Learn Japanese Kanji - Learn Kanji Characters Fast with these Amazing Tips

[theGIFTEDpotato]

so then there are 3 different ways of writing something? 1 chinese, 1 japanese and one that is not chinese nor japanese and then in the japanese and chinese there are sometimes 1 and sometimes 2 different ways to say and write it ya uhm....WHAAAAAAAT?? help me! please??

[haifa301]

@japanesepod101

how to pronounce the kanji? the kanji has so many pronouncation? i don't get it. but, i really love to learn this.

[happylaughter1990]

Wtf idk what the hell is she talking about

[mrDollare]

@happylaughter1990 how did you get here then

[happylaughter1990]

@mrDollare i mean im here to learn jap. but i have no idea what is she talking about

[songokukingdomhearts]

I hate how Mikka means the third day of the month, why can't it just be sanka with the kanji that means three, i don't get the numbers in Japanese, like hitotsu, futatsu, what if they is 10 of something?

[GreenFox59]

@songokukingdomhearts look up Japanese counters; numbers alone and counting an object in Japanese are two different things.

[XZAceXZ]

@jiggawhoification you mean Kawaii :)

[alcenia2800]

ive pretty much memorized first grade kanji already studying on my own, but i didnt know that there were two ways to read kanji lol i just memorized words and tried to find patterns and make connections. However knowing the on readings and the kun readings help out alot. Nice...

[petrosoap]

there's a black dot in the sun?

[lubu369]

that i dont get it, for the " kun " reading, when u have a unknow word that u dont know,how do u know if its a か or a ひ thats in the word?

[chrstilen5]

2:25 to 2:38 makes me feal stupid ;D but great vieo ;D

[TheAngelolivi1]

I notice there are two Onyomi readings "jitsu & nichi" wich one do i use?

[Superscriptor]

@TheAngelolivi1 You have to know how the word is pronounced when you write it

like 先日 is pronounced (senJITSU) and even in the word　日曜日 (NICHIyouBI) there are two 日's but they are both pronounced differently.

It's mostly all up to knowing how the word is spoken.

[supersecretweasel]

Doesn't "hi" also mean fire?

[japanesepod101]

@supersecretweasel Yes! But the kanji is different → 火

[supersecretweasel]

@japanesepod101 Oh! Thank you very much! ありがとう

[cuteRin00]

Hi! i'm Chinese! Even though i am Chinese, my english is much more better than my chinese. i gotta say, learning how to write chinese is difficult!

[MissClannad]

is it important to draw the kanji in the steps you showed in this video, or can i draw it any way?

[LearningNorwegian]

@MissClannad You must always follow the stroke order.

[JeromeLeong]

1:04 in chinese is pronounce as " RI " also means sun.

[khhhaalid]

i can speak Arabic , English and Italian now its time to learn Japanese

[pc2804]

Very Good *.*

[TheUchuujin]

i have a problem lol i havent learnd katakana but have done hiragana and well i dont know there sounds but i know about 150+ kanji but only english meanings 助かるよ

[mikublackrockshooter]

Now I get it! Or maybe not... [-~-];

[LiamUchiha1]

@bluetube147

truth is most people in japan cant memorize all kanji... infact they learn kanji from grade 1 to university. most kanji isnt really used in daily life so study the commonly used kanji instead

[bluetube147]

MAN MY FUCKING CONFIDENCE IS CRUSHEDDDD i new kanji would be hard and i was getting a look at it because im close to finishing hiragana and katakana and omg turns out there are over 50 000 different kanji so im wondering if i could just move on without learning kanji but this is ridiculous and the fact that its most pay sites to learn this shit MAN IM NEVER GONNA LEARN THIS GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!!!

[kingmafi6699]

@bluetube147

You only need to learn 3000-4000 of them that are commonly used day to day.

Most of them are obscure variants and are rarely ever used.

[japanesepod101]

@kingmafi6699 For Japanese, the number of commonly used kanji is actually closer to 2000 :) And that's really just if you want to be able to read things like newspapers, novels, etc.

[DAIGORO14]

so happy that you showed ji tsu in the reading cause when i saw the word 先日　ｉ　ｋｅｐｔ　ｏｎ　ｓａｙｉｎｇ　ｓｅｎｎｉｃｈｉ　ｌｏｌ　ｂｕｔ　ｉｔ’ｓ　せんじつ。 what makes Japanese Kanji so tricky is all the multiple readings but sometimes that even trips up native speakers so i don't feel so bad

[vnobre]

i wonder if the 'black dot in the midle of the sun' is the dot we see when we stare at the sun.

