Practical Tips for KanjiN: How to Keep a Daily Kanji Drill Going

What KanjiN asks of you is simple. You look at a question and write the answer on the screen by hand. There are no multiple-choice buttons in the Writing Drill or the Reading Drill. Whether the habit lasts depends on how you spend a few minutes each day as well as on the app’s features. This post collects a few ways to spend them.

Start with the Skill Check

The Skill Check on the Home tab gives you 10 writing and reading questions and then shows your level as a school grade, for example “Current level: Grade 3.” It is free, and on the day you take it, the Home screen shows “Checked today.”

If you are not sure which grade to practice, start here. Today’s Challenge also draws from a range based on this result. After a few weeks, take it again on another day. If the result goes up, that is your sign to move your drills up a grade.

One more thing: the drill settings start with only Grade 1 ticked. Once you have your Skill Check result, change the level in the settings dialog that opens when you start a drill.

Build a routine from the free part

Today’s Drill, Today’s Challenge and the Skill Check are free. Today’s Drill picks one drill each day, and Today’s Challenge is either the Speed Challenge or the Focus Challenge.

One Today’s Drill, then one challenge. That alone makes a daily routine, and since you do not have to decide what to do, it is easy to keep. When you want to choose drills yourself, a one-time purchase, Unlock Everything, opens all of them. There is no subscription and no ads.

Let the child place the stamp

When you finish a drill or a challenge, the app shows the calendar and asks you to tap today’s date to place a stamp. You can skip it.

The child can place the stamp. A row of stamps is a visible record of keeping at it. Do not worry about the gaps. Starting again tomorrow is enough.

Do both writing and reading

The two core drills are the Writing Drill and the Reading Drill. In the Writing Drill you see a reading and write the kanji. In the Reading Drill you see a sentence with one kanji in red and write its reading in hiragana, by hand.

Reading a kanji and writing it are separate skills. Most of us can read many kanji we cannot write. One way to avoid leaning on one side is to alternate by day. For the difference between the two kinds of readings, see On’yomi and Kun’yomi.

Start at 10 questions

In the drill settings you can choose anywhere from 10 to 100 questions, in steps of 10. Ten is plenty to start with, and it takes only a few minutes.

There is a view that 10 questions every day does more than 100 once a week. When 10 starts to feel short, move to 20, then 30.

Pass when stuck, then review

The Writing Drill has a Pass button. If you cannot recall a kanji, pass and move on. The app keeps count of how many you passed.

What matters is what comes after. The results of the Writing and Reading Drills include a question review of every item. Look at the ones you passed or got wrong.

Write each stroke clearly

KanjiN reads the shape you write to judge your answer. Clear strokes work better than fast ones. On iPad, a stylus feels closer to writing on paper.

The first time you use the app, it downloads what it needs to read handwriting, so that first session needs an internet connection. Starting somewhere with Wi-Fi is easiest.

Put this week’s kanji in My Data

The My Data tab lets you make your own questions. Create a folder, then add a question with an example sentence, the answer kanji and its reading in hiragana. When you type kanji into the sentence, the app suggests answer candidates, and it shows an estimated school grade for the kanji you add.

One use is a folder of this week’s school kanji, or the kanji you got wrong on a test. For an adult learner, a folder of kanji you met and missed works the same way. You can also write a short sentence of your own instead of copying one from a textbook. Your own words give you something to hold on to.

In the drill settings, choose “Add My Data (custom questions)” and pick a folder to mix your questions into a session. Set the level to “None” to practice only your own questions. That suits the night before a test. Folders can be synced with iCloud.

Use school grades, Kanken and JLPT

You can choose questions from School (grades 1 to 6), Kanken (levels 10 to 5) and JLPT (N5 to N3). Tick levels across categories and the app mixes them all.

A child can practice by school grade most of the time and switch to a Kanken level only in the weeks before that exam. Kanken levels 10 to 5 cover the same kanji as grades 1 to 6. Mixing in a little of the previous grade is good review too.

If you are learning Japanese, the JLPT levels are there for you. N5 is a good place to begin even if you can already read more, because writing from memory is harder than reading.

Use the Stroke Order Drill on quiet days

In the Stroke Order Drill you trace the strokes in order to learn the shape. When you finish, the app compares your writing with the model and gives a score.

It suits tired days, or days when you notice your writing getting rushed. Slow tracing lets you check the shape and the stroke order again. The rules of stroke order are in Kanji Stroke Order Rules.

Puzzles for a change of pace

Radical Sort, Category Sort, Radical Builder and Idiom Puzzle are closer to games than drills. In Radical Sort you drag kanji into groups by radical, and in Category Sort you group them by meaning. Idiom Puzzle has Easy, Normal and Hard.

They are good for days when the drills start to feel repetitive. Seeing kanji grouped by radical shows connections between characters you had learned one by one.

Check the week with a test

In the Writing Test and Reading Test, you answer everything first and then tap Grade. If you left any blanks, the app asks before grading.

One combination is daily drills plus a test at the end of the week. It shows whether a kanji you got right in a drill is still there a few days later.

If you are sitting with a child

If you are watching a child practice, look at the question review together rather than the score. It shows where they stopped and which readings they mixed up. A kanji can be marked correct in the Writing Drill and still be written in the wrong stroke order. If you notice that, trace it together in the Stroke Order Drill.

Purchases and restoring purchases sit behind a “For Grown-Ups” check that asks for the current year in four digits, so a child cannot buy by accident.

Where to go next

If you have not started yet, begin with Getting Started with KanjiN. To see how it compares with other ways of studying, read KanjiN vs Other Ways to Practice Kanji, and to see who it suits, read Who Is KanjiN For?.

Try just one of these this week. The Skill Check is a good place to begin.