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kanji question -
06-17-2010, 01:32 AM
I just started learning kanji and for words with double pronunciations how will i know which one to say? For a sentence do i first learn the hiragana for that kanji in order to know which way of saying it or just figure out the multiple pronunciations and read the sentence?
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06-17-2010, 01:35 AM
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Memorization, memorization, memorization
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06-17-2010, 01:46 AM
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If you don't have a Kanji background, IN GENERAL, Kanji that's grouped together like 書店 would use On reading (shoten), where as Kanji by itself, or with some hiragana after it takes the Kun reading 書く would read Kaku, 店 would read Mise. Again there is a zillion exceptions, you just have to learn it the hard way. Kun reading is basically retrofitted native Japanese reading of a Kanji, it has no pattern whatsoever, totally random and you just have to commit to memory one by one. There are tricks with On reading though, usually the right hand side of the character tells you how to read it. 広、鉱 all read Kou and 同、胴、銅 all read Dou.
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06-17-2010, 02:11 AM
I'm regurgitating stuff I've said in other threads recently... but I think it helps to alreay be familiar with the word before you go and study the kanji.
A lot of people will say otherwise, though. I think that learning the spoken language makes learning the written language easier and more comprehensible. Learning the written form first can be overwhelming and... I think impossible without context. There is a point in everyone's study of language-- including their mother language, where studying the written form becomes very important. I think you'll know when you're at that level. It is at that point that I believe you should concer yourself with less common readings of kanji and kanji wih readings that don't come up in everyday conversation. Frankly, there are a lot of readings for kanji that are useless. You could read 茶道 さどう (sado) or ちゃどう (chado). I don't think anyone says chado, and people would prbably have a hard time understanding what you're trying to say if you said it to them. This is all coming from a person who's pronunciation and daily conversation skills far outweigh his reading/writing skills though. I'm quite happy with the road I've taken, but there are embarassing moments when I feel like someone who is illiterate, which is basically what my Japanese self is. I can tell you though, approaching kanji at this level is a lot easier than when I tried studying kanji years ago when I was first starting out. I can feel the synapsis actually connecting while I write the kanji down-- which is part of the memorization thing MMM was talking about, if I understood him correctly. I might be pushing it, but I think I could go as far as to say that stressing over what on-yomi and what kun-yomi are would be time better spent just learning from experience. That is to say, getting an idea of what context the kanji/readings are being used in. The more you read kanji and stuff, the more you gain a sense of what the kanji would or could be. I think gaining that sense is far more valuable than being able to tell which is onyomi and which is kunyomi.
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06-17-2010, 02:12 AM
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If you are new to Kanji, learn the KUN reading as KUN reading is literally a translation of the MEANING of the Kanji. E.g. if you see the character 書, learn the KUN reading かく(kaku) FIRST before you learn the less commonly used ON reading しょ(sho). Also KUN reading usually expresses very very basic ideas like to Write 書く kaku, to run 走る hashiru, to walk 歩く aruku. ON reading in general expresses very complex ideas like infection 感染, geology 地質学 etc. so for a beginner, KUN reading is much much more useful. It's just for people with Kanji background, they already know what 書 means and they know the kind of words that character can make so it would be easier to learn ON reading and whack words together like 書類、書籍、書店、書物、書写 because I'm 99% sure they mean the exactly the same thing in Korean or Chinese. I.e. there is a slosh of vocab that is exactly the same in Korean/Japanese/Chinese and you might as well take advantage of it.
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