[11thhourreprieve]

so what did I learn? How to draw an upright rectangle with a horizontal dividing line. Thanks.

[ShowaCoolJapan]

わっ、今回は「日＋本＝日本」ができると思ったのに。

"NIHON"や"NIPPON"も基本的な読み方ではできなか­ったんだ…。

[screamingmean]

O_o <---- my eye just started twitching this is so cool but...complex? Cant everyone just write one way lol..yes I am American haha :)

[SakuraBlackrose]

How do you know when to use On-reading and Kun-reading? u.u

[CockslamUrBhole]

I really didn't get the "sun" trick. lol.. It's hard to mentally turn a squared object into a sun, and then remember to think of a dot and turn it into a line. That's more work then just remembering it as it is. It'd be better to think of a window, then think of the sun coming in through it.

[MaxiWellSmart]

@jiggawhoification Agree. Oriental women are so beautiful

[opop150]

Chinese characters were invented in China 4000 years ago.

However, there are the Chinese characters invented in Japan.

For example, the ninja shinobi(nin) was invented in Japan.

There are also many Chinese characters was invented in Japan.

[kenbear2725]

do all japanese know chinese then?

[Cabkebabs]

@kenbear2725 Not so much. xD I thought the same thing.. Apparently, they can sometimes grasp a few concepts, kind of like how we can pick up words from languages like German and Spanish, because they're almost the same in some cases..

But things like grammar and pronunciation in Chinese and Japanese are completely different. So, whilst it might be easy-ish for Japanese people to learn Chinese, they definitely can't speak it like their first language. xD

[Jebo90]

@japanesepod101

on your website there aren't the katakana lessons,are they? If not so,where are they? can't find... :)

[japanesepod101]

@Jebo90 On our website, we have the Kantan Kana video series, which is in the middle of teaching hiragana. Once those are finished, we will start teaching katakana. They're coming soon!

[MrSnoozable]

@japanesepod101 I don't get on vs. kun??? if I'm learning japanese why does chinese pronunciation matter????????

[jafetrese]

@MrSnoozable i agree ^^ what is on reading for??

[julinstick]

@japanesepod101 :i have a question, How can I make my computer to write with hiragana, katakana or kanji?

thanx

[Houstof]

@julinstick You need to add Japanese Language to your input configurations at:

Control Panel > Region and Language > Keyboard and language TAB > Change Keyboard... you can add Japanese IME on English keyboard layout... so when u select Hiragana for an example when you type "wa" it changes to hiragana script. if u write watashi and press space it changes to Kanji hit ENTER to finish each word and not mess up the whole frase later. hope i helped... see you =)

[julinstick]

i have a question, How can I make my computer to write with hiragana, katakana or kanji?

thanx

[Commandos12]

i have no idea what the 3rd kanji in your name is, but from the rest of the words, i'm guessing your name means *center villige* something's child XD

[TheSmilingRedApples]

how do you know when this kanji is jitsu nichi or the rest?

[BriCareful]

yay i love hiroko check out her channel

[toph0395]

This lesson make me study japanese AND english ^^ (I'm french) thank you so much!!

Oh, and I have a question: what is the difference between "arigatou gozaimashita" and "arigatou gozaimsu"?

[bigbossjo]

I understand everything so far but Japan is 日本 nihon the reversal of today 本日 honjitsu

why isn't there a ni reading for 日?

[Commandos12]

@bigbossjo japanese language is based on their daily (and/or original) speaking, and from the spoken language, many words (mostly nouns and verbs..and alot of others now that i think about it) receives a or a few kanji. the reason why these words receive the specific kanji is largely based due to how the chinese use them (which brings out the point that, chinese use kanji, give it a certain way to say it. and the japanese also use the same/similar kanji, but use their native way to speak it.

[LoveMusicSte]

what i don't understand is which Japanese alphabet i should learn first: Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji. Could you help me out please Japanesepod101?

[japanesepod101]

@LoveMusicSte You should learn them in the order of hiragana → katakana → kanji. Please check out our Kantan Kana videos to start learning hiragana and katakana :)

[japanatic722]

@japanesepod101 Hey, I was wondering if you guys are going to continuing posting those Kantan Kana videos for Katakana. It would help alot :D

[japanesepod101]

@japanatic722 Yes, we will! The rest of the hiragana series (from episode 9 on) and the entire katakana series will be posted directly to our website (check our channel page for the link!), so don't miss them :)

[japanatic722]

@japanesepod101 So, then no more will be on youtube?

