Power up your Japanese on FromZero.com (lessons, quizzes, games, ask-a-teacher)

This video is in my "recommended for you" list and I'm from Japan. Thank you, youtube.

I don't know if someone's already said this but The reason they added the extra Kanji that led to the new 2000+ total is that the government decided all public documents could only use the Jouyou Kanji, and without the additional Kanji added to the list, the Japanese constitution would have to be rewritten… which would be an international disaster

I regret I didnt learn japanese earlier! But its never too late I guess :D

I’m Japanese. My job is to check medical statements so I still encounter many kanji with yamaidare 疒. I’m still learning new kanji even after reaching my adulthood.

8:35 *brain lags for a few seconds* / *eyes are white* / *regains consciousness* / "Now I know kanji"

34:00 yen is an older pronunciation for 円, whose kana notation was ヱン (yen). 34:43 円 in Chinese pronunciation is yuan2, which we always wrote in another form: 圓/圆. 円 is a Japanese simplified form (Shinjitai 新字体), and 圓 is it's traditional form (Kyujitai 旧字体).

One of the most important thing IMO is to pace oneself. I've come to realize it sticks in my brain when I don't pressure myself to learn X amount of kanji per day or for a certain date. I learn a couple kanjis when I feel like it and diversify my learning by doing other japanese-related things when I don't feel like it. I'm in the middle of grade 2 right now (plus a couple common kanji) and although my pace when it comes to kanji has diminished lately, I'm still very happy with the progress so far. We have to remember that learning a language is a lifelong marathon and not a short sprint, enjoying the process of discovery is what ultimately is gonna make language-learning a sustainable endeavour IMO. Keep up the great work, I'm loving every minute of this journey that you have helped me kickstart!

RE: why is 円 pronounced 'yen' in English?: Apparently it is a relic of the Hepburn romaji system which placed a y before all vowels, also resulting in Yedo (for Edo) and Yezo (for Ezo, the old name of Hokkaido). Interestingly, Old Japanese included the sounds 'yi' and 'ye', but they died out (merged with the 'i' and 'e') before kana was created. In fact, there were also the sounds 'wi' and 'we' which indeed did survive long enough to be granted kana representation (ゐ・ヰ　and　ゑ・ヱ) but are no longer in use since the reformation of the orthographic system in the 20th century.

You're literally the best Japanese teacher on KZfaq and your website and books are ultra helpful when it comes to learning Japanese. I tried learning Japanese 3 times but failed every time. Your KZfaq channel pushed me to study Japanese to my fullest extent. I finished your Kanji From Zero book but I still enjoy your content and insight! Thank you so much!

So glad for your video! I have been studying and memorizing Kanji for the past few months and I have been feeling really frustrated at my slow progress. It's refreshing to learn how long it takes native Japanese people to learn the different characters, and that it will take me a good amount of time to get to their level.

I bought the Kanji from Zero book and these videos are super helpful as supplementary and revision material! Thank you!

3:00 教育漢字 is the subset of 常用漢字. So 常用漢字 doesn't 934 characters. The slide of the Power point should be: 1-6 (1006, 教育漢字) 7-9 (常用漢字 - 教育漢字 = 1130)

Hello, I just want to say that your videos are timeless. 3 yrs ago and still very applicable and valid. I like your style of teaching. I watch some of your videos to supplement my online classes in beginner japanese. Thanks for all these videos!

I'd been contemplating getting Kanji From Zero 1 for a while and it was this video that caused me to get it, it arrives tomorrow and I can't wait! After my last Japanese class and we were going over essays we'd written (it's mixed ability) and someone called my essay "cheating" after I used kanji, it just made me wanna learn more!

You're an amazing teacher!

this video really motivated me, in that it contextualised kanji learning for me, which was quite liberating. I bought Kanji from Zero, but also the Japanese kids book you held up! Both are great.

大 still reads as dai in cantonese

Hey man, I really appreciate what you do. I went through your entire video series on Japanese From Zero in like a month since I was addicted and it really gave me the head-start I needed in understand a lot of sentence structure and grammar concepts that eluded me before (the u-tsu-ru song has helped me a load as well and is always in my mind with conjugation xD.) Keep up what you do man you have really helped a lot of people and I admire the amount of passion you put into what you do!

When you say Chinese , it would better to said Mandarin ( recent chinese ), because it may pronounce the same way in one of the various southern Chinese dialects which has retained much more the middle( old) Chinese pronunciation! In Chinese hakka, we still same 'tai' not 'da' to say "big'

don't worry guys I am pretty sure that i and most Japanese people are only able to write let's say a half of jouyou kanji. It's totally ok as long as you read them and roughly get the meaning of them. Important thing is that kanjis are ideographic letters, meaning if you know the meaning of them you can read through the paragraph super quickly and so instinctively.

