Couldn’t have said it better myself! Plus if you’re doing them all at the same time, it’s 3 for the price of 1! Do you still use mnemonics?
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Yes, I still use my mnemonics stories. Using those in conjunction with writing the kanji makes me more aware of the radicals and solidifies the mnemonics in my head. I have such a bad memory, I haven’t been able to remember kanji that doesn’t have mnemonics stories, even when writing them out.
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I wonder if I would have learned them quicker if I had used mnemonics as well. 
Too late to find out now.
I tended to get new kanji wrong (forget one or two of the readings) about 3 or 4 times before it actually ‘stuck’ with only writing/reciting. Some of the harder ones I would forget again when the interval was around 30 days, but then once it dropped down and then went back over 30 days they were usually ok.
Naturally there were a handful that I forgot more times than I would like to admit, but thankfully not heaps 
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I read somewhere that if you can remember kanji past the 30 day mark, it’s entered into long-term memory storage. I’ve found that for kanji past the 30 day mark, I typically remember them pretty well. I’ve only been writing my kanji out for about 6 weeks now, though, so I don’t know how well my memory is going to be in the long term.
Adding the mnemonics is an extra step since they’re not included in the Anki deck, although there’s a field so you can input your own. I used mnemonics mostly from WaniKani (I have a subscription but I don’t do my kanji or vocabulary on WK and mostly use Anki because I want to review them in the order I learn them in my Genki textbooks) but I also found some good mnemonics on Kanji Koohii.
I’m still really grateful you posted about your writing method. I feel like I’m really learning the kanji and I haven’t been missing many at all, so it feels like I’m learning them a lot faster than before.
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That sounds about right to me for the long-term memory. I am looking forward to hearing about your progress again in another few months! Hopefully you’re a kanji master!
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@camytang and @Asher Thank you for pointing me to the font. To complete your information, in order to install the font (on Windows) the zip file must be unzipped then the KanjiStrokeOrders_v4.004 file must be put in C:\Windows\Fonts (most probably).
I decided to use the Kodansha kanji learner's course with vocabulary - AnkiWeb deck since it uses an ordering that I think I will more benefit from: kanji with similar shapes are grouped, which may help differentiate them (for instance a group containing the 貝 radical I have tremendous difficulties to remember). This grouping order can also sometimes help to become aware of similar on-yomi for 形声文字 (but after a quick look this will not be systematic and would probably require a deck for studying this specific point).
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Sorry to drag this back up again, but since you mentioned readings specifically, I was wondering how exactly you learned the readings? Did you memorise all the many variations after the . and all the positions of the ~? Or just the 9 (?) readings, regardless of context?
Eg for 上：うえ、～うえ、うわ～、かみ、あ.げる、～あ.げる、あ.がる、～あ.がる、あ.がり、～あ.がり、のぼ.る、のぼ.り、のぼ.せる、のぼ.す、よ.す
ジョウ、ショウ、シャン
Or just うえ、うわ、かみ、あ.、のぼ.、よ.、ジョウ、ショウ、シャン？
(And I’m just noticing that Jisho lists たてまつ.る but not よ.す as one of the readings… )
Does anybody know how readings are taught/quizzed in Japanese schools, or in Kantei? I feel like I probably don’t need to learn kanji more detailed than Japanese people do lol.
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I considered doing this at first, but then I ended up just memorizing the entire reading, including before, and after the dot. (that way at least you are remembering a whole word). Once you get used to the patterns, it gets much easier to remember where the dot goes.
I learned them within the context of the target word, only seeing them again later in books and things to get further context. I always looked up all forms of the word the first time I saw it as one of the listed readings though. (They didn’t require review after this, apart from the kanji review itself. I assume this is because the meaning of the kanji was enough to jog my memory on the nuance of the individual readings).
To be honest some of the readings may or may not be used that often, if at all. よす is regulalry written with the kanji 止す, and たてまつる is usually written as 奉る or 献る.
