I have no idea if it’s an efficient method or not but I use The Kodansha kanji learner’s course. I do 16 new kanji a day and I use the anki deck for the book to keep them in my memory. Whenever I flip a card, no matter the side, I write it down. Helps me remember better. I only try to remember the main On reading for each kanji and even then I don’t force it. If I can’t memorize it I don’t try that much harder. For the readings I just read a lot of texts and when I come across a word that uses a kanji I know I don’t know the reading of, that’s how I learn the readings. Eventually you become magically able to determine the reading for words even with kanji that have a lot of different pronunciations.
There's a book on the topic that I've been meaning to read: https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Their-Own-Invented-Hollywood/dp/0385265573/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=empire+of+their+own&qid=1568575461&s=gateway&sr=8-1
The short answer is that the entertainment industry has historically been open to people who are marginalized from other career paths. So disproportionate representation of minorities in the performing arts is something that you often see across cultures and throughout history.
When I was a kid, my cat got hit by a car and died.
My Mum, seeing how upset I was about it, thought she'd pick me up a present on the way home from work to cheer me up.
I think she bought me a record or something.
It was a few years later that she told me she'd first gone to a bookshop, asked the guy what funny book he'd recommend, and he said 'How about this one - "100 things to do with a dead cat?"'.
[edit] - it was 101 things
one reason is that you start connecting characters to each other by the kanji "parts" that they're made out of, and this helps with recognition and also memorization
for example, you may notice the temple 寺=てら part in a bunch of kanji, like 待つ、持つ、時、 etc. so just by understanding that those strokes together have a meaning and if you see them together, they're definitely together in that same pattern, you can easily remember the others.
however, even that one, 寺, is actually made of 土 and 寸, if you look closely. and if you look for it, you'll see those all over the place, too.
however, if you drew 寺 in some weird order where 土 and 寸 were mixed in with each other, then the fact that they're actually separate wouldn't come out, and you might not notice those patterns in other kanji.
noticing the patterns is especially important when kanji get mega complicated, like 厭 or 鬱. trying to remember every single stroke in those is a nightmare. but if you recognize the constituent parts, then they're easy to remember, because they're not "50 complicated strokes", but rather "4 smaller pictures in a large picture". that's much easier to remember.
stroke order makes this clearer, and practicing it reinforces this knowledge.
anyways, if you're interested in learning the kanji parts and what they mean, a good book is:
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
This one and Rogue One need a "making of" book like these.
If access was given on that level, we might find out the truth.
it takes time. it's one of the most rote aspects of learning japanese. i'd have two general comments:
those seem contradictory but they're not. by learning the radicals (the repetitive blobs of stuff that are reused in many kanji) you can get a sense for the meaning of it, and start recognizing common patterns. for example 時 and 待つ and 持つ and 侍 all have 寺 in them. (technically this is a bad example, as that's officially two radicals, 土 and 寸, but hopefully you'll see what i mean visually)
stroke order fits into this because as you learn the stroke order for a radical, they're generally the same across kanji, so you end up learning things that cross characters. also, writing them is a kinesthetic form of practice that engages different neurons. the more senses you use, the better.
however, to the first point, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways, just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular. then you'll be learning the pronunciations, but also getting vocab at the same time, and not wasting time "just memorizing readings".
one good book to help with radicals is:
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
take your time and learn as you go, there's no need to force-feed oneself kanji. just learn the proper spelling for words as you go. it's important, so don't try to skip learning kanji, but you don't need to go overboard and try to memorize hundreds at once either.
if you find that remembering the shapes in the kanji is difficult, then paying attention to the radicals (the small chunks that make them up) can sometimes help. while they don't always add up to a full meaning of the kanji, they can sometimes make up a nice narrative that makes it easier to remember. for example, 人 means person, and 寺 means temple... if you look at 侍 you'll see both - the vertical line and diagonal on the left side of it is a squished 人... so if you think about it, "man by the temple"... the meaning: 侍=さむらい=samurai.
if that visual study method sounds interesting, i recommend https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
just some random thoughts
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
Looks like it's up for pre-order on Amazon. It's being released January 23, 2018.
