#tnings i relied on when studying chinese. hanzi help me so much and help me learn more.

[rigelmejo]

Learning Chinese and Japanese back and forth is a weird time because like

When I started Chinese the fact I had to learn like double the amount of characters was daunting. Versus Japanese where the kana take like a month tops to learn then you tend to learn the Kanji in class very slow, my approach to Chinese was like "ill cram 300 hanzi in a month, then 500 in 2 months, then 1000 within 6 months and after that start brute force reading webnovels, then another 1000 by the end of the year so I can read webnovels easier (which was 2 more cramming hanzi months around month 10-12)". And like... for me hanzi cramming was actually most common word cramming after the first 300. So I had 1000 common words known roughly by the time I went into trying to read. (And a basic grammar summary I'd crammed month 3). And by the end of year 1 I had 2000 common words roughly familiar with along with probably a few hundred from immersion.

And so like. Hanzi were not that daunting after all? Because they largely meant vocabulary learning at the same time for me with the way I learned them. And by the time I was immersing in month 6 I was getting used to learning hanzi from context to a degree like you guess new words in French from word stems/endings/grammar function/surrounding sentence, I was guessing hanzi words by hanzi combos/radicals/grammar function/surrounding sentence.

And what that all amounted to is chinese ended up having a lower barrier to entry for immersion for me. Once I knew a hanzi I knew a pronunciation of all new words wirh them. Once I knew a radical I had a Guess of new hanzi pronunciations or at least a guess of pinyin to look up to find it. 1000 hanzi known meant a ton more words I could figure out from context even if they had unknown hanzi for the other part of them.

Then I go back to Japanese. And the Kanji seem even more daunting. Because there's way more frequency of multiple readings for a character, because there's more words in kana only that I have to learn with no character to hint at meaning. Grammar remains relatively clear (though it's own hurdle for me) but I'm stuck back in the problem of needing to relearn a Kanji each time I learn a new word cause often the Kanji has a new pronunciation, new tail end of hiragana depending on word type. No more "oh I learned this character now all words with it are easier" but "oh I vaguely know this character but now it's brand new pronunciation spelling time potentially better assume nothing". Kanji seemed daunting at first but after chinese somehow seems even more daunting in a way, while hanzi ended up being less daunting with the way I study in the long run.

Don't get me wrong, my study method could be applied to Japanese fairly decently still. I got back into Japanese (I used to vaguely know like 500 Kanji to a small 1 meaning/pronunciation degree and 1000 common words), and I drilled 600 ish common words in clozemaster (which gave me some more common words to work with). And then tried brute force immersion just like with chinese. On the upside my hanzi knowledge helped me with guessing some new word meanings easier when combined with grammar and sentence involved and prior context I have of a given material. So reading suddenly got a LOT more accessible. But on the other hand it just highlighted to me how much MORE Kanji intimidate Me lol. Because even if I can read a Kanji word in context, I'm miles away from knowing it's pronunciation, from knowing the full word and being able to say I learned it - I can read it sure but if I only know the visual aspect then I still need a lot of audio reinforcement/studying it's pronunciation later. And the next time I see that Kanji in a new word it may mean something different and be pronounced different yet again and I'll start the process from scratch. Just like. Grammar aside, just the hanzi versus Kanji difference is a lot for me when trying to get into immersion and how that translates to full on language skill. With hanzi I can pick up a new hanzi from a compound word, then that new hanzi to pick up another new hanzi in a compound word with IT etc. In Japanese I know so little of the pronunciations that I cannot do that yet (tho I imagine eventually maybe learners can start to) so I pick up a lot more words in a reading sense but in no other dimension and have to do more supplementary work to pick up words. (Yes I've got to do supplementary work to pick up Chinese words and reinforce listening but it's more like just getting used to hearing it instantly, it's less to learn the words pronunciation at all - tho that happens to a degree). Idk just like I did not expect my brain to pick up one system easier than the other but it definitely happened that way in retrospect.

My reading skill has always been unbalanced in languages I learn, with it ahead of all other skills (like wow French reading is fine but my French listening skills are pathetic). But it's most extreme in Japanese where like. I got to the point of eventually being able to read novels a bit (struggling desperately but like just barely getting tje gist of a normal level entertainment novel which is a LOT when for 2.5 years I couldn't even used to read a manga without a dictionary). And being able to read video games if I have some prior context (which IS WAY above my old 2.5 years level and ultimately all i need to do.. just need to read faster now). And now I can read manga at an enjoyment level where it's not terribly brutal but it's just a good reading level for me (not slow, new words in context, doable). Which is what my reading level in Chinese was at about month 8-10 where comics were the sweet spot of doable casual reading material. And like. It took me 3 months of japanese to get there. And now that I am over the "kanji" reading hump to a degree I can glance at novels and could finally brute force immerse with them if I wanted. But it's so funny cause now my reading IS at a level where I could probably pick up a fair bit from immersion and dictionary alone. But my other language skills are pathetically low in comparison including not knowing what a lot of these words sound like (with the exception of the words thar give me furigana in manga thank u furigana). Whereas at this point in Chinese immersion level, I could have conversations with people over text and could start audio only immersion because a lot of words I picked up I also picked up the pinyin of and got some more rounded recognition of beyond reading.

Tldr it just hit me I could go pick up a manga rn and read it, but I can't do much else in japanese with ease yet. I do realize a part of that is my absolutely lacking in audio study which I always need to do more of lol ahsjjd. But even when I do audio study in Japanese I really have to do it in combo wirh reading at some point for Kanji readings.