Great video. This is my very first lesson in kanji study and yet he makes everything so understandable.

I pursued Japanese and Mandarin consecutively during college but found I preferred the instruction of Japanese at my institution over Chinese. I concur with you that learning one aids in the acquisition of the other. Although I’ve ended my academic studies, I still make attempts at keeping up Japanese in my leisure. Because my parents’ native language is in the Sino-Mien-Yao language family, I sometimes find cognates in their (our) language and the on-yomi of Japanese/Mandarin. Those Chinese were prolific!

"A lot of people are throwing up right now, I appreciate that." I lold

Your Channel is awesome! Gearing up for my study abroad trip to Japan, and you’ve been a big help!

George you are awesome. Thanks a lot for all these vídeos. I have been following you for a year so I consider you an uncle. We love you. My japanese is getting better everyday with all your great teaching ideas. 💪😎🇯🇵

I just bought that exact same Kanji Book for Kids like a week ago 😂 it's really handy and interesting. Also I just found your channel and a few of your earlier Videos helped me understand why I was struggling with Japanese for so many years. So thank you for that. I really appreciate the existence of your content.

Best Japanese courses I’ve found. Thank you 😊

30:57 You can use 小鳥（ことり） for Small Birds , but commonly can't use 子鳥（ことり）for Child and Baby Birds. So Please use ひな（雛） for Child and Baby Birds. 子鳥 is very limited usage for it.

41:42 In linguistics, it’s called ‘allophones’.

Can't wait to add kanji from zero 2 to my collection! あなたの本をよむのを楽しみにしています、ありがとうございます😍😍

I ordered KFZ! It will arrive wednesday and I am super excited!

The amount of Kanji you realise that you have to learn at first can be intimidating but it's good to know that it's not something to worry about. 2000 Kanji, from which you need to know a good set of kanji. 6 years: Kyo iku Kanji (1006) then Jyo you kanji (934) (+ the other 904).

you're funny and a good teacher, deserved subscriber.

You are so fun! I'm a begginer in Japanese and you make it so easy.

First off, thank you for sharing the video, I'll be buying you book(s) soon as I just discovered your material yesterday. I've been studying kanji for a grand total of 24 hours now and I love every bit of it. I started with kanji and will go in reverse to Hiragana and katakana next week (I know that's out of order, but, as I mentioned in another comments section, I think I saved myself from what I will coin as "kanji shock" that people seem to get after studying the aforementioned characters and then starting kanji). Secondly, I would like to add some encouragement to anybody who feels like this can be overwhelming: Don't be afraid of the "thousands!" For example, think about how many songs you know. I wrote a song years ago that - not counting repeated lines - has 224 words. If you know 20 songs of that fairly short length (and most people know FAR more than that!), you know 4480 details and can readily recall them! Or think about all the video games you could walk somebody through step by step, down to knowing even where different decorative pieces are. If you cook, think of how many dishes you could just go right to the kitchen and slap together almost robotically. You can easily learn (*not* memorize!!!!!!) thousands of details if you apply yourself. You already do, whether you knew it or not; so don't be afraid and don't feel overwhelmed. Good luck everyone!

Dear George I really respect your extraordinary work and talent for teaching languages

In Sweden we have 3x3 years of primary school ages 7-15. 3 years of the lowest stage then 3 years of the middle stage (middle school) and then 3 years of the high stage (junior high). Then we have 3 years of high school called gymnasium, which isn't mandatory but it's free and everyone takes it. And then we have University studies which are also free. They even pay us to study. They did that before as well but then the parents got it.

such good contextual explanation!

Kanji was created in China, middle Asia, Mongol, Korea, Vetnam and Japan and assembled in China. 窓 means window, there are more than 10 regional characters. Most of the Japanese letters were affected by 呉 or 南宋 dinasty, China. In modern day 呉 is somewhere around Canton. So many of letters sounds like 広東語 Cantonese. Greetings from Tokyo.

28:10 行 is a pictograph of a crossroad, it has an original meaning or road or to go, but that was 1000 years ago, which its usage has changed over time. It went from walk -> operate/carry out/perform -> able to do x, which is why 行 today is "okay" ie "i am able to do whatever you proposed" or basically "okay" Its other meanings also kinda follow this, 銀行 "an operator of silver/finance" Stretches the mind abit to determine the use of 行 but its 1000 years of change so, it wasn't immediate.

