EDIT: I have my answers, thank you everyone.
I know it sounds super basic and I know it sounds like questions asked a million times, but I've been looking around a lot, and the resources I found were not displaying the radical's alternative forms, and if or when they were, they were other issues.
So first, where I'm at and what I want:
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My level: I have a N3, but most of the Japanese I learned was by living years in Japan, so I both know less kanji than the full N3 corpus (I'd say 3-400, active and passive knowledge), lack words that are part of N3's vocabulary, know some that are more advanced, and have a very fluid and fast conversation when not lacking crucial vocabulary or grammar forms.
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My goal: I don't care about JLPT, I just need to be able ASAP to reasonably enough apply to jobs requiring a Japanese business level. (I know there's more to it than vocabulary, and will take care of that too.)
So I want to consolidate my vocabulary: the one I recognize but don't have in mind when needing it, for instance 出張, and the one I don't know yet.
I need efficiency and quantity, not an academic or historical approach. If my learning isn't perfect it's fine, experience on the field will do the rest.
- Method: I will use a T&P Books' Japanese vocabulary, 9000 words sorted by topic, like this one.
I've thought a lot about various ways to get there, and received a lot of great advices when asking a few months ago, and decided I won't learn kanji and vocabulary separately, I will just learn kanji in context by learning vocabulary.
But to be efficient in that, I still need to be able to recognize the most important radicals, and especially their writing when used in a composed kanji, and have a rough idea of their main pronunciations.
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I don't need to learn all that perfectly before jumping into vocabulary, I'll consolidate along the vocabulary learning, but I still need a basic ground to build on.
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So what I'm looking for:
At least, a list displaying all the most important radicals and their alternative forms when used inside a kanji (rare to find!).
I'm talking radicals that will be actually regularly of use to learn the most important vocabulary, again I aim at general efficiency, not exhaustive knowledge. And if there are rare radicals used in a few words only but important words, it's fine, I'll just learn the words, don't need to have a reference for these rare kanji in the list.
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Ideally, their 1-2-3 more common pronunciations, those you will actually use a lot in real life. I'd like to not be overwhelmed by useless information.
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Their general meaning, explained in a way that actually makes sense. I mean sometimes the one word used for their meaning is misleading if it's not backed by a short comment.
I'd like their actual general meanings, not their twisted descriptions used for mneomnic reasons in the various RRTK methods.
- If you don't think of such an already existing material, I can mix a couple of lists to get there, but at least I'd like one that lists not only the radicals but also their alternative writings, like not just 心 but also忄. Just a list of the standard forms like only 心 is basically useless.
I won't have the material time to make that list manually radical after radical, and I tried using chatgpt but it can't help making mistakes.
- Note: I'm bad at using Anki on the long term, it's hard for me to keep the motivation, and I learn better with a book. I just need a list I can paper print on a few pages, and also refer to along my vocabulary writing, or even ideally a small few bucks booklet would be perfect.
Well, you have the main ideas I think.
I'm pretty sure the material perfectly fitting all my requirements doesn't exist, but do you have any suggestions?
Thank you so much in advance, your comments are very much appreciated.
Thanks.
by fongor