[japanesepod101]

@japanatic722 That is correct ;_;

[Diana1988]

didn't you forgot the Kunyomi "ni"?...like 日本 (nihon)....

[TheAwesomeEclipse]

i think a better way to remember it would be "the sun shining through your window."

great video!

[AnimeFantasy101]

How do you know which reading to say?

[HIROKOCHANNEL]

@AnimeFantasy101 Usually if used with other Kanji, then On reading. Kun reading when used with Hiragana. (not always).

[JACKIEMON1]

oh i see it can be used to hold a consonant sound when writing in romaji the consonant is written twice

[nihongo09]

hey theres something bothering me i've seen つ  in words and "-" example kak-koi-i

kawai つi

[SilverGunZoO]

I don't believe in start speaking (language) in minutes, I studied english japanese and french for the last 11 years since 9 years old, to become fluent, and I still need to learn more kanji... so yea, there's no such thing as easy or minutes when it comes to language learning !

[wenjia12696]

Oh I love kanji :) coz its probably easier for me to understand wat they r trying to say as the characters look VERY alike to chinese ones. most r basically the same-- like this one.

[TMDLex]

surely memorizing the 日 as a window, with the sun in the window; is much easier

[Adowel123]

Why cant all Japanese be in Kana? Kanji is way confusing. Speaking Japanese is easy compared to learning Kanji

[KitKatman2008]

Most of the Japanese that you'll see in Japan will include kana. People use kana instead of all kanji in Japan because of the little kids and other people who dont recognize some kanji characters.

I have to agree though,

Kana is easier to remember than Kanji because Kanji is ideographic (the Chinese and Japanese wrote words down based on what they represented)

and Kana is syllabary (Based on the sounds of the syllables).

[mewarmor990]

@KitKatman2008 Actually characters ceased being ideographic a long, long time ago. But yes, kana makes learning Japanese much easier than Chinese, which lacks any kind of phonetic script.

[jesusSaidBrb]

how weird, the jitsu 2:54 (today) is my background with the rising sun...with a picture of japan...

[mashi384]

@jesusSaidBrb that's... not weird.

[SteffSoft]

Did she say... "Pod0101"?

[risingphoenix215]

based on guttural pronunciations, lack of vowels or the sheer amount or symbols needed to read an everyday newspaper along with several different dialects and grammar differences the hardest languages to learn, as far as I have been told by my high school hebrew teacher are . . . hebrew, arabic, japanese and chinese. it was probably his opinion. One thing I dont agree with is when people say that age matters. the younger you are, supposedly, the easier it is to learn a new language.

[icygreenful]

chinese is the hardest language..just imagine the strokes..no pattern at all

[mybestbuddies921]

Japanese is one the the hardest languages, then it's English. English is NOT easy.

[kevchangu]

lol of course it is

[mashi384]

@mybestbuddies921 agreed. for foreigners english is very difficult with the different pronunciation for words "nation = nay shun" and the level of grammar use. japanese doesn't have that much of a scrict grammar rule.

[mewarmor990]

@mashi384 It's not so much a matter of Japanese not having strict grammar rules, so much as Japanese grammar being relatively straightforward compared to English. English can be very arbitrary with its grammar at times, which throws learners off.

[GothicAnime345]

ni hao.

[cactuss11]

that's chinese.. :D

[sneakybob101]

no its mandarin.. :D

[AznBillyCo]

What is the name of the song or is it generic?

[th4n4t0s25]

gee, I started to feel a lil' weird about my hand writing , so I gotta learn to use those symbols...I guess it'll be more direct using kanji , right ?

[SstrawBerryz]

Yay, I have to sign up on that website cuz learning kanji is a bit hard to me ^^

[guledmoalim]

everyone keeps saying english is the hardest language to learn but i think there are many other harder languages to learn like japanese

[bnjifar92]

i'm sorry but who told that English is the hardest language has already lost his mind i learned English two years and if you say japanese is hard you haven't seen chinese for exemple

[Demacus81]

@bnjifar92 i hear alot of ppl say english is hard to learn but idk english is my first language so i really cant say. I can only guess that they say that because they are taught textbook english and ppl do not talk like that, plus alot of our sayings probably dont make sense to ppl who have only learned textbook english. My family had 2 french exchange students who spoke great english but when my family started to have converstions they said they didnt understand alot of the expressions we used

[bnjifar92]

but the textbook is not the ultimate key for learning there are movies for example that's an effective way to learn some of the conversations used on public and also to avoid talking with an accent

English is my third language and i started it with them and speak it better than them because i entered the English culture by movies till i passed my accent issue and i speak to many Americans i can clearly understand them but the British i watched harry potter and i barely understand

[Demacus81]

@bnjifar92 i totally agree with you. im learning japanese now and i watch alot of japanese movies and sitcoms and it helps alot. I watch the same shows over and over and i notice that i start to understand them more and more.

