How effective is reading the dictionary to learn vocabulary?
It is an effective way when it comes to develop your vocabulary especially to enhance your writing skills.However,it is a challenging approach when it comes to remember those words.There is an effective way to remember the new words by understanding the main difference between that new word and its pair and try to get a link between them.For example, the difference between FUSSY & DIFFICULT ,fussy means hard to please, eg. my boss won't accept poor work .He is very fussy about details.While difficult, eg. Math is a difficult subject.Another challenge you can have is to assign a target that you will know a new word evey day and combine for example 5 new words to write one paragraph at the end of every week. It is really a great way to boost your creativity.
How do you memorize Japanese vocabulary?
I cannot possibly stress this enough - speak the language! I lived in Japan about 10 years ago, staying with a host family. I spent one or two hours every day talking to my host mother during and after dinner, I texted my classmates almost constantly, I talked to my friend for around two hours during the commute to and from the school I attended, and of course I spoke with my classmates and teachers at school. Reading the newspaper or watching TV (and reading the subtitles) is great, but nothing drives memory like usage.For the first month or so that I was there, I carried a dictionary with me everywhere I went (this was in the days before smartphones). I would think of what I wanted to say in English, translate it in my head, and then say it - this meant that conversations were fairly slow and I couldn't keep up unless it was one-on-one. But you very quickly learn to skip the translation step and go straight to creating sentences in Japanese on the fly, as you speak. You stop taking the dictionary with you. Actually you get rid of the dictionary and you start to learn the language in the language! When you hear a word or phrase that you don't understand, you ask for it to be explained in Japanese. I took the JLPT level 2 after around 6 months of living in Japan and passed. Best of luck to you!
How do you actually LEARN how to WRITE kanji?
Unfortunately, there is no cure-for-all theory for kanji combinations. Language is not math; a language is a culture based on its long-time traditions full of illogical exceptions. Generally, kun-yomi kanji is used alone with a combination of hiragana as 食べる. But on-yomi kanjis are usually used by combining with other two or three kanjis as 和食 and 日本食. So, memorizing each kanji one by one does not make much sense. When we learn new words in elementary school, we study them by kanji combinations with respective context in mind by reading text books and stories for children. By doing so, we can expand our vocabulary with visualization of their kanji combinations thanks to the fact that kanji is ideographic, not phonetic, letters. A great majority of Japanese words are structured by combining kanjis (nobody knows how many words we have in our language; but there must be an astronomical figure, I guess). So, instead of memorizing as many as "2,000 most used kanjis" one by one (that is almost impossible and never-ending efforts even for the Japanese), you better be familiar with "2,000 most used words" by reading easy stories, comic books, and animations or even karaoke sub-titles, which should be far more fun and rewarding. This is all I can say. Good luck!
A question about Kanji...?
A kanji is used in words. You have to learn the pronunciation for each word. There are some rules to help you and you can often guess the correct pronunciation, but you still have to learn how every word is pronounced. A kanji has two types of readings: onyomi and kunyomi. Onyomi readings come from Chinese, while kunyomi readings are Japanese. As a general rule, when the kanji is used by itself (maybe with some hiragana attached) then kunyomi is used, and when the kanji is used in a compound, then onyomi is used. Of course there are exceptions. Most kanji have several kunyomi and onyomi readings, but some are more common. Exemple : 音 (noise, sound) Kunyomi: おと (oto), ね (ne) Onyomi: イン (in), オン (on) Words: 音 by itself is pronounced おと (oto) and means sound. It's a kunyomi reading. 音楽 is pronounced おんがく (ongaku) and means music. It's a compound so it uses onyomi readings for the two characters. If you look at other compounds like 音符 (おんぷ, onpu, musical note) you'll quickly see that オン (on) is by far the most common onyomi reading for this character. As I said there are exception since 足音 (あしおと, ashioto, footstep) uses kunyomi despite the fact that it's clearly a two character compound. All in all, it doesn't make much sense to learn characters with their on and kun readings by themselves. You should focus on learning words instead.
What does the WORD kanji mean?
Kanji can mean many things in Japanese. If you are listening to music or watching dramas, the word Kanji 感じ also means "feeling, sense, or impression". But it has many other meanings depending on context: 漢字 【かんじ】 (n) Chinese characters, kanji, (P) 感じ 【かんじ】 (n) feeling, sense, impression, (P) 幹事 【かんじ】 (n,vs) executive secretary, coordinator, arranging, (P) 簡易 【かんい】 (adj-na,n) simplicity, easiness, quasi-, (P) 官事 【かんじ】 (n) government business 監事 【かんじ】 (n) manager, supervisor 冠辞 【かんじ】 (n) stereotyped epithet
Why is Pimsleur Audio learning language program so expensive?
You obviously A) missed the point of Pimsleur and B) got taken for a ride by one of their reseller if you paid that premium. So point A). Pimsleur is about teaching you how to speak and understand the language. It is not about vocabulary. What's the point of knowing 2000 words if you don't know how to put a sentence together in the language? What's the point of knowing many words if when a native speaks to you at normal speed, you can't understand a thing? Pimsleur starts from lesson 1 and teaches you how to form sentences in the languages (those are what linguists call "structures"). It trains your brain to think in the language, which is essential if you want to one day be able to communicate without translating in your head. And it trains your ear to understand native speakers (something totally overlooked by most methods). Once you've done Pimsleur, the structures you've learned can be used and modified as you start to expand your vocabulary. Then, they also teach you how to read in the language. For that they start by teaching your new sound system and how sound combine in the language. If you try to read French with the English sound system, it's not going to work. You need to learn the phonetics of the language you are learning. Pimsleur is a method and imo, the best one to start your studies. And if you do it correctly, one a day, anticipate the answers, etc. the graduate recall that Paul Pimsleur develop will store the stuff in long term memory with very little effort. Regarding point B) you can get most Comprehensive brand new on Amazon for $130 shipped (check the marketplace sellers) and for $160 from the iTunes store and other digital vendors. So if you paid $275, you didn't exactly shop around for the best value. good luck.
How to write Yamada Haruto in kanji?
There are more than 1 ways to state the same name in kanij. Even if I gave you one example here, it does not mean that it's the correct one. But I'll give you anyway. Yamada Haruto 山田春人 Ichijouji Mikaru 一条寺美軽 Kihune Yohei 木船洋平 Katsuragi Kana 桂木加奈
What is the best way to configure Anki for learning Japanese vocabulary?
More than basic configuration of the program, you need to learn how to format the cards to best suit your type of memory.People tend to have a predominent type of memory, if you are a visual person add pictures to make a visual link between each word and its meaning, if you prefer to hear the word you can record it and play it to trigger this kind of memory or just say it out loud when you read it. Or you can use both, or even add stories or funny sentences that use the word in context. Each person is different and should have their own personal deck that fits them. Another good habit is to try and reduce the translated parts of the cards. As your vocabulary and grammatical skills grow stronger you can put simple definitions of words in japanese instead of just their translation. You might want to use a dictionnary intended for elementary school students （小学生国語辞典）. By doing that you would use other words that you know, and using words in real life is probably the best way to remember them. Plus learning japanese in japanese is kind of awesome!