What Kanjis I want to study

There are three main Kanji lists:

• The Jōyō Kanji
• JLPT Kanji
• Most frequently used kanji in newspapers

The Kanjis in each list are more or less the same but they are classified in different ways. In this blog, I will make a mix of the lists according to my own experience. That is, if I think a Kanji is worth the effort to memorize it I will include it, and vice versa. Each post will include one Kanji, the general meaning, an example word, a sentence and a way to memorize it. The Kanji will be tagged according to the classification of the previous three lists. I will also make posts containing reviews and small tests.

Some links to Kanji related websites:

• Tangorin
• JPLT2 Kanji dictionary
• The Kanji site
• Reviewing the Kanji

Preface

In the last years, the study of the Japanese language has gained a strong interest among many people from different countries, mainly thanks to the success of Manga and Anime. One of the most important barriers to learn Japanese is its writing system, based on the use of around 2000~3000 Chinese symbols, the Kanji. There are lots of resources (e.g., books, websites, applications, etc) to learn the Kanji. However most of the current learning approaches are based on endless Kanji lists which are not suited for people who are impacient or do not have enough time to learn all the details about the Kanji. In this blog, I try to develop a practical approach to study the Kanji based on several restrictions and ways of grouping them:

• Only study Kanji that appear in common words
• Learn pronunciation and meaning through an example word and sentence
• Extract similarities among Kanjis or mnemonics to learn faster

This is not a systematic approach to study the Kanji but rather a diary of my own study.