The EASY way to learn KANJI (& read Japanese)

To illustrate an easier way to learn to read Japanese (and, as a byproduct of that, kanji), here is the Japanese sentence that was flying around during the video:

カーテンの隙間から海が見える。
kaaten no sukima kara umi ga mieru.
I can see the ocean through a gap in the curtains.

Looking at this, my brain instantly recognizes the words 隙間 (sukima // gap), 海 (umi // ocean; sea), and 見える (mieru // to be visible).

Of these three words, 隙間 is the least common, and one might argue that it is also "more difficult" from a Japanese-learner's perspective.

I am pretty good at reading Japanese these days, but if you showed me the kanji 隙 all by itself, out of context, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you what it means. (隙 means something like "crevice; fissure; gap", by the way.)

But when my brain sees it in the word 隙間, it instantly knows that it is the word 'sukima' and that this word means something like "gap", "opening", "crevice", etc. My brain knows this because it has seen this word hundreds of times in various contexts.

It also helps that, compared to 隙, the kanji 間 is quite common, and it means something like "interval" or "space (between)". What's more, it appears in a lot of common words in which it is read/pronounced as ま (ma).

What helps even more is that it makes sense for the word 隙間 (sukima // gap; opening) to be used in this sentence:

カーテンの_____から海が見える。
kaaten no _____ kara umi ga mieru.
I can see the ocean through a _____ in the curtains.

I am not consciously processing all of this information when I see that sentence. My brain does that in the background. It picks up on the variety of patterns I have encountered and from that is able to inform me of what word I am reading.

The specific strokes in the character 隙 are not especially relevant to being able to read the above sentence. That pattern is not heavily weighted in my brain, at least not separate from all the other patterns/context described above.

This is why in the video I recommend a "zoomed-out" approach to learning kanji. It is much easier to learn to read by exposing yourself to:

characters (including kanji) → in words → in sentences → in specific situations

The main problem with this kind of approach is that, if you don't believe 100% that it works, you are prone to second-guess yourself, feel you are not making progress, etc. and ultimately quit or try to pivot to some other kanji-learning method.

↑ I can't tell you how many hours I wasted by falling into this exact trap.

I am not anti-mnemonics or even anti-writing-kanji-over-and-over (to get good at writing, not reading). I just don't think these are necessary. Ultimately everyone learns to read Japanese the same way:

Consistent, high volumes of exposure to level-appropriate written Japanese over a long period of time. (And note that "written Japanese" means Japanese written the same way you'd encounter it in the real word — so, in high-context situations, and usually in sentences.)

That's how both native and non-native speakers ultimately learn to read. So it is possible to just skip all the mnemonic and rote stuff if you'd like, and then just learn words in sentences in rich contexts.

So, sure, zoom in to examine kanji when you first see them. It is fun to look at the parts, to divide up a single character, to write it with a pen or in the air with your finger.

But count on your brain to read that kanji in zoomed-out contexts, where it can pick up on a variety of patterns in addition to the miniscule strokes in that one character.

Your human brain can certainly learn to read Japanese with enough exposure to enough context-rich patterns. That's why 99% of the adult human brains in Japan are able to read (that's their literacy rate, by the way). We are equipped with high-powered pattern recognition machines in our skulls. But we can't recognize all these patterns until we actually see them. So please zoom out a bit, and take in as many patterns as you can.

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Good luck with your studies! ^_^

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:23 What are kanji?
1:55 How kanji make Japanese easier
3:05 Rote memorization
3:51 Mnemonic systems
4:11 Zoomed-out approach (best)
6:17 Optional kanji learning
7:23 Necessary kanji learning
9:16 Learning to read Japanese

[philbertius]

There are problems with the zoomed out approach, speaking from personal experience. Mainly, you won’t know how to disambiguate similar kanji, because you unconsciously learned to recognize them by a subset of their features, which aren’t actually unique to that kanji.

Take your scrambled letter example - you could learn to identify each word in your vocab list by their first and last letters alone, and it will work for that list. But once you encounter more vocabulary, you’re going to get confused, and start failing on words you thought you’d already memorized.

This is exactly what happened to me when I used Anki and didn’t study a word’s kanji in detail. Once I took a class and was forced to memorize kanji by writing (not necessarily recommending this), I learned them much better, and more importantly, learned better how to study them.

So my recommendation is as follows: memorize how to perfectly write a _few_ kanji, maybe 30. Then take that attention to detail you were forced to learn and apply that to kanji you learn on your own. Write them in the air. Really memorize each radical it’s made of. Then you’ll have an easier time of things in the long run.

[star_brry]

I’m still only in the beginning of learning Japanese, but the way I’ve learned most of the few kanji I know currently is from reading the lyrics while listening to japanese music! When there is a reoccurring kanji I don’t know, I search it up, and after that every time I listen to that song and read it I can understand it! I am also able to recognise the same kanji in other songs too!

[MusicRunLife]

This is a concept that I've very slowly been contemplating but not able to articulate over my past few years of Japanese study. Love this.

[darthrenny]

As to the question of “why that works” — because the way we most effectively retain information is not by retaining standalone information in our head. When we create networks of related information (like sentences or kanjis within contexts connected to other contexts), that’s where our memory is the strongest.

It’s the same approach when somebody asks you to imagine the face of somebody close to you. For some people just trying to imagine the face outright doesnt work. But if you try to imagine them while at a favorite place, or a happy memory, it makes it easier.

