Lately I'm having difficulty remembering words that only/or are usually written in Hiragana only. Somehow it doesn't stick as fast compared to words that have at least one kanji in it. When I'm studying a normally Hiragana written word, I'd rather remember the kanji version since that somehow provides a 'hold on to'. Anybody also have this and how to solve this?

i have the same problem too... most of those words do come from some sort of kanji though i believe, you might prefer just to look that kanji up and study it as a kanji word... maybe place a "*" mark or something by the word if you are reviewing in anki to remember it is normally hiragana

Edit: now if that word happens to be a plant or animal with really rare kanji, you might prefer just to load a picture of whatever kind of plant/animal it is and use that to latch on a better memory of the word... for example カエル　is easier to remember than 蛙　to me... but i suppose repeated exposure to that same word in kanji would produce decent results as well

Hashiriya Wrote:most of those words do come from some sort of kanji though i believe, you might prefer just to look that kanji up and study it as a kanji word... maybe place a "*" mark or something by the word if you are reviewing in anki to remember it is normally hiragana

Thanks, that might be a good idea. At least you learn the rare kanji use also this way.

Actually the most troubling are the ones that are intangible like:

めげず (in spite of, regardless of)
まさしく (certainly, no doubt)
あくまで (to the end, persistently)

Those kinda words, there is just no hold on whatsoever.
And I always mix up しっかり and すっかり.

Musashi Wrote:めげず (in spite of, regardless of)

???

Quote:those kinda words, there is just no hold on whatsoever.
And I always mix up しっかり and すっかり.

Seeing them in context may help; you might try memorizing a sentence containing the word, and then when you see it you can try to recall your memorized (hopefully vivid) sentence.

More or less, I think it's just something you have to get used to. People who have weak kanji skills and are used to reading in kana will have problems recognizing kanji words. So, if you're used to seeing and learning words in kanji(kanji as a crutch?) all the time, naturally it'll be harder to work without them. More exposure... you could also try making extra cards; a version with the kanji and a version with the common hiragana.

For more abstract, grammatical words, more examples and more exposure will do the trick. By the way, I've never seen めげず before, where did you get that from?

Do you watch a lot of anime or drama? しっかり and すっかり are used all the time.
しっかりつかまってて
ああ、すっかりした

Hmm..it really says めげず in my book in the 単語 section. Strangely I couldn't find it in an online dictionary but somehow I wrote the translation next to it in my book (I cant remember where I found the translation).

The sentence where it's used is this:
太郎冠者の生きざまから、封建社会の庶民が、上からの圧力にも「めげず」、したたかに明るく生きていたことがうかがえます。

Maybe it's a short form or conjugated form of something, although「in spite of」or「regardless of」would make sense here.

And about すっかり / しっかり, actually in lot's of cases even if you'd switch them it would kinda make sense, that's why I always mix them up.

But I guess what Yukamina says is true, just plain, more and more exposure to the stuff. And I do use kanji as a crutch, since they're more unique and therefore easier to pin down an association/meaning to it. As for hiragana they all look the same and sguiggly I mean duh, I can read an all hiragana text, it just takes more time, but I was just bothered that the time it takes to learn all hiragana words (especially intangible words) seems to take a lot longer than words that have kanji.

It's probably also something to do with the type of words that hiragana is used for as well, like めげず , まさしく and あくまで. I think that they kind of have a more abstract meaning compared to words that are usually written with kanji like 会社、試験、誕生日 (nouns, verbs, adjectives I guess).

In terms of English, words like nevertheless, in spite of, persistently etc would be harded to use and remember than words like cat, green and eat.

Or am I way off

It sounds to me like this stems from book learning problems. Start reading more and you'll see those words written a lot and then you'll just naturally have a tendency to see them exactly as you have read them over and over.

The cure for book-learning disorders is almost always to get out and use the language.

And it just so happens that the cure for natural-learning issues is some book learning as well.

(This applies to any language, too.)

wccrawford Wrote:It sounds to me like this stems from book learning problems. Start reading more and <snip>

Stop all of the book learning and read a book!

Jarvik7 Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:It sounds to me like this stems from book learning problems. Start reading more and <snip>

Stop all of the book learning and read a book!

