How was your experience remembering the sounds of words? In my case it is not difficult for me to learn the written vocabulary, but the sounds are difficult for me. Any type that you have or have served you?
It is normal to remember the meaning of words more easily than the reading. This OP from a few comments ago has the same problem. You can read through the comments to see if you find anything helpful: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/11q7rys/am_i_using_anki_wrong/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/11q7rys/am_i_using_anki_wrong/)
Just in case, do you practice with listening/speaking exercises? Exposure to spoken language is as important as for the written one. My advice, as a French teacher, keep exposing yourself to the language as much as you can, keep practicing, be patient with yourself and you’ll get there.
Something that can help with with kanjis is writing the pronunciation with the furigana above them.
I have the same difficulties. My approach is to use an SRS that starts with kanji with meanings but not readings. Then it gives me vocab once I know the kanji. So for example today one of my words is 招待. I know the general meanings of those two kanji, but not their individual readings. So to me remembering しょうたい is pretty hard. It’s just a bunch of sounds right now.
However three things have helped:
1. Trust the system. SRS is designed to make remembering things more optimized, and you may fail the item a few times but eventually it will stick. 2. Say it out loud. Read the example sentences. Use your mouth hole to make the sounds. Getting some more context helps trigger more memory. 3. Reading. When I see a word in “real life” it helps cement it more. I’ve read a few Peter Rabbit books so now I know にんじん and うさぎ and はたけ really well. Of course it’s a crapshoot if you’ll end up reading a word you’re also studying, but the more you read the more likely it is.
Edit:
Bonus number 4: Just getting better at learning. My first few weeks even doing ten cards a day was a nightmare. I failed simple kanji components repeatedly. My learning retention rate was like 50%. I’m about 10 weeks in now and can easily learn and remember 30 cards a day if I have the time, and learning rate is back up to 75%. I still have some difficulties but I’m much stronger than I started out, just from consistent practice.
The most common root cause of this problem is simply that you haven’t heard enough Japanese yet. You have to get the sound patterns into your head somehow.
Listening goes a really long way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if pronunciation practice helps too. If you can understand what you’re listening to that’s highly desirable, but I suspect that listening without understanding can even be helpful.
Not for building understanding, you need at least some clues for that, but as you become familiar with the sound patterns they become easier to remember and imitate.
I often confuse readings of less common words 0while reading light novels…And I just think the only way to get past this is just to every time you are not 100% sure if it’s the right reading, look up the word in the dictionary, even if you already know the meaning….but just to double check pronunciation…this is what I’ve been doing and I find that to really help
5 comments
It is normal to remember the meaning of words more easily than the reading. This OP from a few comments ago has the same problem. You can read through the comments to see if you find anything helpful: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/11q7rys/am_i_using_anki_wrong/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/11q7rys/am_i_using_anki_wrong/)
Just in case, do you practice with listening/speaking exercises?
Exposure to spoken language is as important as for the written one.
My advice, as a French teacher, keep exposing yourself to the language as much as you can, keep practicing, be patient with yourself and you’ll get there.
Something that can help with with kanjis is writing the pronunciation with the furigana above them.
I have the same difficulties. My approach is to use an SRS that starts with kanji with meanings but not readings. Then it gives me vocab once I know the kanji. So for example today one of my words is 招待. I know the general meanings of those two kanji, but not their individual readings. So to me remembering しょうたい is pretty hard. It’s just a bunch of sounds right now.
However three things have helped:
1. Trust the system. SRS is designed to make remembering things more optimized, and you may fail the item a few times but eventually it will stick.
2. Say it out loud. Read the example sentences. Use your mouth hole to make the sounds. Getting some more context helps trigger more memory.
3. Reading. When I see a word in “real life” it helps cement it more. I’ve read a few Peter Rabbit books so now I know にんじん and うさぎ and はたけ really well. Of course it’s a crapshoot if you’ll end up reading a word you’re also studying, but the more you read the more likely it is.
Edit:
Bonus number 4: Just getting better at learning. My first few weeks even doing ten cards a day was a nightmare. I failed simple kanji components repeatedly. My learning retention rate was like 50%. I’m about 10 weeks in now and can easily learn and remember 30 cards a day if I have the time, and learning rate is back up to 75%. I still have some difficulties but I’m much stronger than I started out, just from consistent practice.
The most common root cause of this problem is simply that you haven’t heard enough Japanese yet. You have to get the sound patterns into your head somehow.
Listening goes a really long way, and I wouldn’t be surprised if pronunciation practice helps too. If you can understand what you’re listening to that’s highly desirable, but I suspect that listening without understanding can even be helpful.
Not for building understanding, you need at least some clues for that, but as you become familiar with the sound patterns they become easier to remember and imitate.
I often confuse readings of less common words 0while reading light novels…And I just think the only way to get past this is just to every time you are not 100% sure if it’s the right reading, look up the word in the dictionary, even if you already know the meaning….but just to double check pronunciation…this is what I’ve been doing and I find that to really help