Our brain relies on memory networks

[seanlennart]

When I started learning Japanese of course I went through all the methods. My approach is very similar to what you describe, relax and trust the brain, I don’t use Anki anymore, I just read a lot with all the extensions Chrome can use at the same time, when I see a new word with kanji I’m not sure about I just look them up and don’t bother to make it stick, bc my reading is mostly digital it doesn’t take much time and I enjoy looking up kanji. If it is an important word it will show again, if I still don’t know I’ll look it up again. It also helps to learn the radicals and also to learn the japanese names of the kanji radicals so you can ask japanese people what a kanji is made up of or describe what you actually want to write. When you apply the approach to chinese it’s much funnier bc less confusion of how to say the word.

[renegade-spectre]

Lots of truths here! As always, love the editing of the video and your calm voice. One thing to point out for everyone that cares to read my comment….there are way more than just 2k kanji…and if you read books or come across a lot of fictional content often, you will come across uncommon kanji often enough (though they usually have furigana…usually). So learning new kanji never ends, it just slows down in terms of how much you learn…

Also, I learned kanji using rot memorization using a combination of a genkouyoushi, anki and an app….definitely took longer than I care to admit daily (4 hours for 1 year and 1 month)…but at the same time, kanji was one of my obsessions when i was studying the language…and nowadays I also can’t complain with the results.

I do 1000% agree with so much of this video though, specially when you said that taking a zoomed out approach is the way to go…While I was learning Japanese through JLPT I was constantly studying kanji individually, studying vocab I mined using anki (vocab in isolation/one word per card) and focusing in every little aspect of the word, sentence and kanji….it wasn’t until I took a step back (after my N1 studies) that I actually learned Japanese…by looking at the sentence as a whole rather than each individual part…which also allowed me to learn from context a lot of the time.

This worked so well for me I’m also using this zoomed out approach for Korean….even my anki cards are all color coordinated because 1 card can be 1 or more sentences so I keep the context intact.

[BastZian]

You bring so much hope in this time of darkness. Currently enrolled in an intensive 2 year program at Ōsaka and every day I struggle. Have been trying everything so will try this. Makes sense! また来ます、ほんとにありがとう

[GrimlyAlbion]

It comes down to trusting your brain to notice patterns and associate meanings with those patterns, it happens naturally without much effort.

[AlisaEnochs]

I passed JLPT N2 last year and got myself a job in a Japanese office a couple months ago. Understanding the native-speed speech in the marketing meetings is hard but I catch enough to get by. However, I am struggling to get through the reports. Even if it's all kanji I'm familiar with, I just get so easily overwhelmed if it's longer than a few sentences.

I imagine the only real way to improve is to just...keep doing it. But I don't like reading that much, even in my native English. I'm more of an audiobook person. I'm currently about 4 chapters into Percy Jackson in Japanese. I thought it would be ok because I enjoyed that series back in middle school, but I'm straight up just not having a good time lol. I'm hoping it will be like running, where it gets to be more fun as my stamina increases. Right now I can only do like 15 minutes in one sitting smh.

[unclespooky]

wow. what a concise explanation. I've been studying Japanese for about 2 years now, and Kanji and starting to become the mountain pass on my journey. I can't speak for someone else, but for me, what you said makes so much sense, particularly from someone that studies the use of English language as part of my job.
Most sites would say, that's the wrong way, this is the only right way. You did not. very refreshing and very very helpful. Domo arigato.

[Mayeloski]

Been learning japanese intensively for 2 months now, with duolingo, youtube study videos and other apps. For me, memorization works best, learned the full kana in 2 weeks, and by now I'm able to recognize and properly use over 100 kanjis ( most of them N5 kanjis but also some N4 and N3 just for fun). I'll be focusing on learning more vocabulary and reviewing the kanjis I already know. Thank you so much for your tips!

[beangate]

Im glad I came to understand this concept before watching this video about 6 months ago. I was using a dedicated Kanji app for a while, but at some point (after like 1000 kanji) I had a wakeup moment, where there were multiple words in a row where I didn't know the specific Kanji but could somehow read the word. For example, 秘密、混乱 Both of these words I encountered in a specific context and was able to read it without hesitation because my brain was already in that state, but I hadn't encountered any of the 4 kanji in my app.

I always love your videos though. :)

[johngodbey]

What a pleasant presentation you have! Yes, even native speakers learn as you said, by familiarity. I think the cramming and suffering Japanese school children go through with kanji has more to with tribal bonding than real learning. Especially with built in kanji search on computers. Anyway, you look like you enjoy your projects. Book Seven, まー、ね。

[cheesedabber]

I never studied kanji in isolation and I never will. To me just learning kanji through seeing them in vocab flashcards and native material works best. I really like this method cause it pretty much removes one step from your daily schedule which is studying kanji. So your daily schedule becomes less overwhelming while at the same time you are still learning kanji automatically anyway and I don't feel like I am bad kanji either

[kingquest]

Funnily enough, this is pretty much exactly how I learned Chinese. Thankfully, learning Japanese has been significantly easier with Kanji already under my belt. I've been learning for around 6 months and reading has been a breeze for me. Speaking at the same level I can read at is another story though 😅

[jacobbpalmerr]

I’ve found to get good at writing the kanji, I write out what ever article I’m studying from in its entirety so writing becomes second nature.

[BoxerDanc]

Thanks for this. I would oppose a bit in favor of resources that use text stripped of Kanji though. They still teach words and if they gradually introduce Kanji then it's all good. I call the words for which I still don't know Kanji yet "naked words" and find they still sit pretty well with me. I can still use them when speaking and typing, and the ability to read will come with time. Of course if the resource ditches the Kanji completely then it's pretty worthless... I wish I knew this when I started learning (and then dropped) Japanese 20 + years ago.... I used to spend hours practicing writing Kanji daily and still could barely speak after a

[ughrockstarbaby]

THANK YOU!!! Always enjoy these detailed and personal tips! Cheers!

[MrApaHotel]

Feels like I need to reboot my learning.

[Pavme]

6:00 no way i have JUST noticed those are two different kanji...