Hey guys, I’m really excited with my japanese studies, I’m 2/3 of the first Minna No Nihongo and Basic Kanji Book.
The thing is, I’m having a hard time with the kanjis multiple readings. I’m learning the ‘main’ kun yomi reading that the book shows me.
How did you learn every reading of each kanji you study?
2 comments
Just learn words that contain those readings. It makes it easier than learning in a vaccuum
don’t. don’t memorize readings, it’s a waste of time for most, and it is never directly useful. one never “reads a kanji” in japanese, at any point. one reads words.
learn vocab – in proper sentence context. as one is learning them, learn their proper kanji spelling, and read them in context-appropriate sentences. that’s it.
“the group’s ***lead*** fisherman put a ***lead*** weight on their line”
how do you know which “lead” meant what, and is pronounced how? context. the letters alone won’t help.
there are patterns, and they’ll eventually become clearer over time, but for most, just shoving kunyomi and onyomi down your brain hole will be a leaky and unrewarding waste of time.
now, if properly distinguishing and recognizing kanji from each other is the issue, then there are ways to help with that. the most important is probably to learn the kanji radicals and parts. one *cannot* skip memorizing by learning the pieces, but you can learn to turn each kanji into a narrative.
for an example. 人 means man. but the イ piece you see on the left of a bunch of kanji is actually a squished 人 symbol, i.e. 付 仕 伝 体. take the last one for example, 体 is composed of person 人 and book/source/basis 本. the character 体 is からだ, or “body”. you can imagine how you could come up with a narrative in your head like “the source of a person is their body”.
or that the 扌on the left is a modified 手＝て＝hand character and thus 侍 持 待 are different characters. they all have 寺＝じ＝temple in them, but the part on the left differs. many many kanji are going to look similar but with one “piece” swapped out.
one good book that helps with this is [https://smile.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/](https://smile.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/)
if you insist on learning every possible pronunciation of a character every time you run into a new character, then find real words for each pronunciation and memorize those. like 人＝ひと 人口＝じんこう 二人＝ふたり 人気＝にんき etc. use those in sentences and learn them like any normal vocab. then you have most possible pronunciation patterns involving 人 down.