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Japanese writing

Kanji 漢字

Kana 仮名

• Hiragana 平仮名
• Katakana 片仮名
• Hentaigana 変体仮名
• Man'yōgana 万葉仮名

Uses

• Furigana 振り仮名
• Okurigana 送り仮名

Rōmaji ローマ字

Kanji are part of the Japanese writing system. Because of the large number of characters, learning them is a major task for those who study Japanese. There are many different techniques and systems for learning kanji.

Japanese schoolchildren learn the characters by repetition. Characters are repeatedly written until memorized. There is a fixed order of characters followed by all elementary schools.

Methods for learners of Japanese vary from similar copying-based methods used by texts such as O'Neill, to the mnemonic-based methods seen in James Heisig's series of books Remembering the Kanji. Several other textbooks have their own unique methods, often based on the etymology of the characters, such as Mathias and Habein's or Henshall's books. Pictorial mnemonics, as in the text Kanji Pict-o-graphix, are also seen.

Learners may be confused about how many characters they need to learn in order to read Japanese fluently. The government-approved list of characters called the jōyō kanji is commonly referred to as a standard by kanji learning books such as Heisig, Henshall, and Mathias and Habein. However, this list does not contain all the kanji needed to read modern Japanese. There are a number of kanji not on the list that are very common, not including ones in proper nouns.^{[citation needed]} In addition, there are a number of rare characters on the jōyō kanji list.^{[citation needed]}

The most common characters show up far more frequently than the less common ones. In newspapers, for instance, the most common 500 characters account for 80% of the characters appearing in texts.^{[citation needed]} Further, the jōyō kanji list has never been more than a set of suggestions or guidelines, mainly aimed at schoolchildren rather than adult users, and it is often ignored by writers and publishers when choosing which kanji are acceptable to be shown without furigana in printed form. Newspapers follow a modified version of it closely. The publishers of the bunkobon editions of literature usually follow it (or, in the past, the tōyō kanji list) closely as well.

• Kanji
• Kanji kentei
• Jōyō kanji
• Kyōiku kanji

• Kanji for us Forum to share kanji learning methods
• Kanji-A-Day.com, Free Daily kanji based on JLPT lists, kanji Dictionary, customized kanji study lists, kanji quizzes.
• Kanjisite: Free kanji learning site
• Learn Japanese Kanji: Learn kanji with JLPT sheets
• Scott Alprin, Teaching Kanji with components: using an element-based approach in class
• Kanji Word Families: Study method based on thesis that kanji evolved from seven primordial concepts.
• 500 Print-friendly Kanji Flash Cards
• Office XP IME Required in order to use Japanese input method in Microsoft Office XP. Also necessary for those who want to enable Japanese font display but do not have a Windows XP install CD.
• Smart Common Input Method, an IME for UNIX-based platforms.
• a learning software for learning kanji (available in English and German)
• ReadWrite Kanji software that teaches the 1945 joyo kanji including stroke order animations.
• Flash-card and story exchange site for those working with Heisig book

• Stroke order lookup, 2,200 kanji
• Drill the kanji (Asahi) Java flashcards
• Kanji game Kanji game
• Kanji alive, an interactive tool for learning Kanji
• Kanji Gold is a free flash card program for learning Japanese kanji
• Kanji Frequency List (description)
• Furigana.jp, Converts Japanese web pages or text into one of three formats for easier reading: furigana, kana or romaji. Use the "furigana" mode for aided reading of Japanese web pages