How should i be learning vocab?

Bunpro
#1

Im starting vocab in my japanese learning journey, after having hiragana and katakana sorted and quite a bit of grammar learnt already, so with bunpro with the N5 deck im kinda confused on exactly HOW i should be going about it, for example when i see things like thisYJiW7l7

how should i be parsing this?, do i remember how it sounds using the furigana and then remembering that sound “u mi” means “sea” etc? or should i also be remembering the picture of the kanji and associating it with “sea, ocean” etc? or should i be doing both? i know it might sound like a dumb question because if i only focused on the furigana, then i cant read kanji, and if i only focus on the kanji, i wont know how it sounds, am i really meant to learn both at once? as i said this is my first ever time doing the whole anki/deck vocab grind, im gonna start WaniKani today also, so i wonder if going there for a bit, and then coming to start the deck will help at all?

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#2

The best thing to do is have separate flash cards for the meaning and the reading of the kanji. At least in my experience anyway. You’re right, if the furigana is always above the kanji you’ll have a harder time remembering the reading without it.

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#3

In a practical sense, I believe it’s probably fastest to memorize things in terms of reading → english translation (うみー＞Sea) then reading to kanji (うみー＞海) and then finally consolidate it all by going (海ー＞うみー＞Sea). If I’m not mistaken, I believe this is how most beginner textbooks go about introducing vocab.

There is another method, that focuses entirely on applying meaning to the kanji before learning any readings at all. At least, that’s how I remember it.

I didn’t read very far into the book because I absolutely hated the method but there are people that say it worked for them.

Also worth considering your short term goals. Knowing what the kanji mean but not knowing how they’re read will allow you to get to reading things faster, knowing the reading of a word and not its kanji will allow you to get speaking faster. Eventually, you need to know it all hehe

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#4

For me WaniKani worked great to learn the Kanji and a ton of vocab due to the mnemonics they are using. After finishing WK I redid all the Kanji with the Kanji Study app and did 6000 vocab with Iknow.
But start reading as soon as you can because when you encounter vocab in the wild, it somehow sticks much more easily imho.
But everyone has their own preferred method, I also tried out multiple systems and books before I ended up with these ones.

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#5

Another vote for Wanikani. Took two years, but I’m not afraid of kanji any more.

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#6

I think it’s big mistake to only learn the meaning and translate.
Vocab should be learned in context with sentences. Bunpro N5 vocab deck has sentences, you should set the review to Fill-in/Manual.

image

Japanese is not like English so you might find it hard to actually use the words even if you know what they mean.
Learning by practical use is best in my opinion.

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#7

So essentially as im learning new words, i should be just more focused on being able to translate the sound “neko” with the meaning cat and learning that ねこ means cat too, but also have a little glance at the kanji before jumping to the next new vocab? so eventually that picture of 猫 just slots into my brain subconsciously?

Because as i finished N5 grammar, before starting vocab, i managed to already learn that 私 means watashi, and thus, I, Me, and i did that without ever studying that kanji at all, i simply just absorbed it without trying.

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#8

Should is difficult to say, but I can at least attest to that’s the way I do it and I find a relative amount of success. I also use wanikani, which somebody else mentioned here, and there are lots of kanji I encounter that I don’t need to spend any time learning because I’ve learned them as vocab elsewhere.

It is worth noting that most kanji almost definitely won’t stick with just this method, and you will at some point have to study kanji as its own thing if it interests you/benefits your goals.

What orumi said about reading in context I also agree with, but I actually think it is less relevant and potentially harmful earlier on in your studies as there are less ambivalent words and more clear cut translations and understanding full sentences can be more daunting than just processing single words (like 猫 is cat)

All in all, that’s just my opinion, and at the end of the day the most efficient method is the method you choose that you feel comfortable using.

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#9

I decided to try the other method you mentioned using the book a few days ago, but have yet to start. if you found any issues with it I would love to hear it. could save me some time and trouble.

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#10

Honestly, I didn’t know what the books approach was before trying to use it (I received it as a gift), but it just didn’t fit with my goals for learning Japanese.

The idea of the book is basically breaking kanji down into radicals and then creating stories for each kanji to help you associate a meaning with them. No readings at all (again, I didn’t finish it, so I could be wrong but this is true for as far as I got). I didn’t like this because for my purposes, I felt like in the time I could spend learning the ‘meaning’ of 3 kanjis (dubious in the first place), I would be better off just learning a single kanji, how to write it and the most relevant reading.

I don’t think it would hurt your studies at all, but imo there are better uses of your time

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