Remember all that tricky Kanji - a few helpful hints for free

Hi there,

Memorizing Kanji can be quite difficult, so I'll give you a few tips. These are things
I do to quickly memorize the Kanji i'm studying. It is pretty much based on making
sense of the Kanji compounds (different characters it is made up from) and the actual meaning.

So there are quite a few neat books that cover remembering Kanji, for example:
Remembering the Kanji
I never read this book, but I've been recommended it by many good people.

However, if you are cheap like me you can get some help for free. This is pretty much done with the use of a website or two. The basic idea is to make a story or someway of remembering how the Kanji is made up. To do this you can search for your Kanji using these two sites:

Kanji Networks, this website will give you the history and actual meaning of a bunch of Kanji. Just search for your kanji and you'll be given a nice explanation about it.

Denshi Jisho, this is a great website to lookup Kanji. This one doesn't give as much info about the meaning & history, but it will link to the compounds of the Kanji. In general KN is a better website for finding the history and the make-up of different Kanji.

So, simply search for that Kanji your studying and find a way to remember it by making a story (if needed) about the make-up of the kanji.

For example, vegetable is 菜, this is made up from 3 smaller compounds 艸 (grass/plant), 爪 (pick-up), and tree 木 . KN will tell you that the last 2 together mean 采 "pick (fruit)". Making a story to remember these isn't to hard is it?

Anyway, small hint. I found it really useful to memorize how to write that kanji.

Also, once you start remembering some of the compounds of kanji you'll be begin seeing it in other kanji, making it that much easier :)

Good luck!