They usually only learn one 音読み (the most common), and a few of the 訓読み (if they are common words). I can’t give you exactly which readings they learn in school, and would think that it may vary very slightly per school/per teacher.
That is true, but it won’t take you any more time to memorize one reading than it will to memorise a couple (if you are reciting them out loud as you write). It will also help you to guess the nuances far more accurately later on if you know quite a few readings (certain kanji have the same pairings/groups of 2 or3 readings, rather than 200 or something which might have the same 1 reading). Knowing the pairs will help you narrow down what the potential base meaning will be 100x more effectively. Japanese people don’t need to do this because they have been exposed to the language since they were born, so have a far better ‘sense’ of what words could mean.
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Hopefully, adding to few/many kana after a kanji is something I been struggeling with XD
Good to know! I should probably look up each kanji and somehow figure out how common each reading is in the future and then prioritise.
Right, so same as ‘traditional’ textbooks teach them then. I did feel like just learning one or two common ones is a bit sparse, seeing there’s so many exceptions. (Then again, I’m currently not looking at Nanori at all, and those seem to also get used…)
Not sure if I can see the stats for individual cards on Anki, but I BET that my time spent on 上 and 下 is at least four times that of other kanji lol. But you’re probably right, it’s probably time well spent. (Although I’m also currently not writing out each kanji 10 times, my focus, at least for these lower level kanji, is more readings and meanings.)
Thanks for your insight! 
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Thought I’d give a bit of a better reply to this, as you mentioned a lot of things that I honestly really was uncertain about myself in the beginning.
I really do recommend memorizing the whole word, as the part that comes after the dot will also often be a big indicator of the meaning. For example やか、らか、える、れる、まる、める、む、ける、く、かる、しい. With almost any of the words ending in one of these sounds, the part before it will be the kanji itself. Also, for らか and やか, lots of the sounds that are in the kanji that comes before them will be omamatopoeia themselves. 爽やか（さわやか） = さわさわ, for example.
I didn’t learn the nanori either, as some of them simply have too many. Also, seeing as though the first time you are exposed to one of those readings will be an actual name, you have a far better chance of remembering it than just a regular word.
Some of the kanji do take longer than others, for sure, but they are very few and far between. Most kanji have between 1 and 3 onyomi, and 2 and 4 (related) kunyomi maximum.
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Ohhhhhhhhh!!! That is definitely new information! Thank you!!! 
Yeah, I suppose I shouldn’t bother with Nanori, as names are all over the place anyway. Makes more sense to remember for each individual person eh.
But true, most kanji/their readings aren’t as bad as I had imagined haha.
Thanks again!
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I think I should confess that I’m doing this the lazy way. When doing each kanji, I only memorize one reading, the most common on-yomi (as well as the meaning of the kanji). I learn the other on-yomi and kun-yomi readings when I learn the vocabulary words that use them. I’m getting through the kanji very quickly this way, although it takes me a little longer (and I miss words more often) when I learn my vocabulary words.
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Then the Anki deck made out of the 1000 the most frequent kanji from the Heisig’s “Remembering the Kanji” book that doesn’t teach you any reading, only kanji recognition, is the super-mega lazy way 
It was only one thing I did to study kanji (except Wanikani that I dropped on 20 lvl).
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Hey! Is there a possibility of me lending your anki deck? And if so where can I find it?
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Sure, no problem. I will upload it tomorrow if I can figure out how to do it 
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Hey thanks, man! I really appreciate it
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I was inspired by this thread to give this a harder look. I’ve gone through the WK system and have added many more kanji along the way. Mnemonics help in the initial learning period until you get the vocab practice to reading practice…grind a bunch of SRS levels, some pain ensues…and now you are reading! And no doubt it helped achieve a certain level of reading proficiency hooray 
However a few problems I keep encountering:
- Reading gives a crutch to depend on collocations way too much. Hypothetically, if I can’t read 酒 with reading 飲む or if I’m overdependent on a particular vocab to know a kanji, I don’t really know it. There is a guarantee it will appear in a new or new vocab I haven’t encountered yet or no reference for context to depend on.
