Hiragana

Please click on each character to see its stroke order.

Katakana

Kanji Learned in J1

All Hiragana, Katakana, and J1 Kanji gifs are provided courtesy of NihongoSiam.com.

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Kanji Learned in J10

These kanji are introduced in J10.

漢字 (読み&書き): you need to be able to read and write; 漢字 (読み): you need to be able to read; 読み → 書き: those kanji have already been introduced as read only in the designated lesson; (number 1, number 2): the first refers to the number of kanji newly introduced in the lesson and the second to the accumulated number of new kanji learned in J10.

Kanji Learned in J100

These kanji are introduced in J100.

漢字 (読み&書き): you need to be able to read and write.
読み → 書き: those kanji have already been introduced as read-only in the designated lesson in J10.
(number 1, number 2): the first refers to the number of kanji newly introduced in the lesson and the second to the accumulated number of new kanji learned in J100.
5b: the reading material covered after L5.
EX今: reading 「今を読み解く」
EXケ: reading 「ケータイは自分を着飾るためのファッション」
EX結: 『大人になるための社会科入門』 chapter on 結婚.

Accumulated Kanji List

Kanji play a pivotal role in the learning of the Japanese language because they can help us associate effectively the sound and the meaning of vocabulary items. Until you acquire 200~300 kanji, you might feel that they are nothing but a major obstacle. However, once you have learned 200~300, you begin to recognize that words that are not written in kanji are more difficult to retain. The sound and the meaning of those words must be tied together, as it were, without string. Think, for example, 先週 'last week', 今週 'this week', and 来週 'next week'. Would it not be more difficult to remember them if they were written as せんしゅう, こんしゅう, らいしゅう? And, as your J1 textbook explains, you will soon acquire most of the recurring kanji components. After that, you will combine parts of familiar kanji to create more kanji. So, if you feel overwhelmed or intimidated at the beginning, be patient and just look at kanji (you do not need to try to remember them) as frequently as possible.

Accumulated Kanji List (an Excel worksheet) lists all the kanji taught in the UCB Japanese Program. In order to open the file, you need either Microsoft Excel or Excel Viewer installed. To obtain a free Excel Viewer, go to Microsoft web site.

The file is organized as follows:

The Accumulated Kanji List can be used in various ways.

• Download the list and color code those kanji/words that you do not remember.
• Sort the list by lesson, frequency, on-reading, or kun-reading and check your knowledge.
• If you wish to take a UCB Japanese language course without fufilling the prerequisite, check your knowledge of kanji using this list. If you know less than 75% of the kanji taught in the prerequisite course, you may want to take it first.

Kanji Frequency Table

Kanji in this Frequency Table are listed from the most frequent to the least frequent kanji appeared in The Asahi Shimbun newspaper in 1993. Please note that the links are down.