It's a reader! Basically it has all kinds of stories and articles packed in book-form. It's a 読解 book. So it is a book!
Btw, I just subscribed to Hiragana Times, even though I knew about it a long time ago, this is the first time I actually read one and I have to say it is GREAT! Just reading and being able to confirm the meaning what you were reading in Japanese gives so much satisfaction (*patting my own back). I admit it's not the most nicest looking magazine (whoever is responsible for the cover, the design and layout should be fired), but the articles are nice and again, that ability to check and confirm makes it awesome hehe. You know sometimes you read, even though you get the meaning, you're still not 100% sure cus you're still studying the language, I'd recommend Hiragana Times, and it's quite cheap too

Musashi Wrote:Hmm..it really says めげず in my book in the 単語 section. Strangely I couldn't find it in an online dictionary but somehow I wrote the translation next to it in my book (I cant remember where I found the translation).

The sentence where it's used is this:
太郎冠者の生きざまから、封建社会の庶民が、上からの圧力にも「めげず」、したたかに明るく生きていたことがうかがえます。

Huh, there is a verb めげる so I guess that's the negative of it. Never seen that.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Huh, there is a verb めげる so I guess that's the negative of it. Never seen that.

油断しちゃったな

Yeah I saw that when it came up when I was looking for めげず but to go from「to be discouraged」to「in spite of」seemed a bit strange. Where is Magamo when you need him?

Musashi Wrote:Yeah I saw that when it came up when I was looking for めげず but to go from「to be discouraged」to「in spite of」seemed a bit strange. Where is Magamo when you need him?

〜ず is a negative suffix. Think of it as 〜ないで.

without getting discouraged, blahblah

Jarvik7 Wrote:

Musashi Wrote:Yeah I saw that when it came up when I was looking for めげず but to go from「to be discouraged」to「in spite of」seemed a bit strange. Where is Magamo when you need him?

〜ず is a negative suffix. Think of it as 〜ないで.

without getting discouraged, blahblah

Ahh, I was actually thinking it's might've been a short form of 〜ずに (is it?), also similar to 〜ないで.
Anyways, thanks for clearing it up.

Nope.

〜ずに is just 〜ず used together with the particle に.

Ah ok, now it's clear and I can sleep again

Jarvik7 Wrote:Nope.

〜ずに is just 〜ず used together with the particle に.

And in fact, in classical Japanese, に was the continuative form of the copula (just like で is the continuative form of the copula in modern Japanese), so ずに is literally the classical form of ないで.

ahhh...! That's why I always see it listed as 〜ずに in grammar points/books next to 〜ないで

やっぱり！

I stopped giving classical Japanese explanations since I didn't think anyone else on the forums studies it

Musashi Wrote:And I always mix up しっかり and すっかり.

How much listening are you doing? Lots of listening will most likely smooth out these mix ups. If you're exposed to しっかり and すっかり enough you will start to have no problem with them, I think

I do quite some listening, have my Livestation news, podcasts, audio exercises etc. It's not THAT bad, I can clearly hear/see/know the difference between しっかり and すっかり, somehow I just mix them up (but then again, more than often I mix up left and right too, in my own language! hehe). I guess there are always a couple of words that just don't darn stick. But there is only one remedy I suppose, even more exposure.

Musashi Wrote:I do quite some listening, have my Livestation news, podcasts, audio exercises etc. It's not THAT bad, I can clearly hear/see/know the difference between しっかり and すっかり, somehow I just mix them up (but then again, more than often I mix up left and right too, in my own language! hehe). I guess there are always a couple of words that just don't darn stick. But there is only one remedy I suppose, even more exposure.

Ah ok, doesn't sound like that much of a problem. Small things like that will probably smooth over without you even realizing it.
Also, another suggestion~ Maybe if you use images to associate with such abstract words like すっかり they will stick better. Although しっかり has its different meanings, I've always associated it with the image of someone tightly gripping something, which is connected pretty well with its other meanings, I think (strong, reliable, etc). Wherever I first learned these types of words, I kept the image of what was going on when it was used for most of them. I first learned すっくり when someone said it after throwing up on a TV show, first learned ”そっくり” when two people looked alike in another show, etc.

Jarvik7 Wrote:I stopped giving classical Japanese explanations since I didn't think anyone else on the forums studies it

That's my area of specialty, so I can at least pretend to know it.

@Nuriko
That might be something yea to associate a picture with it. I guess sometimes you reach a point when certain words blur into eachother. And associating an image of somebody throwing up makes a bigger impact yea, haha

Anyways, thanks everybody!