Kanji are the third part of the Japanese writing system, and by far the most extensive. These logographic characters of varying complexity represent words or parts of words in conjunction with the kana. Japanese high school students are required to learn at least 2136 kanji as part of the curriculum, but around 3,000 are used in all facets of life.
+Kanji are the third part of the Japanese writing system, and by far the most extensive. These logographic characters of varying complexity represent parts of words, or sometimes whole words. Japanese high school students are required to learn at least 2136 kanji as part of the curriculum, but up to around 3000 are used somewhat regularly in modern life.
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Learning grammar is straightforward: Pick a grammar guide and read it. Tae Kim is often recommended for beginners (note that the whole guide is basic grammar, even the “advanced” section), but other options are listed on the resources page. You shouldn't expect to memorise everything you read the first time around in whatever guide you choose, but you should be aiming to understand it. The purpose of a grammar guide is not to grant you "mastery" over the language (which only comes through lots of practice and exposure), but simply to introduce you to the fundamentals of the language and give you the foundation that you need to start reading native material.
-Once you've reached the end of the guide, you can start reading Japanese material while consulting back to the guide to solidify your memory. By reading Japanese you are actively practicing your grammar since you are using it constantly to understand what you are reading. Manga is the common recommendation for first getting into reading, especially Yotsubato. You may also consider doing the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar Anki deck to reinforce what you have learned.
+Once you've reached the end of the guide, you can start reading Japanese material while consulting back to the guide to solidify your memory. By reading Japanese you are actively practicing your grammar since you are using it constantly to understand what you are reading. Manga is the common recommendation for first getting into reading, especially Yotsubato with the Yotsuba Reading Pack. You may also consider doing the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar Anki deck to reinforce what you have learned.
-This isn't the end of grammar. Tae Kim should serve you fine for the easiest manga, but it only covers the most common grammar. The Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar are the go-to resource for anything not covered in Tae Kim; they and various other options are documented in the resources section. If you’re looking to reinforce or refresh what you learned in Tae Kim, then the Visualizing Japanese Grammar video series (written and presented by a native Japanese linguist) is an excellent resource.
+This isn't the end of grammar. Tae Kim should serve you fine for easy manga, but it only covers basic grammar. The Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar are the go-to resource for anything not covered in Tae Kim; they and various other options are documented in the resources section. If you’re looking to reinforce or refresh what you learned in Tae Kim, then the Visualizing Japanese Grammar video series (written and presented by a native Japanese linguist) is an excellent resource.
Anki is a flashcard program that helps you acquire vocabulary through spaced repetition. It is commonly used in conjunction with the Core2K/6K vocabulary deck by beginners to build up a basic vocabulary of common words in preparation for reading. Many people stop the Core2K/6K deck after reaching 2000 words; partly because the first 2000 words (Core2K) are a lot more common than the rest, and partly because of the significant time investment involved in completing Core6K. As you can expect even Core2K to take about 3 months to complete, some prefer to skip it and begin reading native material immediately. Whether or not you feel that the time investment is worth it depends on your tolerance for looking up unknown words. After finishing Core2K, you’ll at least know the majority of words in a given sentence, but you will still have to look up many words per page.
+Anki is a flashcard program that helps you acquire vocabulary through spaced repetition. It is commonly used in conjunction with the Core2K/6K vocabulary deck by beginners to build up a basic vocabulary of common words in preparation for reading. Many people stop the Core2K/6K deck after reaching 2000 words; partly because the first 2000 words (Core2K) are a lot more common than the rest, and partly because of the significant time investment involved in completing Core6K. As you can expect even Core2K to take about 3 months to complete, some prefer to skip it and begin reading native material immediately. Whether or not you feel that the time investment is worth it depends on your tolerance for looking up unknown words. After finishing Core2K, you’ll at least be able to recognize the majority of words in a given sentence, but you will still have to look up many words per page.
After completing Core2K (or skipping it entirely), some people begin a "mining deck". A mining deck is a vocabulary deck which you build up yourself with the unknown words that you encounter while reading. The Firefox add-on Rikaisama simplifies this process to a single key press, so that all you need to do to add a card to your deck is hover over a word and press "r" (instructions here and here).
@@ -139,9 +139,9 @@Rikaikun - (Chrome) - Essentially an inferior clone of Rikaichan, but still serviceable enough if you just can’t let go of the botnet. No Anki import feature.
+ +Yomichan - Pop-up dictionary for Chrome/Firefox. The main advantage is that it has an Anki import feature like Rikaisama but supports Chrome. Unlike the Rikai family, by default Yomichan requires you to hold shift to parse text (this can be disabled), and click to remove the pop-up each time it appears (this cannot be disabled). The pop-up box is also less compact than Rikai (comparison). After installation, you need to import JMDict in Yomichan's settings by clicking the arrow next to the input box under the "Dictionaries" section.
※Jisho - Online J>E/E>J dictionary. It also contains information on kanji including a order, readings, etc. You can also search a kanji by handwriting or its radicals if you don’t know the correct stroke order.
