300 Kanji in 30 Days — Intro

The apps recommended in this guide are only available for iPhone and iPad.

Almost anyone can appreciate the aesthetic appeal of Japanese calligraphy.

But, if you’re studying the Japanese language, kanji can also be terrifying.

Thousands of seemingly random combinations of lines; how will you ever remember them all?

Well, they aren’t random. Kanji is a writing system that has been developed and refined over thousands of years in China and further refined by the Japanese when they imported it to their language.

Because the kanji are systematic in nature, you should study them in a systematic manner.

This guide is for the upper beginner to lower intermediate student of Japanese. You should already know some Japanese words. You probably already know a few kanji. Perhaps you’ve already forgotten a lot of the kanji that you studied in the past.

I’m gonna show you how to stop forgetting and study kanji the easy way.

If you’re even a just a casual student of Japanese, you’ve probably heard of using mnemonics and SRS to help you memorize kanji. That’s basically what this system is as well.

So, the system itself isn’t new but my implementation uses your iPhone to help you manage your studies and relies on studying in a contextual manner. What I mean by context is that you really shouldn’t just be memorizing kanji by themselves. Kanji is a system used for conveying ideas and so I think it’s better if you study them within the context of conveying ideas.

This method uses an app called kanji Flow which makes it very easy to study with context because it features a built-in examples database. It will automatically show you the most common words for each kanji and example sentences for most Japanese words.

This study system won’t work for everyone, but if you already have at least some knowledge of Japanese and you can devote 25 minutes a day for 30 days, you’ll be able to completely and confidently memorize 300 kanji and be well on your way to studying 1000, 2000, even 3000 characters…much more than the average Japanese person knows.

If you’re not familiar with using mnemonics to study kanji, basically you will break kanji down into smaller, less complex pieces, and create your own, personalized reading system in order to memorize what they look like. When I say reading system, I actually mean stories. You’ll be reading the kanji by making up a story based on what it looks like. You’ve probably already naturally done this as you’ve been studying. I’m gonna help you make that more systematic and ensure that every new kanji you study builds upon what you’ve studied in the past.

With kanji Flow, you’ll study the characters as they are used in words and sentences and not just by themselves in order to really understand what they mean and how to use them. And kanji Flow’s SRS will manage your study schedule automatically so there will be no wasted time trying to figure out what to study when.

The Secret

Let me be clear right from the start that this method is not magical. There is no effortless way to memorize kanji.

There is no miraculous method to being good at anything. Whether it be baseball, piano, or Japanese; if you want to be good at something, you already know exactly how to do it:

Work.

It will take time, energy, and effort to study Japanese and memorize kanji. Quite a lot of all three, in fact.

However, there are certainly more and less efficient systems and methods available to you.

This method simply aims to be more efficient.

This method also aims to be cost effective. The necessary book has a free sample version available on the web and that’s all we’ll need. One of the iPhone apps I’m going to suggest is free to download and the other one is relatively inexpensive. Neither of them have ads or in-app purchases. I’m also going to recommend a website which is completely free to use as well, although you will have to create an account.

If you don’t use an iPhone, I’m sure there must be similar apps on Android and Windows Phone but you’ll have to research what’s available and learn to use them yourself. Also, they probably won’t integrate together the way the iPhone apps do but, at worst, that’ll just mean a bit of extra work on your part.

Anyway, let’s go over the basics and see how this method works.

Next: The Basics