Should I memorize all of the Kanji pronounciations?

[KibaTheWolf]

When learning Kanji, should I memorize just the most-used pronounciations or both the Kun and On pronounciations?

[aKuMu]

You should learn Words.

[creativity]

Well, im starting to learn Kanji too, using the Basic Kanji Book. It's pretty helpful, and shows you different ways of using the Kanji, like what pronounciation to use for what meaning. But yeah, learn the main On and Kun Readings and when to use them.

[Yudan Taiteki]

A few pieces of advice:

1. *never* attempt to learn a reading of a kanji without at least one vocabulary word to associate with it; you really should have an example sentence as well.

2. Avoid rare readings at first. Go off the readings that are given in your beginning book, and learn the others later if you come across them. Don't assume that just because a reading is on the Jouyou list that it's common -- that list contains quite a few rare readings.

[AJBryant]

Maybe I just should kill myself.

Thanks, Akumu, for the affirmation that people Get It.


Tony

[tanuki]

What ever happened to that bloody rant icon of yours?

*bloody rant*
LEARN WORDS!!!!

[Infidel]

well, there are a large number of people that haven't been told the right way before.

[Mukade]

I would echo what Yudan said (and, of course, what Tony said).

1) Try to stick to the more common readings.
2) Don't try to tackle too many readings at once (some characters have many common readings).
3) And when you learn the readings, do so through vocabulary words, not as readings in-and-of-themselves.

So, for example, I want to learn the kanji 外. I decide that two readings are really important for me to learn right now - ガイ (on reading) and そと (kun reading). When I make my flashcard it will look like this:

外
外国

the flip side will read:

そと - outside
がいこく - foreign country

This way, you've learned two of the most common readings for this character in context (and you will likely be able to guess its reading in words you don't know, as a consequence), as well as two very useful new words.

[Yudan Taiteki]

I would extend that using larger flash cards and possibly even write sentences or phrases, something like this:

Side 1:
外
外で遊ぶ
外国
外国で住んでいる友達

Side 2:
ャg
ャgで遊ぶ
ガイコク
ガイコクに住んでいる友達

(You can find example phrases in a good dictionary, or make one and check it with a native speaker)

This way you can go from the kana to the kanji, or try to remember the reading, but I think it's even better to have a concrete phrase. (I used katakana for the word because I've seen Japanese kanji study guides do that, and it visually sets the word you're studying off -- you could also just write it in hiragana and underline it or something like that, if you want.)

[KibaTheWolf]

So if I'm learning 一, I should know that it means the number 1, the On pronounciation is ichi, and the Kun pronounciation is hitotsu.

Right?

[Nibble]

Yes, there's no need to memorize other readings for 一, especially nanori like かず and はじめ. It's best to simply learn lots of vocabulary, and then learn the kanji that are used to write them, focusing on the relevant readings of those kanji. It's okay to look over the other readings so that you can try to guess at the reading of an unfamiliar compound, but don't waste too much time trying to memorize them before they're useful to you.

[KibaTheWolf]

So you're saying that it's better to build a vocabulary first, then the Kanji that go with the words you know, instead of learning the Kanji in order to build a vocabulary?

Because I've already learned the Hiragana, and should have the Katakana down in a week or two. After that, my intentions were to just start learning the JLPT 4 Kanji in order using the mailing list.

[Yudan Taiteki]

I do have to say, the disadvantage to that is that if you never go back and learn the other readings you can get into trouble. If you come across 統一 at some point and think that it's "touichi", you won't be able to find it in a dictionary and may just conclude that your dictionary doesn't contain the word. I've seen people do this...I really don't know what the solution is, though. I guess just make sure to review later.

[hungryhotei]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
(I used katakana for the word because I've seen Japanese kanji study guides do that, and it visually sets the word you're studying off -- you could also just write it in hiragana and underline it or something like that, if you want.)

I think that it might be worth writing the kun reading in hiragana (and maybe underlining or something) and the on reading in katakana. That might help you remember which is which earlier on, and that's probably going to help at some point in the future.

KibaTheWolf wrote:
So if I'm learning 一, I should know that it means the number 1, the On pronounciation is ichi, and the Kun pronounciation is hitotsu.

Right?

Remember, the kun reading is hito(tsu) so you would write 一つ on the front of that flashcard. There's no point leaving the okurigana off, since that's how you'll want to learn the word in the end.

You may also have missed the point about learning words and context. You don't just want to learn that on is ichi, but how it's used in words like 一杯 and 一番.

[AJBryant]

well, there are a large number of people that haven't been told the right way before.

Yeah, but the point is, how many times do you think that question has been asked in this forum?

I swear to God, everytime someone joins here it's like reinventing the freaking wheel. Does NO one bother to actually read the "READ BEFORE YOU POST" threads, and the FAQs, or even think of doing a bloody search to see how blasted often and how bleedin' regularly their question pops up already?


Tony (overcaffeinated at 9 am)