ok. i need suggestions. i can look at all of the kanjis in level 1 and i know what they are. but i… - Feed Post by Jayriv
ok. i need suggestions. i can look at all of the kanjis in level 1 and i know what they are. but i only remember how to say about 3/4 of them. heeeeeeeelp
posted by Jayriv
Comments 11
I always figured the "kunyomi" was how you say it (but that's a wild guess and I do hope someone is able to answer this)
repetition
A common study method is to listen to native speakers. Listen to a Japanese podcast or watch a Japanese movie that has subtitles! It's a controversial method but you can also listen to subtitled anime (Just keep in mind that that is not the be all end all in pronunciation! Sometimes words are exaggerated or pronounced differently because of the character) I find watching Jvlogs on youtube also helps with pronunciations because sometimes they have subtitles with them (For example, the Rachel and Jun channel will have subtitles in English when they SPEAK Japanese, and Japanese subtitles when they SPEAK English.) In all methods, you can catch on to words and you find yourself thinking "Hey that sounds familiar!"
If you know and can remember three quarters of ALL the readings for the kanji in level 1, then you probably know more than me! It's crazy to focus on all the readings and trying to learn every one of them. In lesson 4, 生 has 2 onyomi and something like 10 kunyomi (depending on how you count it)... o_O
@AxeEcliptica Kunyomi originate from words which existed in Japanese before kanji were used to write them. Originally, the Japanese language was not written down at all (apparently) and was just a spoken language. When an important document needed to be written, it had to be written in another language--Classical Chinese.
Later, Japan began to adopt Chinese characters into their own language. The actual Japanese language itself began to be written down using Chinese characters (kanji).
Already existing native Japanese words were then assigned to the kanji having the closest matching meaning to them. Sometimes, more than one word matched the same kanji. These are known as "kun'yomi" (instruction reading).
Also, Japanese interpretations of old Chinese sounds for each kanji began to be used to create new words for the Japanese language. This was done usually by using multiple kanji for a single word to make a compound meaning. Chinese characters only have one sound each, but it took several centuries to import the kanji and was done from different regions/dynasties of China, so different pronunciations of sounds were sometimes learned for same characters. The reading of kanji used in this way is known as "on'yomi" (sound reading).
A few centuries after kanji began to be used, things like katakana and hiragana began to be developed from kanji (from manyogana).
I kinda dumbed that down a lot and it probably is not totally accurate, but it gives some idea about kun'yomi and on'yomi -- what they are, why they both exist, and why there isn't just one reading for each kanji. ^^- Wow, thank you so much, Mog. That helps me understand the kanji pages a lot better now, actually.
I'd say you don't need to remember all of different ways to say them at the moment. As you use, and learn more about the language you'll encounter the kanji more, and from there figure out in what ways the kanji can be used. If you try to memorize them without giving each pronunciation a clear function, chances are you'll just forget them again.
but heres the real question. do you have to know how to say the kanji? or how its pronounced? arent they just ... shortcuts(if you will) to writing a word? couldn't you just write out the word in hiragana? idk if this makes any sense. -.- すみませｎ。ぼくわがくさいにあたりしです。maybe i said that right? correct me please. lololol. i wanted to say. sorry. im a new student.- 僕わ学生の新子です。 better?
- It is definitely good to eventually know most of the important, if not all readings of the kanji.
It is possible to write words in hiragana instead of kanji, but impractical in the long run (Not to mention there are words with the same pronunciations, but different kanji). You'll also want to be able to read what others write. Using kanji also takes a lot less character space, and is much easier to read than a row with only hiragana once you know them.
All I can say is do your best and don't give up. XD - but what i wrote..... did it make sense? xD
- Neither really make sense, but it is good that you are trying, and good to see you're getting used to Japanese input on computer.
One important thing is that the topic particle (pronounced as "wa") is always written as は, so you need to type it as "ha" to write it correctly on a computer.
There are quite a few spelling mistakes in the hiragana only sentence, making it particularly hard to understand. In the sentence with kanji, the "新子" is a very strange choice of vocabulary, if you check it out in a dictionary:
http://www.jisho.org/words?jap=%E6%96%B0%E5%AD%90
The basic sentence you need for "I am a ___" is "ぼくは___です".
For "new student", there are a few different ways of saying it, and I don't really know which is most appropriate.
You can use the i-adjective 新しい (あたらしい) for "new" and the noun 学生 (がくせい) for "student". To put these together, you only need to put the noun after the adjective, so:
僕は新しい学生です。
Or you just insert a noun meaning "new student" like either 新入生 (しんにゅうせい) or 入学生 (にゅうがくせい), but I don't know what the best option is. ^^
http://www.jisho.org/words?eng=new+student
