I imagine that as one goes into more specialized reading material, the frequency of unusual kanji increases (at least this is what I've read). Therefore, for someone learning kanji, it would make sense to supplement the general set with those that are used mostly in one's field. I am particularly interested in kanji that are mostly used in science and technology. Does anyone know of such a list of non-jōyō/non-Heisig specialty-area-specific kanji?

TIA!

Here's something small to start with, perhaps: http://smart.fm/goals/89235/content (Hint: Do a search for 'science' or click on the tag... )

More from the first couple pages of such a search:

http://smart.fm/goals/46166
http://smart.fm/goals/199952
http://smart.fm/goals/47789
http://smart.fm/goals/199113
http://smart.fm/goals/93979
http://smart.fm/goals/144715
http://smart.fm/goals/54427

Actually I think that might be all for Japanese? ;p

It really depends on the field in specific. Most vocabulary for your general fields that you'd come across in highschool (biology, chemistry, etc) isn't really going to include much non-standard kanji. The words are usually just logical combinations of basic kanji: 化学記号 for example. But even words in more specified and high-end fields like neuroscience don't really use that many rare kanji. Vocabulary like 髄鞘 might use kanji that are not used in many words at all, but they're still not too unusual.

Thanks. After look more into the matter it looks like improving my reading of katakana may have a bigger impact on my ability to read scientific Japanese than anything I could do with kanji... (beyond what's in RTK, that is).

Almost all technology lingo is written in katakana..

Yeah, since most of the terminology comes from foreign languages so you can usually just recognize the katakana if you already know the English words. ペトリ皿 for example

I was going to mention the katakana thing, but that conversation left a bad taste in my mouth. ^_^

There are a few books out there on Technical Japanese. One book is dedicated to vocab afaik. It has a bunch of vocab split up into respective fields, Electronics, Signal Processing, Mechanics, Thermodynamics. Etc etc. I only think new fields/concepts will purely use gairaigo, others will simply use simple waseieigo or something.

Aijin Wrote:Yeah, since most of the terminology comes from foreign languages so you can usually just recognize the katakana if you already know the English words. ペトリ皿 for example

The kanji there is far more recognisable to me than the katakana.

I would have no clue what it was if I didn't look it up.