Dear Kanji gods,

Please help a lowly kanji mortal such as myself by answering these questions:

Question 1) What is (in your opinion) the best way to tackle the ateji?
Question 2) Where can I find the most comprehensive, official list* of common ateji? You'd think the govt. of Japan would post one somewhere, much like the official kun readings for the Jouyou list.

*: katsuo posted a list he had found, but I don't think it's complete.

The ateji afraids me. Please help!

I don't see the point in studying them in block. If you're done with Heisig and are doing sentences, just add the ones with words you don't know, including ateji. They are not so common, anyway.

Whenever they come up, I just learn them like any other word. Which hasn't been that often, since they seem to prefer using kana to ateji in most situations. Or maybe I just don't notice.

I got a small not from James Heisig about the issue. Looks as though he agrees with you guys.

James W. Heisig Wrote:As for "ateji", I think the only way to learn them is the way the Japanese do: by learning them when you run into them. There are no "rules" for them or significant number of patterns that would be worth you trouble.

Regards,

Jim Heisig

smujohnson Wrote:Question 2) Where can I find the most comprehensive, official list of common ateji?

Don't even think about it! The best way to learn ateji is no different from the best way to learn 音読み and 訓読み: in the context of your reading.

Learn ateji like you learn any other reading or word: context. You learn 今, you learn 今度 and BAM, you learn 今日. Who care how 今 works in all of those words? You just learn the words, the reading comes automatically.