learning japanese is actually not that easy
Hey everyone, Raito here.
But, the other thing is that you have to persevere, otherwise you just fail.
First, before I give you some motivation, let me break you down.
First, you look at the language and say, oh, three writing systems, we have hiragana.
Okay, now this is the native Japanese alphabet, okay, nice, I like it.
Then you say, oh, what about foreign words? We use katakana for that.
And we also use this to make things bright and colorful in manga, etc.
Like, okay, covered 46 hiragana, 46 katakana, with the extended charge, right?
So the piyo, the byo, the pa, the ba.
And you say, I'm ready for kanji.
Oh, everyone, look, someone recommended this book.
It's 1026 kanji.
This is all the elementary kanji you need to know, right?
漢字に強くなる時点。
Oh, actually, pretend I didn't say that because I don't know anything yet.
Open the book.
Oh, it's all Japanese.
Let's get a different dictionary. That didn't work.
Oh, look, it's so cute, so colorful.
And there's an English word.
But, oh, wait, the meaning changes.
You have 2000 plus kanji.
And you also mix them together, two kanji.
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, what?
Okay, well, but it's so colorful.
Okay, well, I guess I need to change books again.
Wow, this looks like the perfect kanji book.
1000.
Get me ready for the Japanese language proficiency test, N5 to N2.
And writing space, vocabulary, mnemonics.
This is a goldmine on its own.
Why does every kanji book I buy look like a book from a religion?
So, no, no, no, actually, 1000.
I need 2000 or 2500 at least.
Yes.
No problem, now I have all the kanji in the world.
Wait a minute, if this book is 1000 characters,
and it's this thick, and it's only showing me the individual kanji,
how many books do I actually need to cover kanji?
Ah, I get it now.
I'm going to use Kanji Cafe to learn the kanji in the same order they learn in school.
Isn't that a good idea, grade 1?
This is amazing.
Let's look at the kanji up.
Wow, that's insane. I like that.
So, we have the kanji, we have vocabulary, we have the English meaning more or less,
the on'yomi, which is the Chinese reading, kun'yomi, which is the native Japanese reading.
We have the stroke order, we have the mnemonic and the radical over here.
I'll just memorize everything.
But then you look at the kanji,
お土産
お土産, souvenir.
Well, I'm so confused, should I study?
Please don't study the kun'yomi specifically.
No, no, you should learn in context.
So, what is the point of all this I'm making?
Well, it means it's actually not that easy, right?
But the one skill, if you have perseverance, you will be able to learn Japanese.
Why do all the kids in Japan know Japanese?
It's because they're in school and they have perseverance.
Well, they don't really have a choice almost.
They go to school and they learn the kanji.
Whether you wanna write it, speak it, the answer is only loads and loads and loads of input over the years.
It's a marathon, it's not a sprint, right?
So, get something you like because it's kind of impossible to learn all the kanji.
Even my Japanese wife, she doesn't know a lot of kanji, especially names.
That's why when you go to a hospital, they actually have a section where you write the furigana in hiragana.
Your kids' names.
Like, I have three kids.
When you go to the doctor, you actually have to put in their hiragana names also
because they don't know how to read everything.
So, it's really difficult.
And what I'm saying by that is that, you know, even Japanese people struggle and it's okay.
There's no end line.
Just enjoy the marathon.
If you're interested in learning kanji in context, you might wanna check the Anki decks below.
N5 to N2 at this moment.
And the N1 coming very soon for the JLPT test with a grammar sub-deck.
There's also Kanji Cafe.
You can learn through mnemonics.
I'm busy with book 2 at the moment.
And there's also a Japanese game called Planese RPG which is in early access.
Not perfect yet.
I built the mechanics.
Took me some months, but it's looking good so far.
And thank you for your support.
またね!