[bnjifar92]

@Demacus81  also if you go to japan you won't have a communication problem

[SstrawBerryz]

Emm,really? I haven't hear anyone saying that English is the hardest language to learn , it isn't even hard though. o.o

I learned some German, Frech, Japanese, Polish (this is my 1st language) ,Chinese & Thai as well as English (I live in England now) and I found English the last hardest... really xD

[xXAkatsukiGirlX3Xx]

I heard that English is one of the easiest languages to learn, and I gotta agree. I am 14, and I speak English quite well. My mother is Chinese and my father is German, and I think German might be a difficult language. And Chinese is very hard to learn, even for me. But it makes Japanese easier <3

[alanscott156]

IT depends on what you natively speak first i think. If you are a native japanese speaker for example...then pronunciations of certain english words are really hard and I disagree whole heartedly with you saying english is the easiest language to learn

[xXAkatsukiGirlX3Xx]

Well, I think when pronounciation differs from your native language than it's always hard to learn

[MusicFeedsYourSoul]

What is your first language?

[xXAkatsukiGirlX3Xx]

Actually. it was Chinese, but I unlearned most of it, so I treat German as my native language

[HIROKOCHANNEL]

Me?

[MusicFeedsYourSoul]

No, actually I was talking to xXAkatsukiGirlX3Xx. We all know what your first language is!

[XiaNingTian]

@xXAkatsukiGirlX3Xx daisuki

[seansfc]

hmm when i was learning japanese in high school they always used this kind of easy way to rememebr the characters like hey its likes alike a base ball and so on

but personaly i think it makes it more confusing

[GamerFreak186]

But how do you know if you have to read it as kun or On? :S

[japanesepod101]

Usually when a kanji is used in a compound word (two or more kanji) you will use the onyomi reading - but this doesn't always apply! Sometimes you just have to memorize when to use which!!

[GamerFreak186]

I see..

thanks!

[ttaakkaahs]

自分は逆に英語の勉強になったよ

"たらーん"がお気に入り

[lolavex]

To remember this one I would think of an opened window to let the sun in. LOL.

[nusua]

1:35 wait I thought tsu looked like つ

[japanesepod101]

In hiragana, yes. She was writing them in katakana, where tsu is ツ.

[Dandarillerkiller]

Everything is free right? If it is Thank You very much for your help :D!

[ChooReppaDan]

Hi! I have a question, it's a bit offtopic though, since is related to katakana instead of kanji.

1:36 Hiroko sensei writes down "CHI", and sure the stroke order is exactly like japanesepod101 . com /store /kantan /k-chi. jpg ... Nevertheless, all my Japanese teachers and friends (native speakers) happen to write that character in a slightly different way, something like this: umich . edu / ~umichjlp / Katakanapro /ti. html

So, the question is: Is it ok if I start either way ?

[japanesepod101]

Wow - great thinking ChooReppaDan!

You've got a great eye!

You're right - both Hiroko and the file on the website are incorrect...the correct stroke order is that on the U.Mich. website.

Stroke order can be difficult, even for native speakers. It's not ok to start either way, just like it's not ok to misspell "hors d'oeuvres". :P

[LemonyEmilyXD]

chasib- i think you can save time by saying "Kyo wa ...(day of the week)" which means today is.

im not 100% sure though lol

[chasib]

so if I say - hon jitsu hisuke moku yobi - i just said today's date is thursday (^_^) isn't that right?

[japanesepod101]

Not sure if I know where you're going with "hisuke"...but LemonyEmily's right - "Kyou wa moku youbi desu" is most natural.

[chasib]

I see

[Naglfar94]

@japanesepod101 ohh hiroko san i am having so much trouble with kun and on readings and kanji in genaral i need help how do you make kanji easier becuase some of those have so many strokes in them that i forget how to do them and i really want to go to japan to live but i need to learn to read more kanji please please please help me so far i know 103 characters i know 103 becuase i have all the hirogana katakana and onley a few kanji but i need more so please help arigato gozaimasu

[Tenki09]

Awsome work !

[japanesepod101]

Thanks c134~

Keep checking the vids! :)

[kyousukeX]

キョウスケです。どうぞよろしく。弘子は可愛いです。

[c134a2]

nice... you have my subscription!!