Once you have finished watching through, and have fallen in love with this show (and you will), you need to buy the 'Go Team Venture!' book to accompany your rewatch.
You can thank me later
https://www.amazon.com/Go-Team-Venture-Making-Bros/dp/1506704875
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji (and their pronunciations) will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
When it reaches over a thousand dollars for second-hand copies:
https://www.amazon.ca/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268
you would think the publishers would wake up and print a few more.
It's on a case by case basis. In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it. For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways, just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
In general, don't focus on memorizing kanji, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways, just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
That being said, if you did vocab words BASED on 3-4 kanji a day, that would be an excellent pace
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
is a good book on radicals, tho do be careful about over-focusing on memorizing kanji and/or radicals. they come along for the ride, but the critical item is vocabulary, not kanji.
for example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, then that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
Practical Malware Analysis by Andrew Honig and Mike Sikorski:
I’m a proud owner of a signed copy by Andrew 😁
Kanji aren't words. They're closer to Greek and Latin roots. Like "re" means "do again" but it's not a word. Or "Petra", in petroleum, petrified, petrichor. Not a word, but has a vague meaning and annoyingly not the same pronunciation/spelling in every word it's in. Same with kanji.
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations; study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
it's best to do it correctly, yes. hiragana is based on shorthand versions of kanji. getting the feel for the stroke order in hiragana and katakana will make stroke order easier for kanji.
stroke order in kanji, in turn, feeds into an understanding of the reusable bits of kanji that you find repeated all over the place, like 寺 in 持つ、待つ、時.
and those bits, called radicals, fit into both more easily recognizing similar kanji, and distinguishing very close kanji, and are related to one of a few patterns that's involved in some of the pronunciation of kanji
the latter of which you can get more from: https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
Kanji lists in N5-N1 order, are pretty common. Not sure what point there would be in having a dictionary in that order specifically, since you use a dictionary to look things up asynchronously. It's rarer to find books with kanji listed in a different order, honestly, as this is a major standard.
i like this ordering, at least as a supplement to other learning, as it explains radicals and their meanings, and gives a framework for turning kanji into short stories each, which can make them easier to memorize:
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268
Personally I like the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course. Couple of things I like are the giving of examples of the most readings you will probably encounter and the linking to other related kanji and "be aware of similar looking kanji" notes
It links with their kanji dictionary and they have a bunch of graded readers to go along with it, which I love. I think you can get level 1 and maybe 2 free for kindle. The others are pretty reasonably priced.
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride. There's no such thing as picking which pronunciation is correct for a kanji, there are just correct and incorrect pronunciations of WORDS.
If you really want to learn all the pronunciation patterns for a given a kanji (understanding that this, on it's own, is completely useless), find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
A lot of people have this backwards, so it's important to learn that words come first. They exist, they have a particular pronunciation, they have a particular (kanji) spelling... Whether or not that pronunciation happens to match a nice, easy-to-remember pattern for the kanji or not is not guaranteed. Often there are a few patterns, so each character, on average, probably has one or two possibilities... but, you can't start from kanji and figure out a word, it's the other way around.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
In general, don't focus on memorizing pronunciations, study words, the kanji will come along for the ride.
If you want to learn all the pronunciations of a kanji, find one word each that uses all the pronunciations, and then memorize those. That way you'll at least get some vocab out of it.
For example, rather than trying to memorize that 人 can be pronounced three ways (ひと、じん、にん) , just teach yourself 人ごみ=ひとごみ=crowd、人口=じんこう=population、人気=にんき=popular.
If you want to take an extra step and learn more about radicals, the pieces of kanji that make up kanji, that can sometimes help with knowing some pronunciations of words, but it's not guaranteed. In the end, one must memorize.
https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/
Is anyone here a Venture Bros fan? I find myself with two copies of the Go Team Venture! art book and I don't need both. It goes for about $27 on Amazon, I'm happy to let the shrink wrapped copy I have go for $20.
there's a lot of learning resources on /r/LearnJapanese - do check out the wiki first before commenting
there's no shortcut to reading though, it's memorization. make flash cards or use a flash card app
i found this book to be helpful with kanji memorization: https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/