Memorizing kanji
I live in Japan. I have been studying kanji (Japanese characters) for more years than I will reveal. Now that it's summer, I thought it was time to get out the books and review a little.
There's a cool iPhone/iPad app for studying kanji. It's called "Sticky Study." Buy the full set - you won't regret the purchase (¥1,200, http://www.stickystudy.com/kanji.html ).
Anyway, that little app is terrific. You test yourself at your own pace. It has some sort of logarithm to show certain kanji you've already studied at regular intervals so you don't forget. It works for me - no stress, fun, challenging enough to hold my interest, and the settings are quite flexible.
Still, I have trouble remembering how to write kanji. For me, the first step is to be able to recognize and read them so that I can handle work e-mail and minutes from meetings, that sort of thing. Still, I'd like to be able to write them at some point. So, I thought of drawing some pictures to show what a kanji means and how to read it. Here's the first try:
For those of you who know Japanese, obviously, the code under the kanji above has nothing to do with the meaning of the individual strokes of the character. What is most important -to me- is finding a way to remember what it means and the way to pronounce it.
If you don't know Japanese, I don't recommend using this as a method of learning the writing system. Just enjoy the shapes and colors and a glimpse into how my odd brain works. :-)
