I’m self studying with the 2k 6k optimized deck. For example when I see 百, I know it means 100 but it takes \~10 seconds for my brain to remember that it’s read as ひゃく.
For context, studying for around 2 weeks mostly with anki and duo (just for fun though on buses). I hate studying from textbooks so my plan is to start immersing once I know \~1000 words and learn grammar that way.
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You are simply looking for an excuse not to study something, are you not?
This is generally the order Kanji learning goes in.
Radicals → mnemonic stories → kanji meaning → words.
So at this stage, no. Don’t worry about the readings. Especially if you’re just learning individual kanji, because onyomi and kunyomi is too much on top of everything else to remember.
Eventually you’ll reach a stage where you either already know the word you’re learning the kanji to:
Chair = isu = 椅子
Or you’ll learn the word at the same time as the meaning.
現代 = Gendai = modern era
And before you know it you’ll know several readings to different kanji and won’t even realize it.
For me, an example of that is 子 【ko】Child.
A few months ago if you had asked me the different readings for 子 I’d only be able to give you “ko”, and yet at the same time I could also read:
帽子 【boushi】hat
椅子 【isu】 chair
Without any issue.
Or the aforementioned 現代 【gendai】modern era, I was like “…. wait…. isn’t that also 現れる 【arawareru】appear?”
it’ll eventually start clicking together. You’ll get there. Just focus on meaning right now.
If your goal is just to be able to read printed materials, then yeah, knowing how to map the characters to their meaning (either individually or part of a larger word/phrase) is good enough. I constantly forget how a word sounds even though I can recognize it in a body of text with no issues.
When it comes to learning the readings, there’s the “learn them all to use as building blocks” camp and the “learn to read words as a unit, not as individual characters” camp. It’s up to you to pick which one best suits your needs and learning style.
neither. you don’t read kanji, you read words. you only know how to pronounce a word based on memorizing it when you learn it.
yes there are patterns, much like there are finite ways of pronouncing “e” in english words. and those patterns can help memorizing in the future, but are insufficient for being able to read for the same reason that memorizing all the potential pronunciations of “e” in english also won’t work.
tl;dr – learn vocab, and kanji and pronunciation of each as you go. you can rote memorize readings and vague meanings if you think it’ll help with vocab, but it’s useless on it’s own.
Try this app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/learn-japanese-kanji/id1078107994
It’s awesome: Meanings, readings (with audio) and stroke order all on your phone. Intuitive repetition (knows which ones you’re struggling with and reviews them often) I’ve memorized over 80 Kanjj and vocabulary using this app in less than 2 weeks. That includes character recognition (meaning) correct stroke order, and readings with proper pronunciation.
Two things. Without getting into it too deep, the simple answer is yes. You will need to know how they’re read, but for where you are right now, just keep grinding away at the 2k deck and don’t worry about it too much. It will become much easier once you start to read.
I also encourage you to at look into grammar sooner than later. I hate to say anything definitively because people learn in different ways and there’s always exceptions, but I really think you’re going to be in for a rude awakening if you think you can just learn 1000 words and then begin immersing without any grammar knowledge. There’s a good chance that avoiding it now is going to hurt you in the long run.
As for textbooks, speaking from my personal experience, I thought that I hated textbooks and would never be able to learn from something like Genki, but I realized when I actually gave it a fair try that I just hated the pace that textbooks were used when I was in school. After I got into it, my reading ability greatly accelerated, and I think that’s the experience of a lot of people here. There’s also plenty of video resources on youtube, I personally found great success with Tokini Andy and Japanese Ammo with Misa. Point being, I know it seems like a lot and there’s all these strange new things you’re having to learn and remember, but having some ability to read Japanese text is going to be the foundation that you build the rest of your skills on. Don’t fear the grammar.
I mean… if your goal is just to learn kanji, then sure you don’t need to know how to read it. But then you aren’t even learning Japanese – you are just learning Chinese characters!!
But if your goal is to learn Japanese then… learn japanese. Make ひゃく in your head as fluent as 100 is in English to you right now. Listen to people speak, go read, try to speak!
In the perfect reality you would want to use Japanese in the end to get even deeper into the language WHILE using Japanese itself.
Japanese and English are very different languages – not everything in Japanese translates perfectly to English (for example 万 )
I agree that learning Kanji (Chinese characters) and learning how to read Japanese are two vastly different things. Again, with the Learn Japanese Kanji app that I mentioned above, you will learn everything you need to know in order to start reading and comprehending written Japanese from the get go…with the added benefit of simultaneously learning vocabulary and it’s pronunciation. The stroke order probably isn’t all that essential these days, but I find that it really helps me remember the characters. Also, the stroke order becomes pretty consistent, so eventually you’ll just know exactly how to write new characters without being shown.
If you cant read kanji you wont be able to read anything more than simple sentences..kanji is integral to modern Japanese…you could add iKanji to your list of apps and learn kanji that way…just using it when you have time sometime for a few minutes a day can go a long way….but yea…if you cant read kanji you will be lost in written Japanese.
If you learn the meaning of these kanji:
寿司
You can look at this word and understand that it says, Lifespan, and Director.
If you actually know how to read them, you can put the On readings together and then you will realise that it says **sushi**.
If you want to be able to read Japanese, you need to know how to read the characters. If you just want to know which toilet door is for men and which is for women, which is exit and enter, whether the door says push or pull, which flush on the toilet is small or big, then the meaning work. But you won’t be able to actually read.