Can any Kanjidamage users help me out?

OK, so, I've just finished learning my kana and want to go onto kanji. Heisig was good but a touch too dull for my liking, so I'm going to try out Kanjidamage.

All I'd like to know is, what exactly do I learn? Just the mnemonic/keyword, or the kunyomi, jukugo, etc.?

It just seems like an overwhelming amount to learn for each one the first time through, and I'd like to know how others who have used it went about it.

Thanks.

>>39
I'm not bitter, merely expressing frustration towards >>36 because he believes he isn't doing anything towards, as he puts it, "this language thing" because he doesn't find learning kanji as interesting. In my opinion, Kanjidamage is a source of entertainment. You can memorize the stroke order and reading of kanji in any order you like. All it does is present you with mnemonics, as if you can't do that yourself. I much prefer readthekanji.com, as it gives you kanji, vocab, structure grammar, English translation, onyomi, kunyomi, stroke order, common words, and usage all at once. You learn to read, not how to memorize that 乏 means "shoddy".

Do yourself a favour and use RTK tbh. Works perfect and the reading is better to learn in sentences anyways...

>>41
Fair enough, guy, you just sounded like you were frustrated about it. Admittedly >>36 should not give up that easily.

Personally I'm sticking with Kanjidamage - mainly because I do enjoy most of the mnemonics anyway (though I do mix and match with my own) - really, though, I don't think most of us can honestly say we can be bothered to make up our own mnemonics for 2000~ kanji.

Also, readthekanji.com looks pretty good, but 'kanji, vocab, structure grammar, English translation, onyomi, kunyomi, stroke order, common words, and usage all at once' sounds pretty overwhelming for a first runthrough - which is basically OP's problem, I think. Also most of us, me in included, are cheap fucks anyway.

>>42
Personal preference. Tried Heisig for a month, was going OK, then just preferred Kanjidamage. It's the same in principle of course, but I just preferred how it was laid out.

>>43
JLPT 4 practice on Read the Kanji is free and you can cement a few hundred kanji with paying a dollar. When I say that all of those things are part of the curriculum, that doesn't mean you NEED to learn them at the same time. RTK is a flashcard format and you can customize what is displayed. If you merely want to study kanji, you can select to have nothing but kanji displayed. Clicking on the kanji themselves gives you flashcards with on, kun, common usages, stroke order, etc.

I "know" about 700 kanji, though I can recognize and READ over 1100 words using the 700 or so I know by heart.

>44
Again, it sounds good, but it's still not really anything I can't do with Anki and Kanjidamage. It does look very nicely presented, though.
And 700/1100 words is good going. What sort of pace are you going at for new kanji daily?

I'll ask again - can anyone recommend me some good Anki decks for/to use with Genki?

>>45
We're getting into my personal study habits, and the truth of it is I don't use readthekanji as much as I should. Thus the reason I put "know" in quotations in >>44 . I probably "know" a few hundred more than that, but around 700 is only what I've been tested on. I've gotten to a point where I find it more beneficial to read everything, Japanese novels, dictionaries, blogs, news, etc. to learn kanji and vocab that I'm missing.

Hmmm, I'm thinking of starting with kanjidamage myself. The general consensus is to try to pick up kunyomi but not worry too much if you can't get it as you'll pick it up later?

Now about 200 in, forgetting KUNyomi at a faster rate than I'd like. Should I use genki or something at the same time?

>>48
Bump.

Kanjidamage is basically heisig, but yeah, the mnemonics are at least more memorable.

>>39

His tone aside, I would like to second while he is saying. At this stage you really just need to focus on being able to recognize/write the kanji. When you are learning vocabulary you will pick up the readings naturally.

>>53
Thanks. That's a big help.
Can I get some opinions of whether or not I should be using Tae Kim or Genki at the same time?

>>53
Bump

>>53
Any and all information you can soak up is helpful. If you find something in one that isn't in the other, great.

>>55
Thanks.
Can we just share how we each picked up our kanji?
I've been working a fairly steady 15/day with onyomi/kunyomi readings. Currently know 400+; aim to finish before Christmas. Toying around with the idea of picking up grammar on the side, but the 200~ Anki reps a day a sort of keeping me busy anyway already.

