Back

Brand new student, need help!

#1
So I decided I would take a stab at learning another language, I've already learned some Spanish from when I was in school and thought I'd try Japanese.

Almost everyones recommended me to learn kanji first, so thats what I've tried to do. I was also recommended to use an SRS to help with memorization. I've tried to do this but I'm confused as to how I'm supposed to type the kanji into the SRS? As far as I can tell I need the romaji to type any kanji, which RTK doesn't supply, do I need another book for referencing?
Reply
#2
You could learn kanji from this site.
It has a built-in SRS. If you mention using romaji around here, you may as well call someone's mother a #### as well. Learn Kana first. It takes less than two days. You can't type kanji using romaji anyways.
Reply
#3
Ok but my main problem is putting the kanji into my SRS program.
Reply
May 16 - 30 : Pretty Big Deal: Save 31% on all Premium Subscriptions! - Sign up here
JapanesePod101
#4
like he said, you can use that site without ever having to type a kanji in your life.
Reply
#5
And like I said, I need to know how to type kanji into my SRS.
Reply
#6
There are already RTK lists on Anki if that is the SRS you are using. You must learn kana before you can type kanji into anywhere.
Reply
#7
Well, you could install Japanese input on your PC, following the instructions here, but I assume that you don't know many Kanji readings at this point, so that won't help much. I actually end up using the ol' copy & paste method more often than not. You can find all the kanji you need here or here. The latter site is for Chinese learners, but it has a pretty neat manual input program, and most of the characters are the same between Chinese and Japanese anyway.
Reply
#8
Tucke Wrote:And like I said, I need to know how to type kanji into my SRS.
The point is that most people don't type kanji at all until they know some readings. To learn the Kanji with SRS you use a pre-made deck. From Anki you can download various kanji decks from File > Download > Shared Deck...

If you insist on making your own deck from scratch, which I would strongly advise against since it's a complete waste of time, you'll have to copy and paste the kanji from a book or website.
Reply
#9
Alright thanks a ton, I couldn't even get started because I couldn't figure out how exactly I was supposed to be making my own cards with nearly no previous knowledge to go on.
Reply
#10
I think everyone is really trying to help you here. As has been mentioned, you'll need to get a grip on the kana before inputting kanji. Plus, of course, your computer has to be set up for Japanese input.

Assuming you're on top of both of those, perhaps you could use this spreadsheet:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=...GYXc&hl=ja

This is the Japanese keyword list for Heisig's method, which was a collaborative effort that started over here http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=929
You should be able to use the hiragana column(s) to find out the readings in order to input them directly.

I hope that is of some help.
Reply