Hello everyone, I started all my learning later on in life - after schooling, and have always pushed myself to learn complex things in my life, i am an IT proffessional and pick most things up eventually. My Japanese is very mixed up....listening to audio's from Pimleur, Rosetta stone, Rocket Japanese, Michele Thomas and a few others. I have settled on learning with rocket Japanese now with flashcards from white rabbit press and have recently learned hiragana and katakana in a very short time. So i thought, i will order the 300 beginner Kanji cards to practice along with my Rocket Japanese. I need some help with beginner Kanji....i just don't get it yet. Most of the things in my life i have learned come eventually but the Kanji is not making sense at the moment. I need a good teacher to explain please. Thanks for reading.

Looks like i posted in the wrong thread section.......,again!

Konnichiwa Gary-san, Are you a visual person? Often, for visual and creative minds, Kanji is best studied using 'mnemonics' (pictograms). So, for example, 山 (mountain) actually comes from a picture of a mountain. In this way, you can create pictures for each Kanji you are learning and will be able to remember them. Hope that helps! -Sayaka ;)

Yes, i guess i am a visual person....thats how i learned Kana. I will try out the same method witht he Kanji and see how i get on. Thanks.

www.readthekanji.com See how this site works for you, for me it does wonders if I have the time/remember to do enough repetitions. You can also work on your writing skills by writing the kanji as it displays them randomly. Like the kanji is displayed you make your guess at reading it then write down the correct answer in a notebook or notepad or something.

Thanks for the link :-) I will try it out shortly, I feel like i have hit a brick wall with learning Kanji just now, i used the Kana flash cards from white rabbit and found the way they explained everything with pictures and sounds was great.......i would even say simple. But the Kanji flashcards are just giving me a blank head when looking at them. Hope i learn something from your link. I also downloaded a trial of this software..... http://www.kanjisoft.com/ I need all the help i can get.

You could also try James W. Heising: Remembering the Kanji vol1,2&3 books. Trust me, they're great, I've just bought them and I have a rate of learning of about 50 Kanji/week and I still remember them pretty well. I'm still at the first volume where only the meaning and writing are explained. The next volumes teach you how to read them, so it's and excellent combination ! コッド

Although be careful with heising, while it will teach you the meaning of the kanji themselves, I don't think it will teach you the meanings of compounds and how to properly read kanji. Yeah, it does its job though I think its a good resource to use.

In volume 1, where it teaches you to write and remember them, it is clearly explained for each kanji how to remember them using primitives (compounds=kanji used for making other kanji). The first volume is really detailed and worthwhile. On the other hand, volume 2 isn't that good. It only teaches you 1 on-yomi and 1 kun-yomi of the characters, which isn't sufficient. But still, it's better than nothing. For the reading part, I'll probably use flashcards in addition to the book.

Hi, I just bought the first volume of this book and it's just what i was looking for....Cheers! I read the fist few Kanji after having a few beers the other night and can still recall them :-) But as デレク says i don't think it teaches you the meanings of compounds but it is still a great learning tool and helps in getting started and interested again.

I'm glad it helped :). I think the compound part is up to the 2nd and 3rd volumes. I'm still on the first one, so I can't give an accurate response right now.

i am learning Hiragana but sometimes i cant remember is there a way i can remember the symbols of Hiragana?

You should check out ..... http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/catalog/Kana-Flashcards-p-16159.html I learned kana in a day or two.....easy to remember. Once you learn these you will enjoy your Rocket Japanese lessons better.

I learnt hiragana and katakana by myself,but kanji is complicated ,i am not able to learn it up,i need some help.I AM HAPPY THAT ROCKET JAPANESE HELPED ME A LOT. THANKS FOR READING.

I bought the book "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters" (Tuttle), by Kenneth G. Henshall while I was in Japan (about 20 years ago!) and that did it for me, as it tells the whole story about kanji, very detailed. Check it out...it covers kanji's radicals, origins, evolution, etc.