I need help... I know Hirgana&Katakana very well but I'm stuck at… - Feed Post by cansnJP
I need help...
I know Hirgana&Katakana very well but I'm stuck at the Kanji. I dont know how to learn them. There are 2 readings but I don't know where or in which sentences I should use them. It would be really nice if you could help me :)
I know Hirgana&Katakana very well but I'm stuck at the Kanji. I dont know how to learn them. There are 2 readings but I don't know where or in which sentences I should use them. It would be really nice if you could help me :)
posted by cansnJP
Comments 10
Yes, kanji is probably one of the most time-consuming aspects of learning Japanese, but once you start learning the most common ones it gets a lot easier!
The two readings are kunyomi (which you see in hiragana) and onyomi (which you see in katakana). The kunyomi is the Japanese reading of the kanji, and the onyomi (音読み literally means "sound reading") is the pronunciation that imitates the original Chinese sound. When a kanji is by itself, we usually use the kunyomi (like 水 is みず, "water"), but when two or more kanji are combined, we usually use the onyomi (like 水曜日is すいようび, "wednesday"). Not always, as there are some exceptions, but usually.
I would also really recommend learning the radicals, which are the building blocks of kanji. If you think of kanji as words, radicals are like the letters. They don't help you at all with learning to pronounce each kanji, but they definitely help in remembering or guessing the meaning of kanji you may forget or not yet know. Being a pretty analytical person, I also really like how it makes the kanji make sense.
Just start with the basic kanji from the first lessons, and try to see if you can identify them in the vocab and vice versa. What I like to do is to restrict myself to just saying the readings as I look only at the kanji, while thinking of the meaning, instead of looking back and forth from the kanji and how it's pronounced. Maybe even try to say the word and close your eyes, picturing how the kanji looks in your mind. That way I get it ingrained into my brain from the association between how it looks and how it sounds.
Sorry, long response. I hope it helps, though! It's easy to get discouraged, but just keep at it and you will get it eventually, I promise! がんばって！^_^
Good advice, JV. I would also add that at first you don't need to worry about writing the kanji if that helps. There are many kanji that I can't write but that I can read and understand at a glance. We all learn in different ways, so see if that helps. Even the Japanese "forget" how to write kanji at times, just like we sometimes forget how to spell a word, but of course they can read them!
I recommend simply learning kanji with vocab
WaniKani.com
Hey JV thank for your long response! Remembering the Kanji is not that hard for me but for example if I see any sentence in Japanese which hs all of the kanji I know I don't know how to read the Kanji for example 日 has so many On and Kunyomi reading. I know every reading but when it comes in any sentence I just know that it means day, the sun or the counter for days. That's the only part where I'm struggling since I want to improve my Kanji- sjnelson: Yes, good point! Native Japanese often struggle with writing the more complicated ones, even though they can read them. It's especially the case nowadays with just needing to type them instead of writing on paper.
cansnJP: I totally get what you mean, I often have the same struggle. I think those are the kinds of things that you can guess pretty accurately once you are more familiar with the language. Sometimes you can learn from simply knowing the kanji, but most times you will learn how to read them by simply being exposed to how they're used over and over.
I mean, even if you have all the kanji and their readings memorized, it doesn't mean you know how to speak Japanese. The written aspect of the language is an entirely separate thing from how it's spoken. That's why there are so many exceptions in all of these systematic approaches to learning a language, it's because they reflect the changing culture of the language you're learning.
If you think about it, a language is essentially a tool for communication, and you only really learn to use tools through... well, using them! By observing, imitating, and growing a familiarity with it (this is how babies learn to speak, after all). I'm a strong advocate of learning languages through exposure, because in order to truly understand the Japanese language, you have to learn from the people that use it!
Sorry, went off on a rant again. Long story short: these things are learned through time, exposure, and familiarity! I'm a long way off as well, but we can do it :) - JV, Yes! I always try to get my English students to understand this: "these things are learned through time, exposure, and familiarity!" but I wonder how many of them really get it!?
- I think you should try WaniKani
Is it free?
oh kanji is the worst part about learning japanese but it is so fun! i recommend if you are in college or highschool (like me) that you do a student exchange program (like me) i go this year for 4 to 6 months and im hoping my skill in Japanese will be better