“here’s my korean friend” ~ad plays

We wouldn't have to suffer with kanji if only Japanese just put SPACE between their words.... 😭😭😭

Hi George - thank you, thank you, thank you .... finally, someone who actually says learning kanji takes a long time! I'm British and I've been learning kanji for a couple of years and started taking the kanji kentei tests along the way. I also have shodou classes every couple of weeks and that's incredibly satisfying ... something about being able to get really deeply into the minutia of the strokes is just, well, therapeutic. Actually, I've started combining my other hobby, photography ... using long exposure photography to write kanji characters in the air with glow-sticks. I took a practice kanji kentei test earlier this evening, I've got a test on Sunday ... scored 75% ... and need 80% to pass the test. As I said to my Japanese friend, "Winston Churchill said, 'Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.'" ... that's kind of how I view learning kanji ... sure, it takes time, but damn it, I love it ... and so, it really doesn't matter about how long it takes ... as long as I enjoy it, I'll stay enthusiastic ... and that's going to get me there ... eventually.

extraordinary work of teaching. like a linguist and I loved it. a lot.

30:01 wow, that's you!! Amazing. I had watched some of those videos about 11-12 yrs ago. It's deja vu all over again. :)

Gym from Zero, when do we expect that

Are you planning to write continuation of Kanji book? So you cover all kanji taught at school? all 2136 signs? That wld be really great. Definitely I'd be the 1st one to buy all these books!

This video is very useful for leaning English for Japanese. Thanks for share.

Long time no see your videos, but it seems that you are doing great as always!

Hmmm... "Anime"-styled woman on the cover. I buy the book.

46:28 :) this joy of the language is what keeps me learning from George

22:23-22:33 WHAT?! I WAS DYING LAUGHING!!!

A great video. Thanks for sharing

Hey George! Although I'm way past the general level you teach (I am going for either N2 or N1 this year) and unfortunately I didn't find your books back when I started (so I can't really use your textbooks ;_;) I still find myself coming here for interesting lectures! Especially kanji ^^ keep up the good work!

I found a book that could be great for understanding why Kanji represents what they do. The book is "The Key to Kanji: A Visual History of 1100 Characters".

Thank you George for your wonderful books and videos... Your comments make so much sense. Japanese have many years to learn grammar and Kanji... and already have a huge vocabulary before attending elementary school. So why do Japanese Language Schools expect students to be N1 or N2 in 18 months to 2 years... (starting from barely knowing hiragana). I loved my year in Japan at school, (albeit it was during Covid), but the speed at which I was expected to learn all aspects (including handwriting) of the Japanese Language really detracted from the whole experience. Thanks for your videos and books, which have got me back on the Japanese learning trail...

ジョージ先生、いつも楽しい動画をありがとうございます！I always enjoy your channel to study English and to learn how to teach Japanese. 29:08 Actually we sometimes say “中学” like “来年、娘が中学に入学します。” It means “My daughter is going to enter junior high school. “ I don’t know why but “校” just drops here. 🤷‍♂️ But we certainly say “中学校” which sounds more polite.

FYI, in Hawaii, it is 6/3/3 years for the elementary/ middle(intermediate)//high school. Thanks

Can you imagine if we were still learning new English letters in HIGH SCHOOL? OMG. I think maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew in trying to learn Japanese! I love hiragana and katakana, it's the kanji that makes me not sure about continuing to learn.

Arigato gozaimasu Trombley-sensei. I live in the states and have no intention of moving to Japan but am studying Japanese on my own so I can explore parts of Hokkaido that tourists never see. Say-oh-nah-rah!

This George human is awesome! Thanks

George, why are you getting younger ? how ? what are you drinking man ?

The problem with learning things in groups, is that you (probably) also remember them in groups...

20:21. Actually you can read two kanji that are put together in onyomi only when they’re Japanese last names, because Japanese last names are always in Kanji (most of the times).

I’m definitely buying that book, I’m always studying japanese in middle of my school days hahaha that would help me a lot because I wouldn’t need my phone

Thank you for this video, I now know that the book I have is way more useful than kanji from zero

Wow this is from 2 years ago? Damn lol well cheers to another great video sensei💯

This is for myself because I'm going to revisit this video several times. 15:50

The thing about trying to rush yourself learning things like Kanji....it may be true that Japanese people have a year to learn each group of them. But that's while they're kids and have nothing else to do but go to school and enjoy life. We're mostly all adults with responsibilities and less years left under our belt. We don't have that kind of time to spend a whole year learning another 200 Kanji. Thats why I'm glad your books exist. Your methods are great and proven to work in a short amount of time depending on the person.

