Struggling with recalling kanji

[viral dome]

I just started doing the Kaishi 1.5k deck, and I'm struggling to recall the kanji. Should I memorize the kanji while doing the flashcards?

[sullen oxide]

<@&1248039856404431062> Struggling with recalling kanji

[orchid solar]

This is a completely normal problem to have as a beginner. More immersion, particularly reading Japanese subtitles along with shows, or other reading, solves the problem. If you're not immersing, it is important that you start asap. Without immersion, everything is harder.

It is not recommended to try memorizing kanji. The meaning and reading for the word is what matters.

[tame merlin]

This video is a good summary of why we don't recommend studying kanji by itself: https://youtu.be/exkXaVYvb68?si=9rdX070TDFlT1-6q

[viral dome]

Alright, thank you.

[slim briar]

reading more will fix this

[eternal swift]

Read more and also you can try to deconstruct Kanji to help with reading

There are like ton of examples I could give to help

疎む and 竦む both have similar kanji but すくむ mean to be paralyzed by fear and it has the 立 radical in it and the 束 radical aswell 立 means like stand and 束 means like restricting so the meaning comes from that

Really you should only use little tricks like that until you see the Kanji in the wild so many times that you remember it

[tawdry mountain]

tbh i definitely have seen both of those and I never even registered they were different kanji lol

[eternal swift]

Lmao

It’s be like that you just gotta get used it

すくむ isn’t written in kanji often but it can mess you up if you don’t know

[white widget]

For me it is not remembering what each individual kanji means, it is remembering that that particular pattern of strokes means X, especially as the 1000 most common words in something like the Kashi deck are not the 1000 simplest words. So the Kashi deck starts nice and simply with 人 and 兄, but then goes straight into 勉強. At the moment when I see it I know it is "Study", not because I recognise the strokes, but because my brain goes "this is the densely packed two kanji word, you only know one so it must be study".

[summer viper]

That's fine. When you start seeing stuff similar to it you can focus on the differences to make it clearer

[viral dome]

This helped so much thank you!

[viral dome]

Thats a pretty neat trick but when i dont think it works well with kanjis that are rarely seen

[brazen urchin]

Yeah the most important thing to note is that this is completely normal, happens to everyone, and will continue to be that way for a while until your get more immersion hours under your belt (specifically reading)

Just don't worry about it and continue immersing

It's very easy to start thinking of Anki as your measure of success in learning Japanese, but it really isn't. Just think of Anki is a chore you have to get through everyday, and immersion as your actually study. Your metrics should be hours immersed, and how comprehensible your immersion starts feeling

[dense shale]

I still do stuff like this even now. Not even “on purpose” my brain will just automatically come up with mnemonics sometimes, and they can be quite random.

A semi recent example.
碌に(ろくに) my brain decided to remember the reading as “oh it’s that one kanji with the radical 石(いし) which means rock, so the reading is ろく”

But as I’ve seen the kanji more and more in Anki/immersion, I start just recognizing it as ろく without the intermediate mnemonic step.