this video will be where this video will
be of interest to people actively
studying Japanese about to start
studying Japanese people who like arts
and memorization techniques people who
have nothing better to do and of course
people that enjoy watching other people
get hit by cars on a school playground
under the watchful eye of a thousand
schoolchildren - an over dramatic
soundtrack oh my god oh my god can I saw
brain safety lessons are supposed to be
boring
how did you go from Will Smith and
Stephen Merchant having an imaginary
conversation to this and from the
world's most powerful farmyard animal to
this and finally from this ok we'll do
this one here easy to remember easy to
draw yes it all they're nothing alike
nope so this oh yeah getting a whole
nother book finished yeah come in here
come and look at this I finished a whole
nother book it's pretty cool
Oh oh yeah I live alone when I arrived
in Japan last year I couldn't even save
most basic phrases such as where is
McDonald's and what horse is necessary
which I think you'll agree are
absolutely essential for everyday
conversation worth still I couldn't read
anything because of the three Japanese
writing systems hitogata katakana and
kanji I didn't know I couldn't wash my
clothes use the air conditioning
even at restaurants I'd have to take a
dictionary only to still [ __ ] up my
order and end up with the Last Supper
instead of the healthy delicious salads
bye I thought I'd ordered so I
temporarily eradicated my social life
and sat down to learn hiragana and
katakana of which there are about 100
characters and by the end of August I
emerged able to read both character
systems but more importantly I could
read the world without me once and for
all
haha I'll give me a break except I
couldn't I turned my attention to the
final character system kanji the
characters are logo graphic or logo
graphic I haven't a clue how to
pronounce that word meaning a single
character can convey a word or meaning
such as water the moon and rain it's
undeniably beautiful system and I was
very excited to learn all 25 of the
characters but there's not 25 there's
2,000 characters this didn't initially
put me off but then I learned that each
character can have multiple readings it
was about then I thought I was bit out
of my depth I mean I thought I'd taken
it badly but what I told my friend who's
also known in Japanese yeah so as well
as there being two thousand characters
it turns out I also have multiple
readings as well so this was the point
where I thought about quitting the whole
learning of the language especially as
Japanese school children learn over a
10-year period through a unique method
known as writing it out again and again
and again but it was then a few advanced
non-native speakers of Japanese told me
of a method of a way of getting around
it and being able to learn the meaning
and the writing of the characters in a
matter of months as opposed to years not
only that but it would be a fun and
creative way and I love fun
you
in Japanese is your religion let this
book be your Bible hey SIG's remembering
the kanji is now in its sixth edition
and originally came out in the 1970s in
short and I be very sure the way to
learning kanji is by using your creative
imagination and stories to memorize the
countenance in north of stories so
instead of writing out the characters
again and again and again use your
creative imagination to conjure up
imagery key to the book success is the
way it breaks down the kanji into their
smaller primitive parts can't you
typically made up of several other kanji
characters you call primitives and the
idea is to turn those squiggly lines
into something with meaning bit people
objects or anything that comes to your
mind some are quite basic for example I
it's quite easy and natural to see the
shape for high but for something like
font meaning to be fond of or to like
something which is made up of
woman-child bit more creativity is
involved so we imagine a woman who
obviously is fond of her child loves a
child and is fumbling her with happiness
and love I'd start this video I had some
examples of people that I've used as
kanji characters or as parts of the
story I actually found it used for
kindling and here's how so here's a
kanji character which means um listen to
undo something
it holds other connotations such as
mistake negative and injustice just like
the man himself the primarily unsure -
kim jong-in because it's called um even
if that description does have quite a
good resemblance to the [ __ ] in
question so it's quite a simple
character as you can see and the three
strokes either side are easy to remember
as that's how many North Korean leaders
there have been in that failed dynasty
and in my head when I see this character
I don't just see a load of squiggly
lines as I see Kim jong-un which isn't
something one necessarily picture but
yeah it works and the way the book is
ordered you learn chronologically so the
next few kanji characters that you would
learn would have Kim Jong Lee they would
have um
primitive so thus and the character has
two primitives unn and the one for heart
so I'm seeing Kim jong-un and a heart
which are two things that don't really
go together and that's when you actually
have to use your psychotic mind to
actually put those bits and pieces
together to form a story that makes you
memorize the key word so maybe kim
jongmin has no heart
so he's sad that's the story that's how
I've memorized it so when I see that
character
I see kim jongmin and heart my know he
has no heart so he must be sad - the
word is sad another example Will Smith
and Stephen Merchant having a discussion
how can I get from that to this
character so this character means
surrogate and it's made up of three
primitives from your finger here on the
Left we have Kia which I have already
memorized down as Will Smith because for
those of you that know Will Smith no yes
big ears or he's always mocked for
having big ears I don't really know why
I don't think he's got big ears by the
way is Will Smith and then we have this
one here which means sparkler but for no
apparent reason I decided to have it in
my head of Stephen Merchant it because I
love Stephen Merchant and I had to put
him in there someone now 2009 a movie
came out called surrogates starring
Bruce Willis and once the film was about
as entertaining as taking the word -
crap and Phil trying to make an anagram
out for his word the fact was when I
first saw the word surrogate in the book
that is what came to my mind Will Smith
and Stephen Merchant
at a dinner party somewhere really nice
wonderful good food and Will Smith is
standing there talking to Stephen
Merchant droning on and on about he
wanted to get the main role with a film
surrogates instead of Bruce Willis and
Stephen Merchant is too busy thinking
about how much money he's just got from
Portal 2 and gradually puts his fingers
in his ears he doesn't want to listen
and that is it Steve merchant standing
there with his fingers and it is trying
to avoid this victim Will Smith talking
about how he did get the role of the
protagonist in Sanders and that is how
Stephen Merchant
the Will Smith come to sentence I was
initially skeptical this method but
after making hundreds of these stories
and after being able to memorize up to
60 kanji how to write them and their
meaning in one day it just worked it
really that once you're able to turn
thousands of words into characters out
Danette using your memory you will
literally feel like Albus Dumbledore
Yoda and James Bond's Footwear combined
Albus yo Devon perhaps most importantly
it gives you confidence because it turns
those squiggly lines around you in your
everyday life into something with
meaning for example a real landmark
moment in my time in Japan was after
learning the kanji from big and small
and most toilets in Japan have a little
handle with the big and small conjure it
up and I finally realized what it meant
being fluff little fluff beefed up
little fluff God you have no idea how
exciting that was just to know while
looking at as Karen's art being that
small it changed my life
when didn't change my life but it was
pretty big disapproving
I know what maybe some of you might be
thinking hang on you can't actually
pronounce the carpentry you can actually
read the you're basically an idiot and
while some of that is true
the fact is it's easier to learn the
kanji and how to write them that their
being except for it from the reading
that can be done a few months that's
going to take a bit longer
well actually they're the couch for even
more take a fair bit longer ultimately
it's like a puzzle
so this kanji here I know means book and
I know the word for book your Japanese
is home so together
hornbook together it just makes
memorizing the characters so much easier
and to someone who's going to do the
book it takes between three to six
months on average for those of you
learning Japanese or about start
learning you've just discovered a great
shortcut to carve a lot of time off your
study for those of you wondering why you
watch the video because it is a rather
than sort of doing you've learned
there's a shortcut around any problem
for any situation usually and I hope you
leave this video with a more positive
outlook for life in that out there mate
you were just chatting [ __ ]