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What happens if I don’t know Kanji?
Japanese scores will not improve.
If you are not good at learning Kanji and cannot read and write them, first of all, your Japanese scores will not improve.
In school tests, about 20% of all questions are in Kanji, so not being able to score well in this area is a big minus.
It is necessary to learn not only how to read and write but also how to form kanji such as radicals.

Other subjects will also be affected.
Not only will your score in Japanese not improve, but it will also affect other subjects.
In society, kanji are used in all kinds of situations, such as names of people, laws, and regions, and in science, experimental terms and names of substances.
If you cannot read kanji, it will take you longer to understand the contents of each subject.

You will lose points or not receive any points in tests.
In social studies, many kanji characters are used in the names of people and important phrases, and if you cannot write them correctly in kanji, there is a possibility that points will be deducted or you will not receive any points.
In an examination where every point counts, this small mistake could mean the difference between passing and failing.

Tips on how to remember Kanji characters
First, check the readings!
Instead of suddenly starting to write Kanji characters, check how to read them first.
Kanji that cannot be read cannot be written, so it is important to learn from the correct readings.

Mark the kanji you can read correctly with a “0” and the ones you can’t with an “X”, etc., and study repeatedly until you can easily come up with the reading when you see the kanji.

Understand the meaning of the kanji!
Next, understand the meaning of the kanji.
If you have difficulty remembering the reading of a kanji, it is possible that you do not understand the meaning of the word itself.
If you can’t figure it out even after looking it up in a dictionary, it is important to ask your teacher or other people to help you understand the exact meaning.

Try to write it down little by little!
Once you understand the reading and meaning, practice by actually writing the kanji.
The key is to write them little by little.
If you try to memorize 20 or 30 kanji at once, by the time you write the 20th kanji, you will have forgotten the first one you wrote.
It is important to learn “little by little, over and over again” by writing only about three times.

Understand radicals!
When learning kanji, be aware of the radicals.
Each radical has its own meaning, such as “sanzuihen” for water, “nikuzuki” for the body, and so on.
It is more efficient to learn kanji by grouping them by radical.
When learning a new kanji, you can read the approximate meaning from the radical, which saves you a lot of effort.

Memorize idioms!
Rather than writing a single kanji over and over again, it is more effective to learn idiomatic phrases using that kanji.
The idioms are easier to retain in your memory because you can visualize the meaning of the kanji.
It is also a good idea to write your own short sentences using the idioms of the kanji you want to memorize.
By doing so, you can learn the kanji and even master how to use them.

Reading!
Besides learning how to read and write, another way to learn kanji is to read.
Books contain many kanji characters, and appropriate kanji characters are used according to the scene or situation, so you can learn kanji while understanding the meaning.
When you encounter a kanji you do not understand, look it up in a dictionary or ask your teacher to help you understand its reading and meaning.

In terms of genre, do not force yourself to read books with difficult content.
Books that you like are easier to understand and more enjoyable to read.
However, when reading manga, be careful of kanji that have unique readings (kanji that are different from the actual readings).

Let’s also review your study habits.
Memorize by dividing them little by little
It is impossible to remember a lot of things at once.
Also, humans are forgetful creatures, so we need to learn over and over again.

Repeated learning makes it easier to retain in the memory.
It is important to study only 5 to 10 kanji at a time, and to study them every day, even if it is only for 10 minutes a day.

Use the Kanji you have learned as much as you can.
Even if you have taken the trouble to learn a kanji, you will forget it if you do not write it down and use it.
It is important to actively use Kanji in class writing and in writing questions.

Also, be conscious of using Kanji in subjects other than Japanese.
In social studies, many difficult and confusing kanji are used.

Even if you have the right idea of what you want to say, you may lose points if you cannot answer in kanji or write in correct kanji.

Study at night is recommended.
Kanji is a memorized subject, so it is recommended to study at night before going to bed.
The content you have studied that day will be fixed in your memory while you sleep, and the content you saw just before going to bed is especially likely to remain in your memory.
Therefore, by setting aside 5 to 10 minutes before going to bed to study Kanji characters, you can learn them efficiently.

Make sure to go to bed early and get up early on a regular basis, and get a good night’s sleep to enhance the memory retention effect of sleep.

By grade! How to memorize Kanji efficiently
Recommended study methods for elementary school students
In the lower grades, it is important to have fun and get used to Kanji characters first.
In elementary school, students learn 1,026 kanji characters for regular use, and if they find kanji learning difficult at an early stage, they will have a hard time in their future studies as well.
Try tracing the kanji with your fingers, reading them aloud, or actually writing them, and enjoy learning them while stimulating all five senses.

It is also important to make a reasonable learning plan that matches the child’s pace, rather than trying to have the child memorize too many kanji at once.
In the upper grades, they should be able to grasp their own learning pace, so further develop the habit of studying steadily every day.

Recommended Study Methods for Junior High School Students
In addition to being able to read and write the kanji learned in elementary school, junior high school students need to be able to “read and understand” newly learned kanji.
Work on many long problems and strengthen your vocabulary by being exposed to kanji in various readings and as idioms.
It is important to acquire a broad knowledge of kanji.

Furthermore, it is also important to learn them in connection with other subjects.
In subjects other than Japanese, classes will proceed on the premise that students have already understood the kanji they have learned up to that point.
Therefore, if you are late in learning Kanji, you will not be able to understand the content of each subject and will not be able to keep up with the class.
It is important not to memorize kanji alone, but to look up kanji you don’t understand each time they appear during the study of each subject and make them your knowledge.

Recommended Study Methods for High School Students
When you become a high school student, you need to be able to write as well as read the kanji you have learned up to that point. In fact, all the kanji required for the university entrance exam have already been learned by junior high school.

Although there are not many questions on Kanji in the university entrance examinations, it is an item that you want to score well.
In order to study efficiently, it is a good idea to prepare a book of frequently appearing kanji in the entrance exam and practice them repeatedly.

It is also necessary to understand the meaning of each kanji correctly, improve your vocabulary, and cultivate your ability of expression and reading comprehension.
These skills are essential because long reading comprehension questions frequently appear in university entrance examinations.
Read a lot of sentences and make it a habit to guess the meaning of kanji and idioms you do not understand from the context before and after, or look them up by consulting a dictionary.

Conclusion
How was it?
Many of you may have thought that the way to remember Kanji characters is to “just write them down! Many of you may have thought that the way to remember Kanji is to just write them down.

Reading and writing Kanji are necessary knowledge not only for entrance examinations, but also after entering the workforce.
We have introduced an efficient way to learn Kanji at home, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.
“I don’t think I can do it by myself”
“I am not sure if I can do it by myself” or “I am not sure if I am doing it properly.
If you are not sure if you can do it by yourself, or if you are not sure if you are doing it properly, please contact WAM for tutoring.
We will propose a learning method tailored to each student’s needs.