simultaneously (speaking/listening, reading,
writing), It'd make sense to also assume that as I learn to pronounce a
kanji word for the purpose of reading, I'll immediately or eventually
associate the spoken word with it's meaning through the parallel
speaking/listening training.

You probably have a vocabulary of several hundred words, and can usually
add new vocabulary relatively easily. Vocabulary meanings need to be
studied, and you really shouldn't be learning kanji by spelling words
that you aren't studying in different contexts. Words you know should be
the basis of your kanji learning. "Parallel speaking/listening training"
is mandatory ... you're trying to learn a language, not a code.

I am saying that when you design your kanji drills, being prompted with
a words like みず, やま, and さんすい and being expected to pop up with
水, 山, and 山水 is better than being asked "water" and "mountain" and
being expected to pop up with 水 and 山. The other direction is a
valuable drill, too, being prompted with 水, 山, and 山水 and being
expected to pop up with みず, やま, and さんすい.

I also believe (and I am not supported by any rigorous methodology) that
a drill where you see 水, 山, and 山水 and pop up with "water",
"mountain" and "landscape" will actually interfere with learning Japanese.

山水 probably isn't in your day to day vocabulary, but I chose it to
illustrate one of the perils of trying to read by kanji "meanings" ...
going from "mountain water" to "landscape" is not something you are
going to do well by studying any "core meanings."

KWW
.

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