とめ tome (stop), はね hane (jump), or はらい harai (sweep). (Note that some diagonal lines end in stop-sweep.) For example, a vertical straight line can end in stop, jump, or sweep, as shown below:
とめ tome(stop) | はね hane(jump) | はらい harai(sweep) |
Stroke Directions
A stroke can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, angled, or curved, or can be just a short abbreviated line.
Vertical lines always go from top to bottom, and horizontal lines always go from left to right.
Diagonal lines can go either downward or upward. For example:
If a stroke forms a corner, a sharp angle, or a curve, it goes from left to right and then goes down, or goes down and then left to right. For example:
Some strokes have a combination of a sharp angle and a curve. For example:
Some strokes are extremely short and are called てん ten. They may be vertical or slightly diagonal:
Stroke Order
You should remember how the strokes in each character are ordered in order to write a character neatly with the appropriate shape. Most kanji characters are written following the general principles of stroke order:
1. Kanji are written from top to bottom.
三 (three)
2. Kanji are written from left to right.
川 (river)
3. Horizontal strokes usually precede vertical strokes when crossing, although there are some exceptions such as 王 and 田.
十 (ten)
4. A central line usually precedes the strokes placed on its right and left.
小 (small)
5. An outer frame must be written first before finishing the inside except for the bottom line. The bottom line of an outer frame must be completed at the very end.
国 (country)
6. A right-to-left diagonal stroke precedes a left-to-right diagonal stroke.
人 (person)
7. A vertical line piercing through the center of a character is written last.
車 (vehicle)
8. A horizontal line piercing the center of the character is written last.
子 (child)
How do I learn to write kanji?
Remember that a good beginning and good planning are the keys to success in learning kanji. The following are some suggested steps for learning kanji using this workbook.
Get used to the strokes
Before writing any kanji, practice drawing some of the simple strokes with different endings many times on a sheet of scrap paper. For example, try drawing the strokes presented above (e.g., vertical lines, diagonal lines). Each time you end the stroke, say とめ tome (stop), はね hane (jump), or はらい harai (sweep), depending on which type of ending you are working on. If you have a brush and ink, try to make changes in the thickness of different portions of each stroke. Of course, you can also use a pen or pencil. If you do, ignore the difference in the thickness of different portions of each stroke. Just get used to the general flow of strokes. It will help you to write kanji beautifully in an authentic style.
Understand the character
Before writing an actual kanji character as a whole, familiarize yourself with its meaning, pronunciation, usage examples, and radical. Be creative and make associations to help you remember the shape, composition, meaning, and sound of the character you are working on. Your associations can be logical or natural, or can be silly or funny. Your imagination and creativity will always help you learn and remember new things, especially when you are dealing with numerous items. Under each character in this book, the first several boxes show the stroke order and direction. Refer to them, and try writing the character once. The number of strokes for each kanji is specified in the upper-right corner of each page. Check whether you used the correct number of strokes when you wrote the kanji. Then compare your character with the one printed on the page. Pay attention to the size and the position of the character in relation with the box as well as the proportion and shape of the lines.
Practice writing the character
When you have fully understood the given character in terms of meaning, pronunciation, usage, radical, and stroke order, write it about 10 times in a row. You may not believe it, but your hand muscle will remember how to write a kanji if you repeat writing it many times. If helpful, trace over the gray characters at the beginning of each page.
Review kanji periodically
Practice a few new characters at a time every day following the above steps. Once you have worked your way through the first half of the book, in which the kanji are introduced for the first time, move on to the practice exercises in the second half of the book. These practice exercises will allow you to use the 103 kanji you have learned, plus your existing knowledge of hiragana and katakana, to write real vocabulary words, which is a great way to reinforce and remember the kanji. Each exercise gives particular emphasis to the four kanji given in the heading, and you should find that as you work your way through the exercises that your writing becomes smoother and your recall of the characters easier. The more vocabulary words you learn, and the more you practice writing them, the easier it becomes to memorize the kanji!
頑張ってください。