- The larger issue is that visually similar kanji is not addressed well in with mnemonic methods. The problem only gets worse as you increase your kanji list in your brain. There are always fairly common kanji they we are not seeing on a active basis and it just get stagnate…and will guarantee to get mixed up. Repeating the mnemonic is neither economical or even a long term solution.
On the writing front, I started long ago just a bit but then stopped. Reasons being
- It takes a lot time and away from other studies
- I don’t live in Japan (or never), so my need is extremely limited
- Not attached to my language goals
- I don’t have an interest in Kanji Kentei
- Because of the aforementioned, I may lack interest over time
Obviously Asher’s method works and I think it could help alot of users here. However, I had a couple reservations if this method was the right fit for me, reasons being:
- I simply don’t have 2.5 hours per day
I mean I could but…that would eat up alot time on other study methods which are largely still beneficial. - I’ve tried redundant writing methods before but by the 2nd repetition I’m spacing out about food, monkeys and clowns. The hamster is on the wheel but not going anywhere…what was that kanji again?
So I wrote my own deck where I’m presented with meaning and kanji and I’m using a handwriting keyboard input to extract the correct kanji and enter it, the SRS will be the threshold. I wanted it as transparent as possible so I’m no mixing with similar meaning kanji. So far, so good though I just blasted through N5/4 in the last few weeks because they are already fairly memorable and on N3 kanji right now which isn’t too bad at all. I’m already finding immediate benefits and the process is enjoyable (and the time investment thus far pretty small). Though I do practice muscle memory during lessons, I’m not writing long pages of repetition…just the amount I want. BTW, here is the Kitsun deck for anyone interested. I’m not trying to compete with other methods or say this best or something , this is just what is working for me ATM and share for others interested. I do like that there is some vocab in the card, may add that forthcoming.
One last note, was told on numerous occasions by natives that writing would be necessary but now I believe. I’ve looked at Kentei resources, they are obviously built with no English whatsoever using exist ony/kuny (those meanings are an English speakers invention after all). I still like the Eng->Jp at the moment though.
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Here is my deck. Please keep in mind that I made this deck purely to coincide with my style of learning, so I made a lot of edits which may not make sense to some people. As for the format, there are a few things I added
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1227772679
- The most accurate English meaning is on the first line
- I deleted a lot of excess kunyomi in favor of double dots. For example, rather than しら.べる、しらべ.る appearing twice to show where the okurigana can be, I just made one reading of しら.べ.る, to show that there are multiple okurigana possibilities.
- I put ateji (non-traditional) readings in brackets, to show words that can appear using certain kanji, but are not an official readings of that kanji. 紅葉（もみじ）, for example.
- I reordered the order of display for many of the kunyomi, and onyomi, putting more common readings first.
- I sometimes put a second English word in brackets next to the main translation, if extra context/conceptual information was necessary.
Please note that you are free to make whatever changes you like to this deck after you download it. Everybody has their own style of learning. 🙇🏼♂️
Also please note that not every card has been formatted in my learning style, as I am only about 2600 kanji deep into the deck myself, and format them as I go through.
All that said. If you’d like to use it, you’re more than welcome
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I also didn’t make any edits to the mnemonics that came with the deck, as I never used them. Feel free to delete that category if you like.
I am not sure how ‘faithful’ the formatting I did to the deck was when I uploaded it. If any of the English words are joined, then it is because the linebreak was not accepted on the upload. In those cases, just click on ‘edit card’, and put insert a line between the words that are joined.
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Did you ever get to upload the video and somehow I missed?
As someone that writes down in a notebook the kanji vocab as part of the exercises of Kanken I’m kinda curious to see!
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