Every time I try to read kanji/hiragana my mind projects something else, not sure if bad habit or not

hey all, as per title I’m not sure if this is common but whenever I read a kanji (that I know of) or hiragana word, my mind only projects the romaji version of it. say for example 学生, my mind only projects the word gakusei, instead of がくせい. is this normal? or is this a bad habit that I must get rid of before advancing further? for context, I’ve only mastered hiragana and katakana and is now trying to learn new kanji words and vocab daily. just wonder if having such habit is bad for the long run? should I try to force my mind to project words in hiragana or katakana whenever I read a jap text?

also since i’m from singapore and knows chinese, we kind of have a slight advantage because most kanji has almost the same word/meaning, like 学生 it’s the exact same word and meaning in chinese which means student. like the first point, is it bad if my mind first projects the word xue sheng (in chinese) and then only try to process it as がくせい next? should I train myself (I dont even know if it’s possible) to solely identify these kanji letters as stand-alone japanese text and disassociate my chinese knowledge of said word?
it’s really handy because words like 医師, 研究者, 人 has identical meaning with chinese but of course there are times when words like 大丈夫 doesnt make sense because it means Responsible Man instead of “are you okay” lol.

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so yeah sorry if im long winded but im just wondering if what im experiencing is normal, and is it a bad habit that I should try to get rid of before getting in too deep and if it’s something that I should try to fix asap right now.

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thaank you!

2 comments
  1. When you are studying kanji, write out the hiragana to it in order to associate them more heavily with the kanji. Try saying it out loud in Japanese every time you see it. “I know this kanji (学生), it’s がくせい. Which means student.” Or if you’re more advanced you can make an explanation of what the character is in Japanese instead.

    When you see a kanji don’t say “This is student.” Because it skips the pronunciation completely.

  2. You see romaji text while reading Japanese? Well, I guess that is rather unusual, most people hear words rather than seeing letters while reading. 🙂 But if your mind works that way, it’s fine.

    Knowing the Japanese pronunciation and meaning of words is all you really need, knowing how to write that pronunciation as kana is secondary.

    Lots of people also have the problem of not remembering how to read kanji words and just substituting the native language word they learned while studying. Reading それは三千円です as “sore wa three thousand yen desu”, and that is usually considered a bad habit. So I would try to avoid falling into that trap.

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