i recently started learning more kanji and thought i would give try learning some through genki but something that has confused me heavily is the different readings, the way they are displayed on the website i can not tell which is which -something that i dont know if necessary (to learn which is which outside the different pronounciations).
thank you for your time
2 comments
kanji aren’t words, they don’t have meaning outside words, and are not pronounced separately from words. when you learn a new word, you learn it’s definition, it’s spelling (which might include kanji), and it’s pronunciation (which may or may not follow a nice pattern given the kanji involved)
there are patterns, each kanji overlaps with only so many finite pronunciations, but one cannot simply memorize all the possible pronunciations and then somehow know when and where to use those, it just doesn’t work that way. just like in english you can’t just memorize all the pronunciations of “e” and then expect to read properly, either pronunciation or meaning
you’re welcome to rote-memorize kanji if you really want to, and to the degree that helps with remembering words and spellings, do as you please. but it’s always in service and secondary to vocabulary, only vocabulary has meaning and pronunciation in reading
On that site, the readings printed in katakana are on’yomi, and the readings printed in hiragana are kun’yomi.
I agree with the other commenters that it’s not necessary or useful to memorize on’yomi and kun’yomi for every individual kanji. As you get used to the concept of *on* and *kun*, you will naturally come to know the commonly used readings and be able to tell which is which.