The Laramee Filter: pseudorandom thoughts, subsequently put on the Internet.
 
Author:
Tom Laramee
Date Published:
Oct 18th, 2024
Word Count:
2,596 (17:30 read time)
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Head's up: this article got a major update in the 1st week of Feb, 2025 with all new worksheets.

I Finally Developed to Resolve to Learn Kanji

(And I'm Beginning With a Commitment to Memorize 512 Characters)

I've always been very intimidated by kanji[1], as I learned early on that the average Japanese native knows approx 5,000 characters, and this always seemed like a hopelessly unreachable goal to me.

Despite that fear, I recently bought a book called Kanji Look and Learn and began to study it. As I began to study, a few things immediately became apparent:

The book isn't enough, nor is an empty worksheet, which was specifically designed for practicing Japanese writing.

 
Enter 漢字 Worksheets

In typical Laramee fashion, I typed all 512 kanji from the book into a single text file and then wrote a short program to generate PDF worksheets I could use as I work my way through the characters.

Some notes on the sheets:

It sounds complicated but when I explain the workflow, it'll make much more sense.

 
How To Use These Worksheets

The worksheets are designed for a particular workflow: essentially, breaking down this huge set of characters into batches of 19, and then allowing you to develop progressive levels of mastery. (E.g.: it's more difficult to do the un-ordered worksheets than it is to do the ordered ones, as you [unconsciously] build in relationships in the order (when they're ordered) and those relationships are a memorization crutch.)

The way I've been using these is as follows:

 
The Grader

To explain the grader, check out the image below. It shows a few characters, along with their grader information.

Each character on the grader has four columns (the image is showing two kanji, therefore: eight columns):

  1. The corresponding book number and the English description. Also "v" for verbs, "n" for nouns, "a" for adjectives, and "c" for counters).
  2. A box for you to add an optional pen-stroke version of the kanji (to be copied directly from the book, by you, if you'd like that version of the kanji on your grader).
  3. A hiragana hint (e.g.: for verbs, the verb conjugation root in red and the rest of the verb in grey).
  4. The computer version of the kanji (which is slightly different than the book version).

A Section of a Sample Kanji Grader


Now, looking closely at 65, 66, and 67:

Note: I haven't really figured out how to handle the nouns when the kanji is just one or two consonants in a multi-consonant noun. You'll see a lot of horizontal ellipsis (…) which indicate "characters before or after this kanji" (when the kanji is part of a larger word)[4][5]

 

Here's a snapshot from a different grader (for a completely different Kanji working set):

Another Grader Showing Multi-Character Kanji


Note that for entries 163, 164, 177, and 181, the 1st kanji char has a red hiragana hint, the 2nd kanji char has a black hiragana hint, and any hiragana that's not representing kanji is in grey. In this way, the worksheets can support a kanji pair (頑張ります!)

 
Flex Pages

Flex pages (my term) is my attempt to bridge the kanji with it's associated on-yomi and kun-yomi.

For example, if you look at the 22nd line of the flex page, you'll see it's for the entry for gold: . On the right-hand side of that row, you'll see on-yomi: きん,こん and then a "|" separator and then kun-yomi かね,かな.

The empty columns in-between are where you "flex" your knowledge of the kanji by writing out words that are derived from the on-yomi and kun-yomi for the kanji. For instance, you might write "きんいろ" (gold color) and "おかね" (money).

I'd like to develop the flex pages into something more useful in the future.

 
The Worksheet PDFs

Below is the set of PDFs. I originally began with 30+ different single-sheet PDFs but later changed it to 8 individual documents, from which you can just print the specific pages you require.

Note that the shuffled worksheets have an increasing numbers of pages. That's because I generated multiple copies of each, so you can't rely on the order of the kanji on a specific shuffled page, as the shuffling order changes from page to page.

The Grader: Ordered lists: Shuffled lists: Flex Pages:

Despite all of this effort, there are some that I forget a bit too regularly[6], but overall things are proceeding nicely[7].

がんばりましょう!

 
 
Footnotes:
[1] Interestingly enough, the kanji for "kanji" is 漢字, which is "China" + "letter/character".
[2] For example, the word "strong" (つよい) is "bow", as in weapon (弓) + "insect" (虫). These two combine to become 強 or "strong".
[3] 頭 (あたま) が 古い (ふるい) です。 ... or perhaps: 頭 (あたま) が ゆのみ です。
 
("The mind is old", or "The mind is a teacup")
[4] And honestly, to do the hints correctly for all of these would be an overwhelming amount of work. The point of these worksheets isn't to learn the Japanese language, it's to learn kanji, so, making comprehensive hiragana hints for all 512 kanji is just out of what I'm trying to accomplish here.
[5] I do really value the verb hints. Those are incredibly useful and I endeavored to make them as accurate as possible on the grading sheets[8].
[6] I made two worksheets for kanji that I find personally confusing. Here's the 1st one and here's the 2nd one.
[7] When I fill in these worksheets, I tend to mark them up a fair amount (the earlier I am in working with one, the more pseudorandom notes). Here are some recently scanned worksheets: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11. 12, 13, 14, 15.
[8] Here you go: two verbs, both with a handful of conjugations, showing hiragana and kanji. This will illustrate how the kanji works with the various forms of the conjugated verb.

Here's the verb "miru" (みる) (to see). It's a type 2 verb:

Base
Form
Row
Hiragana
Kanji
Translation
1
1st Neg.
み(ない)
見(ない)
[I] don't see
2
Conjunctive
み(ます)
見(ます)
[I] see
3
Dictionary
みる
見る
[I] see
4
Imperative
みろ/みよ
見ろ/見よ
See
 
Conditional
 
みれば
見れば
If [I] see
5
Volitional
みよう
見よう
[I] will see
 
Te
 
みて
見て
See and...

And here's the verb "iku" (いく) (to go). It's a type 1 verb:

Base
Form
Row
Hiragana
Kanji
Translation
1
1st Neg.
いか(ない)
行か(ない)
[I] don't go
2
Conjunctive
いき(ます)
行き(ます)
[I] go
3
Dictionary
いく
行く
[I] go
4
Imperative
いけ
行け
Go
 
Conditional
 
いけば
行けば
If [I] go
5
Volitional
いこう
行こう
[I] will go
 
Te
 
いって
行って
Go and...