Radicals: The Key to Learning Kanji

Hello everyone,

Alright, so a change of plans, it seems as though most people recommend learning the radicals first which will make learning the Kanji easier and I'm inclined to agree with them. Also, some radicals are Kanji in and of themselves so I'll be learning some Kanji at the same time!

So the plan is to learn every radical first, there's 214 (or so). Then start going through the Kanji. I'm hoping everyone is right and that this helps me learn Kanji more easily! I'm going to try and do at least 10 characters a day, preferably more, but 10 will be the minimum. So far, I basically I have the first 10 radicals down.

Nokanmuri!

Natsuyasumi (Summer Holidays) Kanji challenge! 1100 MINIMUM Kanji in 3 and a half months.

こんにち　は　みなさん、

夏休み　に　わたし　は　漢字　を　勉強　したい！

Hello everyone,

I'm going to be studying a lot of Kanji on the summer holidays!
I want to try and at least get through all the Kanji presented in 'The Key to Kanji' book which we have as a part of our course. There's 1100 in total, so far we should have learnt about 150 or so Kanji at Uni so far but, like many of my classmates, I probably only recognised about 10, if that, before today. I have about 3 and a half months before semester starts and want to make the most of my time.

Today I made a point of learning the Kanji for numbers 1-10 (I know, it's terrible I don't know this already after two semesters), 100, 1000, 10000. Making sure I am at least familiar with their stroke orders, normal sound in Japanese and their meanings. I'm trying to become familiar with each Kanji's kun and on readings as well as their radicals. I've heard knowing the radicals helps with learning any Kanji that use them. Obviosuly it's good to know everything about them but, the main thing I'm trying to achieve is to have good foundation of Kanji knowledge. Alright, alright, I'll go back and make sure I know all that. Fine.

Anyways, if anyone would like to join me in learning Kanji, and just Japanese in general, you're welcome to! If you would like to exchange comments in Japanese or even have a competition to see how fast we can learn a certain number of Kanji just let me know. It'll be motivating to know other people I interact with are out there doing this and knowing their's competition.

Here's the table I've made up so far, I'm planning to organise the Kanji I learn into groupings which I'll have printed out into a folder which will be useful for classes etc.

The numbers next to the radicals indicate the 'Kanxi' number.

一	音読み	イチ、　イツ
	訓読み	ひと（つ）　(X Things)
	部首	一　（１）

二	音読み	ニ
	訓読み	ふた（つ） 　(X Things)
	部首	二　（７）

三	音読み	サン
	訓読み	み、みつ、　みっつ　(X Things)
	部首	一　（１）

四	音読み	シ
	訓読み	よん、　よ、　よつ　(X Things)
	部首	囗 （３１）

五	音読み	ゴ、
	訓読み	いつ　(X Things)
	部首	二　（７）

六	音読み	ロク、　ロツ
	訓読み	むつ　(X Things)
	部首	八（１２）

七	音読み	シチ
	訓読み	なな、　ななつ　(X Things)
	部首	一　（１）

八	音読み	ハチ、　ハツ
	訓読み	やつ　(X Things)
	部首	八 （１２）

九	音読み	キュウ、　ク
	訓読み	ここの、　ここのつ　(X Things)
	部首	一　(乙, ⺄, 乚) （５）

十	音読み	ジュウ、　ジュツ
	訓読み	とお
	部首	十　（２４）

百	音読み	ヒャク、　ピャク、　ビャク
	訓読み
	部首	白　（１０６）

千	音読み	セン、　ゼン
	訓読み	ち
	部首	十　（２４）

万	音読み	マン、　パン
	訓読み	よろず
	部首	一　（１）