The main difference between Japanese writing system and other languages writing system are the Chinese characters named 漢字 (かんじ) Kanji. To learn them, we have to find a different approach, as there are too many of them to remember one by one.
Origin
First of all I want to introduce the origin of Kanji.
The meaning of Kanji is literally "Chinese characters" where 漢 (かん) kan is China and 字(じ) ji is character.
Before the year 800, the Japanese had no writing system and all the diplomatic texts were written and read in Chinese. Later, the Japanese restructured the Chinese text in accordance with Japanese grammar, but capt writing the kanji. Later, the Katahana and Hiragana were derived from the Kanji to simplify the writing but the kanji didn't disappear from Japanese pages. Now the kanji used to disambiguate the language. While the Japanese has many homonyms (words that sound similar but have different meanings), the kanji helps clarify the meaning.
How many?
It's a tricky question which doesn't have a concrete answer. The Japanese dictionary Dai Kan-Wa Jiten consists 49,964 Kanji characters. In Zhonghua Zihai - the largest Chinese dictionary consisting 85,568 characters. And even that one is not full. BUT! Don't run away in screams. No one knows all the characters and no one will expect you to know them all. So, what is expected from Japanese native speakers? The Kenji Kentei - the Japan Kanji aptitude test. It has 12 levels (10 through 3, pre-2, 2, pre-1, 1) while the 1 level is the hardest and while taking it, you are expected to know 6,355 Kanji. While it's better than 85,000, it still a little intimidating. The truth is, that even the native speakers rarely pass the level 1. Only 1.5% of the ones taking it, passing. I think this goal is far higher than I should aim for. That's why I stop my calculation on 2,136 characters leaned by Japanese children through the school years and should be known for the level 2 of the exam.
Where to start?
Now that the final goal is set, what is the right order of learning the characters? There are many ways to do it:
- Learn by stroke count.
- Learn by frequency of appearance.
- Learn by concept.
- Learning by JLPT - Japanese language proficiency test, requirements for Kanji.
- Learning by Japanese school program.
Personally, I prefer the last method.
Children in Japan start learning Kanji from the first grade. And they learn in some logical order (I assume). This list of Kanji, known as Joyo Kanji, consists of:
- 1,006 Kanji taught in primary school
- 1,130 Kanji taught in secondary school
One at a time
To say that you know the character, you should learn the following:
- Visual - Recognize the kanji when seeing it
- Writing - Know the way of writing the kanji. each kanji has it's own stroke order, thus should be practised.
- Reading - Knowledge of all the readings for each kanji. The readings divided into two main categories:
- On'yomi: it's a sound based reading - In this case we pronounce the kanji as it was pronounced in Chinese.
- Kun'yomi: it's a meaning based reading - The meaning of the kanji attached to the sound in Japanese. In this case we pronounce the kanji in Japanese.
- Usage - Knowledge of when to use the kanji in the language and which reading to apply.
The only thing that left, is to wish you good luck.
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