Re: Help With Learning Kanji

On 2007-01-20 13:07:29 +0900, Kevin Wayne Williams <kww.nihongo@xxxxxxxxxxx> said:

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.

[snip]


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.

Throwing in my inflation-devalued two cents, I think Kevin's approach is very sensible and ideal for many, if not most, Japanese learners.


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.

I might slightly differ with you there. I agree that the Japanese student has to learn what every compound means without making assumptions, and I also agree that "learning" kanji without vocabulary and context is a poor strategy for many students (Mr. Finney notwithstanding).

However, I find it very useful to know what the overarching meaning of a kanji is, whether you're using an English label (e.g. ”水 = water") or, for more advanced students, a Japanese one. The Kanji Learner's Dictionary is very good for supplying these semantic keywords and grouping compounds according to nuance of meaning. My brain needs this kind of scaffolding while my Japanese language centre develops.

In the case of words like 山水, the learner will eventually catch on that there is another shade of meaning to 山 in addition to "mountain", namely "wilderness", which (I theorize) shows up in words like 山賊, "bandit", and 山火事, "forest fire".

Paul D.


.

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