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What is the Best Way to Learn Japanese Kanji?

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One of the most asked questions from our Japanese students is “What is the best way to learn Japanese Kanji”. There are many questions and answers on Quora as well.

Here are some questions I found on Quora:

  • What is the easiest and fast way to learn Japanese Kanji?
  • How can I learn Kanji faster?
  • How and Where can I learn full Kanji?

Before giving the best way to learn Japanese Kanji, you should ask yourself “do I need to learn Japanese Kanji?” first.

The good news is if you only want to learn Japanese for travelling or making Japanese friends, you DON’T need to learn Kanji. There are many westerners who can speak Japanese fluently but can’t read and write Kanji. Our Talking Japanese classes are designed for this purpose. You can study online or in person.

If you want to learn Japanese for JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) or study and work in Japan, you need to learn Kanji.

Here are some tips for Westerners (people who don’t know Chinese characters) to learn Kanji.

  1. Learn some basic knowledge about Kanji: Kanji is from Chinese characters. It is very useful to learn the meaning of some Chinese radicals. Radicals show the meaning of the Chinese character. For example, 氵(water radical) means water. Any Chinese characters using this radical have something to do with water. 汁(soup), 汗(sweat), 河(river).
  2. Start from easy Kanji: There are about 50,000 Kanji in total (full Kanji), however, even native speakers can’t understand the full Kanji. Most people only know common Kanji (jōyō kanji 常用漢字). The 2,136 jōyō kanji consist of 1,026 kanji taught in primary school (Grades 1-6) (the kyōiku kanji) and 1,110 additional kanji taught in secondary school (Grades 7-12). Start from grade 1 Kanji.
  3. Write Kanji: While reading is easier than writing and we normally recommend our students start reading first and then learn how to write. However, writing Kanji helps you read more Kanji. You don’t need to pay too much attention to the stroke order and may not write it properly, but as long as you can read it, it is ok. In real life, today not so many people still write Kanji using a pen. Most of us will type using Romaji. As long as you can read and pick up the correct Kanji, it is OK. I did a lot of research and the best website to help you write Kanji is Kanji.sh | Download Kanji worksheets for Free.

In summary, you don’t need to learn Kanji if you only plan to visit Japan. If you do want to learn Japanese systematically, you need to follow the advice above and practise.

We have two Japanese courses available:

  1. Talking Japanese: focus on talking.
  2. JLPT: learn all skills and prepare for the JLPT test and get a useful certificate.

For more information, visit our Japanese Classes (languagetutor.com.au).

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