27 June 2005

New links

Just a quick note to point out that I've stuck a couple of new links on the side bar. In particular, check out Post Secret if you haven't done so already - people make a postcard with a secret they want to share, and every week a selection of them are posted on the website. Some of them are funny, some of them are pretty disturbing, but they're all fascinating. A little bit voyeuristic maybe, but let's face it: there's nothing more interesting than other people.

Then there's "Kanji of the Day" - I'm hoping this will help me pass level 3 of the Japanese Proficiency Test in December. Although to be honest I'm gonna have to learn a lot more than one kanji a day to pass...

1 comment:

Phoenix said...

I tell everyone this, but READ Heisig's Remembering The Kanji.

That link will take you to the free PDF that A) covers the first 200+ kanji in the first book, and B) explains the method and the reasoning behind it.

It's not an easy method, but it is effective.

There are three books total. Book one is the kanji (stroke order, and an English meaning). Book two is the On/Kun readings. Book three is like a combo of books one and two, but for extended kanji (names and words common to literature), which brings the total up to an even 3000. Unfortunately, the third book is now only available in virtual form (cd-rom).

It's totally do-able. Get the PDF and try it out.