>>56
I wrote all my flashcards by hand and took them with me throughout my day. In the beginning it was 10 a day, at points it slowed down to under 10, then during the last 1000 or so it was 15 a day.

You can study grammar if you want, but when you actually start reading things you will have plenty of time to observe and take not of grammar patterns. I recommend JRPGs once you get over 1500. My first all Japanese game was Tales of Phantasia on psp.

>>57
Thanks.
Anyone else wanna share how they did this?

bump

PUTOS-NAZIS-DE-MIERDA---->fuck your mother

As a veteran Japanese student the best advice I can give anyone regarding this subject is DO NOT learn kanji one by one. The SINGLE biggest hurdle in language learning is the vocabulary, I promise grammar will feel like a footnote if you never have to spend your time floundering with all the words in the sentence before you can begin the real analysis. Just dive in and learn a word for every one of the Jouyou kanji. You will kick yourself for the rest of your Japanese learning life if you sit around making up ridiculous stories for months on in only to forget all the keywords by the time you're as far along as I am (2 years, not including the time I wasted on Heisig.) I don't regret Heisig, as it and systems like it have their merits, but I should have learned a word for each kanji as I went through. Work smarter not harder, make the readings come to you by learning ACTUAL words and by the time you finish you'll have nigh on 2,000 words under your belt PLUS the kanji and that my friend is a respectable vocabulary. If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them.

>>61
Thanks for your input, friend. How shall I say this...I'm now 600+ kanji into Kanjidamage, working at a pace I'm comfortable at (15 new with ~200 Anki reviews per day), so I think it's too late to just suddenly stop and break it off to pick up words. This way at least I have a very clear starting point, ending point, as well as knowing what I should be doing. Sure, that sounds like I want my hand held the whole way, but as a beginner, I frankly do.

I guess what I'm saying is despite what you've said, I'll continue as I think it's working for me. All i feel bad about is that I'm forgetting kunyomi more often than I'd like, and that I should maybe be using Genki or something at the same time.

>>61
Only thing your post had to be was

>learn jukugo simultaneous with individual kanji.

which is a no-brainer. learn some jukugo that use the individual kanji you are learning as you learn them, like they do on Kanjidamage.

Anyone here actually finished Kanjidamage?
I'm almost there...what do I do afterward?

>>64
Fuckin read shit, write down more kanji you come across but don't know and learn jukugo. You will be at the point of reading but you will of course be encountering words you don't know all the time.

>>64
Oh by the way, I didn't do the kunyomi. Is that bad?

>>66
Bump.

>>66
Yes. Learn them.

>>68
OK. Um, how?

>>69

....What do you mean how? How are you learning on-yomi? Kanjidamage has the kun-yomi for kanji on each page if it has it. You memorize it. Look for sentences with it for context. Make sentences with it.

>>69
If you're asking someone how to "learn" something, you've failed as a human being.

>>70
Thanks. The onyomi on Kanjidamage have mnemonics, so they're pretty easy. Kunyomi don't. That's why my onyomi retention far outweighs my kunyomi.

>>71
Should have phrased that better. I more meant 'What's the best way to go about it', but didn't. Sorry about that.

Also, out of curiosity, what od people who complete RTK do? Do they start again with onyomi and kunyomi?

>>72
RTK isn't set up to learn Kun and on-yomi along the way? Why would people learn with that? You wouldn't be able to "read" anything.

>>73
What did you learn with?

>>74
Seeing as I'm answering your questions in a Kanjidamage thread....

>>73
The idea behind RTK is to come to a point where you 'know' the kanji. This is a pretty abstract idea.

Then you learn readings in context--by learning vocabulary, etc., instead of simply memorizing a list of meanings for each kanji.

>>76
er, instead of memorizing a list of readings*

>>76
No. I learn meaning, readings, compounds, and why that kanji is made up of those radicals.

Anyway, pick your program and fuck with it until it fits you.

So, kunyomi - brute memorisation would seem to be the only way, huh? Is this how you all did it? No mnemonics, no grouping, nothing?

>>79
it's hard making mnemonics for kunyomi, since it sounds like nothing but a japanese word.

memorization. see it enough times until it is burned into your brain. helps if you see it in context.