/b/ - Random

you dont have to memorize kanji holistically it's easier to remember the parts
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kanji-radicals-mnemonic-method/

I studied a couple semesters and said fuck it. Korean is much easier.

>>297006
Learning japanese is basically like learning chinese lite at the same time, well, not really but it sure feels like that sometimes.

>>297006
Only around 2000 are in common use. Look up RTK by James Heisig.

Trying to learn all the kanji is like trying to learn the entire english dictionary. Just focus on what's usefull for work and everyday life.

>>297006
kana is basically as common as kanji, it's complementary, you're gonna see a shit ton of it as much as you're gonna see kanji. and besides, you only need to know the most commonly used kanji, not the entire dictionary unless you wanna read pretentious novels in japanese.
don't break your brain in half over china characters and focus on common expressions (polite and casual), basic sentence structure and listening to people speak in japanese.

>>297036
Can you read chinese if you can read japanese? How much ? Could i walk about china and make out advertisements and sentences? Or would it be like learning italian after you'e learned spanish?

>>297006
For regular day to day japanese you only need around 2000 kanji. The Kanji kentei, one most difficult kanji certification programs in japan, only requires you to know around 6000 kanji.

If you only care about reading (and not writing) the easiest way to learn to read japanese is to read a bunch of Japanese (start with children's books) and look up any kanji (and words) you don't know in a dictionary. If you look up a word that is more than one kanji long, then look up each of the individual kanji. Eventually you'll memorize a bunch of japanese words and kanji from doing that. If it's a super rare kanji then add it to some flash cards. It also helps if you understand how kanji are made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pianpang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_components
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_radicals

you can also look up the glyph origin of kanji on wiktionary to get more information about why the kanji looks that way. It's generally helpful for memorization if you have a bunch of connections about the things you want to learn.
Here's an example:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9A%BF#Glyph_origin

I think you just have to practice writing kanji if you want to know how to write it. Be sure to look up the stroke order in the dictionary and follow it. Stroke order is super important when it comes to legibility of hand written characters.

>>297695
I have been studying japanese for a bit, I can sometimes figure out what some chinese sentences are, but I usually can't figure out what it means if it's beyond 5 characters. I have only been able to read sentences like "Do not enter" or "Do not eat". Chinese grammar is very different from japanese grammar so you cannot learn to read chinese by only learning japanese. In addition, the pronunciations for the characters in japanese differ from those in chinese.

>>297701
But if you were say… reading a menu in china? What if you were trying to survive on the street? Could you read grocery store? Could you read police station? Also I mean if the words are rearranged in a sentance couldn't you still make out the meaning most of the time? I know chinese syntax is very similar to english.

>>297702
> What if you were trying to survive on the street?
You might be able to read signs and understand enough words to make transactions. If you had to talk to people you probably couldn't understand them at all.
> menu in china
You could probably read menu items
> grocery store
I looked up the chinese word for grocery store (杂货店) and I couldn't read it beacause it used chinese characters that aren't used in japan (Specifically 杂 and 货 don't show up in my japanese dictionary). After looking them up in a chinese-english dictionary 货 is a simplified form of 貨 which I do know, and 杂 is a simplified form of 雜 which I know. I know the japanese word 雑貨店 (which means general store) but I wouldn't have known 杂货店 was a simplified spelling of the same word.
> what about police station
The chinese word for police station "警察局" I could understand because the japanese word for police is "警察" and "局" is the kanji for office.
> Also I mean if the words are rearranged in a sentance couldn't you still make out the meaning most of the time? I know chinese syntax is very similar to english.
I don't know much about chinese but I'm pretty sure the grammatical words (called particles) are written in kanji whereas the gramatical words are written in kana in Japanese. So I don't know any of the chinese particles.

Japanese mainly uses kanji for nouns and verbs, and uses kana for grammar. So learning Japanese will help you with learning verbs and nouns but not so much with grammar. If you went out of your way to study chinese particles you could probably somewhat understand sentences.

> Also I mean if the words are rearranged in a sentance couldn't you still make out the meaning most of the time?
It depends on the size of the sentence. The larger the sentence gets, the harder it becomes to guess the meaning. For instance "She pet the dog" would be fairly easy to read, but a sentence like "The owner of the manor will accompany you to the Sunday afternoon meeting if you allow her daughter to join your son's sleepover on Saturday next week" requires a good grasp of English grammar, and would be extremely hard to decipher if you didn't know any of the English grammatical particles.

>>297734
Wow you’re really knowledgeable, how long have you been studying for? Did you self teach or take lessons? Do you have any japanese friends you talk / write to on the daily?

>>297016
this is bullshit don't listen to this anon
>>297006
there are only like 2000 you need to actually memorize. trust me its actually easy- you've memorized much more than 2000 things in your life, haven't you? you have more than 2000 memories, you're making memories every second. the brain is an incredibly powerful tool.

>>297914
what memorization technique do you recommend that isn't by radicals?