Summer Homework

<p>I'll be taking honors Japanese next year and the summer homework is to learn 75-100 kanji. My 3-4 class barely learns 6 kanji per chapter and we took this whole year to learn 68 kanji. Does anyone who has taken Japanese know a good way to learn kanji? I'll be tested on it when I come back.</p>

<p>You’re so, so, so, so, lucky you have Japanese at your school. Seriously. I have to take Spanish…lame. That means I have to study Japanese at home. In fact, I’ve only flirted with Japanese, and started my serious studying tonight. </p>

<p>I own James Heisig’s Remembering The Kanji, and it’s great, but has 2,000(?) or so kanji. I don’t know if you need that many, but if you do, buy that book. It is fantastic. </p>

<p>I suggest you download Anki, a spaced reputation system, onto your computer. Once you have done that, you can download “decks,” which are essentially pre-made notecards. Anki is popular among Japanese learners, so there are many kanji decks. Using Anki, I could learn 100 kanji in about a week, pretty painlessly. Good luck!</p>

<p>By the way, do you know how jealous I am of your school offering Japanese?</p>

<p>Thank you, but is the computer program free? I don’t know how to print things at all since my brother needs to type more than I do. My school apparently has one of the largest Japanese programs in the U.S. and I love it I’m glad you don’t take it for granted like the kids at my school.</p>

<p>Uh-oh! I typed my response and forgot to send it. </p>

<p>Yes, it is free. Don’t work about printing; the “notecards” are within the program. It works by showing you a kanji. You respond on how well you know the kanji. If you know it well, you might not see it again for a week. If you don’t know it at all, you’ll see again during that sitting.</p>