こんにちは (Konnichiwa) Everyone!

Welcome back to my Japanese Learning Journey. Another week has passed. It’s almost more than a month now. Looking back at where I was and where I am now, feels like a pleasure. Well, let’s keep that for another blog.

In this week, I researched on how to get started with Kanji. And I figured a way that should work. And also as I have been following Genki - 1, it’s been two weeks since I started reading this book. This week, I happen to start the chapter 2 - which is conversations in a market and in a restaurant.

Conversations - Shopping { Market & Restaurant }

In chapter 2 of Genki 1, there are some conversations. The first is with a vendor in a market, and the second is with a waiter in a restaurant. Studying these conversations results in two things:

1. You will learn vocabulary that is actually used.
2. You will understand how people talk in certain situations.

Vocabulary

From these conversations, we can learn a lot of vocabulary. Here is a list of words:

Getting Started with Kanji

I was a little worried about my kanji learning so far. So, this week I tried to research what are some good materials that will get me started with the Kanji. The goal was to have a resource that will be beginner-friendly and should be a reading material instead of some videos.

I came across this book called The First Japanese Kanji Book. This is a very good book to get started with Kanji and it doesn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary things.

The book has a lot of lessons and each lesson:

• starts off with a situation or phrases and contains the use of the kanji in sentences
• has some pictures and stuff (probably this book was designed for kids, but anyways)
• then it has the kanji character with the stroke order
• has some spaces to practice the kanji as well
• also contains some vocabulary related to the kanji

I loved this book to get the initial exposure to the Kanji characters. I usually practice writing on my iPad, so I can import this book into my Notes App (the App is a secret for now) and use the blank spaces provided here to practice the Kanji characters.

Soon, I realized that I needed a specific template for my digital notes for Kanji in particular. So, I designed a template in Canva.

Let me explain the idea behind this template. I am sure you will find it intuitive as well.

1. The bigger square is for the Kanji character, along with the stroke order information.
2. Most Kanji have two readings, i.e., kun-yomi and on-yomi readings. The kun and on readings will be written in the blue spaces provided.
3. The lines beside the kun and on spaces are for writing the meaning and description of the kanji.
4. The boxes below the larger square and the kun and on spaces are for practicing the kanji.
5. Each box is divided into four quarters to analyze the kanji strokes and write them properly using the quarters as guidelines.
6. The smaller boxes are for writing examples or some vocabulary. You can see an example below.

The plan is to learn as much kanji as possible while also learning grammar and vocabulary from the Genki books. For the next couple of weeks, I will be using a combination of Genki 1 and The First Japanese Kanji Book to advance my learning.

I have also created a deck in the AnkiApp for the kanji in this book. I will keep adding new kanji to the deck and use the app to memorize them. If you are unaware of what the AnkiApp is, you can check it out here: Link to Anki App

This week marks the start of my Kanji Quest. For your information, let’s talk about how much kanji you really need. According to the Japanese Education System:

• Grades 1–2 | 80 Kanji
• Grades 3–4 | 160 Kanji
• Grades 5–6 | 200 Kanji
• Junior High School | 540 Kanji
• High School | 1,026 Kanji

Let’s not go to the numbers. How much kanji do we need if we want to have a normal life in Japan who will be able to write and read most of the reading materials available in Japan.

• Daily life: Around 1,000 characters should be sufficient for comfortable living and reading basic materials.
• Newspaper literacy: Reading newspapers and magazines comfortably may require understanding 2,000 characters.

Also, there are certain Exams or to be specific JLPT { Japanese Language Proficiency Tests }. This is also based on the amount of Kanji Knowledge you should have.

• 1 Kyū (N1): Approximately 2,000 kanji
• 2 Kyū (N2): Approximately 1,000 kanji
• 3 Kyū (N3): Approximately 650 kanji
• 4 Kyū (N4): Approximately 300 kanji
• 5 Kyū (N5): Approximately 100 kanji

Looking Ahead

I am genuinely feeling more confident and I try to read every hiragana and katakana I see. This felt rewarding. Here is what I have planned to do for this upcoming week.

• Focus on 100 most used Kanji
• Dig deeper into the Grammar and learn some more rules for forming sentences.
• Learn some more vocabulary
• Practice the Kana, Vocabulary words and Kanji in the Anki App

ありがとう (Arigatou)! Thank you for following my progress. See you next week!

Previous Blogs

• Week 4: Numbers and Time in Japanese
• Week 3: Getting Started with Everyday Vocabulary & Grammar
• Week 2: The Struggle to Memorize the Japanese Kana Characters
• Week 1: My First Steps into Learning Japanese

Previous Articles

• Japan’s Fascinating Education System
• Let’s Know Japan

Notes & Links

• AnkiApp
• The First Japanese Kanji Book

Feel free to share your thoughts or any tips you have for learning Japanese in the comments below.