Hello, I've been learning Kanji with the mastery schedules in Renshuu but that alone seems to not be of enough help 'cause there are many kanji with the same radicals. Also, there are many kunyomi and onyomi readings. Could y'all suggest a good way of learning Kanji manually/outside of Renshuu?
Renshuu is by far the best source I know of for studying kanji, but other people seem to like WaniKani. There are also many books and online resources, such as The Joy o’ Kanji.
It is to be expected that many kanji have the same radical. That’s sort of the point. Radicals are a way to systematically organize the thousands of characters into some kind of logical structure. It’s like complaining that your dictionary has too many words starting with the letter A.
As to the overwhelming number of readings, especially on the beginner kanji, all of us can sympathize. It’s just the way it is. You do not need to try to learn them all at once. Renshuu will allow you to learn one reading at a time, and tracks your mastery of each reading separately.
Try multiple methods and keep the one that you like.
Don't try to remember everything, it's fine to just learn what you can and come back later. Also easier/quicker imo.
Like in my case, I'm studying kanjis by kanji kentei level. I usually do a first run where I tried to remember only the primary reading of each kanji (and if I'm able to the meaning too). Then I do a second run where I learn a lot of different words that use those kanjis. And it help me to consolidate those primary school reading. At the same time, it's helping me to have a better understanding of those kanji (learning different words is a bit like looking at a kanji from different angles, it's really helpful!).
And after that, I can do additionnal stuff like practicing writing, studying radicals, etc. If I want to or need to. Like sometimes, I just want to learn about the origin of a word or kanji and I dig a bit deeper. Other times, I realize that I just completely forgot about some readings or kanjis and that I probably need to do something about that (writing, studying a few word with that kanji, etc depending on what I forgot).
But before that, when I started, I did not study radical, did not try to write them and now that I'm at my level, I don't even care if I can't remember or understand the meaning. I just focus on the reading. Then later come back again later by studying words. And even when I can't remember the reading of a few kanjis, I don't care. It will fix itself at some point (if I continue to study japanese). Or I will do something if it doesn't.
So yeah... kanjis are a really big piece, even japanese struggle all their life with them. It's fine to only take a small bite when you start. You can do more of course but it doesn't mean that you will remember them more easily. Also, you can get more easily overwhelm. Like, I did try to do everything (writing, radical, etymology, etc) at the time to speed my kanji study... It did not end up well (I just burned out).
So now, I prefer those kind of multi-stage methods without worrying too much about what I'm able to remember. Because I know that after the first two steps, I will be done with most kanjis, or at least most readings. It seems like a lot of work but at the same time, because I already study a lot of kanjis, it's also easier to remember new kanjis or new readings (I don't spend the same amount of time or effort compared to when I started). So it's not so bad =p. But that's just how I did it so far. Some people prefer to rush all the jouyou kanji first while others probably may take even more time than me by trying to write every kanjis (which help a lot to be honest but also take a huge amount of time and effort).
