JJapanese

I can’t recognize kanji that I already know

  • April 11, 2025

I'm studying Japanese vocabulary, but I have a major problem. My study method is using Anki: I see the Japanese word (浴びる) > I try to guess the reading (あびる) > I try to guess the meaning (to bathe). But the issue is that I forget the words the next day, and this happens with most of them. I think the reason is that I can't recognize the kanji. For example, both 確実 and 現実 contain the kanji 実, and its reading is same in both, but even though I know the word 確実, when I saw 現実 I couldn’t recall the second kanji—even though I already knew it from the other word. What do you think I should do?

by SupWeiWei

6 comments

  1. How much time do you give yourself to learn a word?

    I learn words with Anki and some words/kanji can take like 6 months of regular study to really click for me. Pretty much impossible to be able to quickly recognize a kanji unless I’ve seen it time and time again. Immersion helps, obviously.

  2. I have the same problem. It’s always like “F***, I know this one! What is it?!” It’s frustrating.

  3. I may not be the best person to answer this question. This is because I was born in Japan to Japanese parents, grew up and lived in Japan, and am now 61 years old. In other words, I do not know the best resources or methods for people learning Japanese as his/her second language.

    While I hope you will keep that in mind, I would like to suggest that you may want to chosse to use a Kanji Dictionary, or two?

    https://preview.redd.it/iscjjpkdw6ue1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b8a55a816c481413415f483d12d1772c8504ad5

  4. you need time, it’s frustrating but it’s part of the process trust me one day you will wake up and you’ll know, but now your learning and every time you forget you learn so it’s part of the process trust yourself keep going and don’t give up

  5. Have you been learning the individual kanji using Anki too or just the vocabulary?

    I’ve been using wanikani and I like the way that you learn individual kanji first. You only unlock vocabulary containing that kanji when once you get them to guru level, which is I think 5 correct SRS answers in a row, takes about 3 days.

    It then makes the learning of vocab easier. Sometimes I can then figure out the meaning of a word from the kanji, and how to say the word. Lots of curve balls in Japanese though.

  6. The best way to codify words in your long term memory is to find them in situ—so you gotta read, read, read!

    Definitely keep using Anki. But you gotta supplement it with reading.

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