Sep 17

Learning Kanji – Beginner Concepts and Simple Strategies

Uncategorized Comments Off on Learning Kanji – Beginner Concepts and Simple Strategies

The Japanese Doctor is a recurring feature written by Friend Of JET, Jon Hills, who maintains the blog for Hills Learning (www.hillslearning.com).

Hills Learning is a NY-based language learning services company offering customized and personal Japanese and Chinese language learning options. Their main service is private one on one language lessons in the NYC area.

The most daunting yet fulfilling to learn alphabet in Japanese is Kanji. Kanji literally means “Chinese character,” because literally the alphabet derived from Chinese characters. In English, it’s similar in that the roman alphabet came from Latin, however Japanese Kanji words and Chinese words are actually quite similar. So much so that Japanese speakers can look at a Chinese newspaper or book and get at least a general understanding of what’s going on, I myself could do a job search in Chinese without ever learning how to speak a word of the language. Unlike learning latin however, Kanji is central to the Japanese language and must be learned if a Japanese language learner is to attain any form of reading fluency. This article will touch on some basics of learning Kanji, and hopefully get readers started in the right direction to learn Kanji efficiently.

Before diving into Kanji it’s important that the reader know…

(CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article)