Charon
New member
Registered: 2013-08-16
Posts: 1
Like a lot of people I've finished RTK and I'm now working my way through beginner material like Tae Kim's guide, Core2k, other textbooks, etc.
One thing I've noticed though is a problem when learning new vocab compounds. I'm finding it far, far easier to remember the meaning and reading as opposed to actually having to write the word down itself from memory. For example, something like 非公式, if I come across it in writing I can pretty easily remember what it means and how to read it, but if I have to try and write it by hand it's like hitting a mental block.
Do I need to make a real effort to try and remember the writing of Kanji compounds (at the moment I just type in the cloze answers...) or will I be able to remember the writing through enough exposure eventually?
Enough exposure to kanjis never gave me the ability to write the kanji from memorize. However reading them is much more important nowaday. What I did to write from memory is just go to anki and turn your recall cards, and make part two of it: production. Ok cool I can write all these kanji from memory and I can read the faster then ever!!!!!......but, geez I noticed I'm only learning like 10 a day and I'm going through my books slower just to remember all of these. So is it either read so much for your time and effectively be able to remove 40+ vocab a day and read them at decent speed, or read slow and effectively learning less for your time. Besides enough exposure to the same compound, you will eventually read it faster and faster.
But anyway, for me..no writing doesn't come naturally for me just through exposure. With anki yes, just add another two pointless hours. I'll focus on learning to write when I'm already fluent in the language. Or...when I need it, I'm planning to go to graduate school after my university.. And that's a long time from now. Sorry for my poor writing I'm not going to bother to correct my grammar, when I could just read japanese instead ^^. Best of luck.
But there's one thing I don't understand, people say pick whatever method that works for you no mater the study time.. What the hell? Yes you have to find the correct method, but please dont go far on this it's only my opinion... I think I would rather do amethod where I'm not learning as much, but the volume is more.. Hmm for an example, I'd have a lower understanding of 50 sentences than a 100% understanding of let's say 10. More exposure is well...more exposure to the language which will help more in the long run. I'm no rocket scientist or linguist master, but I just think less reading just isn't effective. But call me a hypocrite if you want because I enjoy intensive reading, well I do both. Wait what the heck why am I even talking about this.