Hi!! This is one of the best fundamental Japanese videos I've ever seen! Thank you a lot! BTW, the last word you've introduced in the video, 目, is still used as a literal meaning of "eye" in current Chinese. Like we say "目光 (eyesight)," "目擊 (to witness)." Sorry for using the traditional ones because I'm from Taiwan... I'm also learning Japanese! 中国語の勉強頑張って！

you're right. The Chinese readings are usually more similar sounding to the words in Chinese dialects rather than Mandarin (because Chinese dialects are closer to the ancient spoken Chinese as compared to Mandarin)

I saw someone ask about Kindle versions of the JFZ series along with your response regarding those editions being released once revisions are complete. I'd like to know: does that include plans to release Kindle versions of Kanji from Zero too? I just finished book 1 of JFZ and I'm working on Korean too (book 2!). That said it'll probably still be a while before I begin realllly going after Kanji, but it'd be nice to have it on my device when the time comes. Thanks! I hope the new year is going well for you!

i dont think kanji necessarily means someone knows a lot about speaking Japanese, but it helps with reading which helps with learning more Japanese.

So helpful

2:11 It is the case for the most of China except for Hong Kong where we use Traditional Chinese and and we have a different dialect as well. Rather than China and Hong Kong sharing similarities in language, it's actually Taiwan and Hong Kong sharing similarities from what I have seen. I could be wrong since I am from Hong Kong.

When is the second book coming out? These are great!

I recommend buying the どらえもんかん字じてん book and どらえもん1006. Both can be bought from amazon.co.jp. These books have seriously helped me out a lot. Also, thanks Trombley Sensei for this video!

Will there be more videos like this one? You just earnt yourself a subscriber

Love the flashbacks

Hi! Love your channel, you’ve been doing a great job! Just 2 questions: 1) is there a rule for the exceptions to the general rule of KUNyomi-alone, ONyomi-together? I ask that because sometimes it’s the opposite, e.g. with numbers. 2) why, when writing the furigana of a kanji that must be pronounced with the ONyomi, do you use hiragana instead of katakana? Thank you so much!

You do realized that once the Japanese students graduated and out of school. Most of them use electronic nowaday to automatics input the kanji with hiragana, and they are not able to recall the kanji to write it. Surveys had been done in Japan. Forgot if it's Nobita or Yuta that did the surveys.

Hey! I just found ur channel some days ago and watchin the Japanese From Zero! Playlist. Is the playlist complete or what should i watch when i finished it? :) Btw i already subbed :)

amazing! keep it up!

As a Cantonese speaker and traditional character user, I find Kanji the easier part when learning Japanese. Even though Japanese Kanji usually has two or more pronunciations, it's still relatively easy compared to the 9 tones in Cantonese. And once you grasp traditional Chinese characters well, Japanese Kanji is a piece of cake.

Funny that you’re drinking that. I actually found tea bags at Costco. It looks awesome n every time I go there I always like to look for it

26:24 I see you're predicting the future there... you said korona

I'm learning Chinese alongside Japanese and the week that I learned pinyin, I focused mostly on Chinese and it stuffed up my pronunciation of しょしゅしゃちゃちゅちょ a fair bit.

Awesome video! I love how slow you're going and the detail you add. Also did you lose some weight? Looking real good

I've been wondering... the textbook you showed us (with the 1006 kanji in it) is worth buying.. but I've been kinda studying from an application called Kanji Study, which I paid for like 5$ or so. In that application there are different ways of studying, like the JLPT, Kanji Kentei, Kanji Learner's Course, Remebering the Kanji, Japanese School Grades. I've been wondering whether or not I should still buy that book or should I rely on that application.. and which kanji type am I even supposed to study, because in JLPT and Kanji Kentei for example, the number of the kanji are also different.

Just saw your bit about your “cute Japanese” iteration. U got a laugh from me ;)

im gonna buy this book next friday! i cant wait! xD

When do you recommend us starting with Kanji from zero? With your videos I am going through your books pretty quickly. Lol though I am using ankidroid/anki to help remember the vocab in your books. :)

5:30 These lessons are so immersive that I swear you were going to pull out a flip phone like my teachers back in the day.

In roughly the 38:00 you were talking about 円い(まるい) and 丸い(まるい) right? Yeah, japanese words themselves can be written with different kanji but BE the same word. So, both words are written differently but it's essentially the same word.

行 is used for 'go' in Chinese, e.g. 步行 take a walk

Hey George so I have a quick question. I’m about to order that 1006 kanji book you talk about in this video. But if it’s all in Japanese then it doesn’t give the English meaning of the kanji or English words of the kanji usage right? I feel like this wouldn’t help me much, but I still want to give it a try

Great video 👍

Personally I'm learning English and Japanese, see why I love your videos ^^ ?

15:05 I think the kanji wasn't really "鳥" but "烏" instead (the 6th one in the 1st row counted from the right). If so, it doesn't mean bird! (They look similar though)