Resolution, design and learning Japanese

Above: Kanji for Fire (Hi)

 

Hello, hello.

 

Well the new year may have passed already in the UK but there's still time to make resolutions for improving your life and learning Japanese is one of mine. I tell myself over and over again that I will learn this language but I never get very far. So with Lunar New Year coming up I'm going to approach things differently this time and learn a new language in a new way.

In order to help me actively remember the characters and words in the Japanese language I will design images that help me pick up meaning and memory. A big part of the written language is Kanji, which are the complex characters based on symbols for what they represent. A good way of learning Kanji is to start off with basic meanings as a lot of Kanji are made up of smaller representational characters which form larger concepts. I will be learning by using books such as teach yourself Japanese script by Helen Gilhooly and Byki transparent language Japanese free lessons. What I learn I will either turn into designs or small delicious morsels of learning info and post them here. I'm going to aim for 3 to 5 a week. So if you're interested in learning too but haven't got the knack for it yet maybe we can learn together. So feel free to follow along, send me a message or comment and we can start this fantastic journey.

 

Now onto today's design. The above image (Hi) is my first one. It represents fire and is used in many different Kanji. I've got the first three designed and I can tell it's helping already. If you can't wait for the next installment I post all of my designs on Redbubble

Thanks for stopping by

Caerys