#skipcode

[poetcooper11]

O Rotting Sun Episode 8

[poetcooper11]

O Rotting Sun, Episode 2: "Skip Code 3"

[nihongogogo]

Hi! If I'm reading Japanese reading material (magazines, books etc) aimed at native speakers that has little to no furigana, how do I find the readings and meanings of kanji that I don't understand? I want to practice reading whilst picking up new vocab, but I can't do that since I can't even search for the words without the reading in kana. If there's a method of overcoming this or any advice you could give it'd be much appreciated because I'm really struggling. Thank you in advance!

There are several ways to go about this, one is to search by radical using a dictionary like jisho.org, just click the radicals icon top left from the home screen:

You can actually draw into jisho.org, which if you’re using an ipad would be fine, but on PC is pretty tricky to use.

Another option is to get a touch-sensitive dictionary like Japanese for your phone, which is now free (used to be about $6), that allows you to write in the kanji with your finger and search. This is very fast and I use it many times daily, it’s definitely my preferred method, however, if you don’t know how to write kanji in correct stroke order (I studied how to do this previously), then nothing will come up, this is the same with the drawing function on all dictionaries I’ve used (jisho.org, Japanese and a Casio Word Bank electronic dictionary). You can also search by hiragana or romaji input, radical and SKIP code on this dictionary, so I feel it suits me well enough. I genuinely think that apps replace every need for an expensive electronic dictionary bar one- some universities allow electronic dictionaries in exams, but obviously none allow phones, so unless you’re in that circumstance I really think you can easily save yourself many hundreds of dollars and just by the Japanese app.

The final method to learn which may suit you best if you don’t know radicals is to use SKIP codes and search online or in a paper dictionary such as the Kodansha’s Kanji Learner’s Dictionary. There’s a basic introduction to SKIP codes and how to use them here.As you progress you will find that it makes a lot of sense to learn radicals. I really suggest you try to start learning them as soon as possible, there are 214, which sounds like a lot, but you’ve slready learned 92 hiragana and katakana which are characters (46 per set). There are some really good articles like this one on Tofugu to help you get started with radicals.Good luck with your studies!!

[tea-and-liminality]

The video is kind of stupid, but the song would be perfect for a maryartylock vid.