I'm trying to learn kanji by myself, but I'm confused. Some books only teach the meaning of the kanji by it self and in compounds. While others teach the kun'yomi and on"yomi readings. Which of the two is the best way? Should I learn the on/kun even though I won't know how to use the readings in compounds yet? Should I memorize every kun/on? some kanji have more than 5 readings.
Japan - 2 Answers
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1 :
It takes 9 years for Japanese schools to teach all 2,000 kanjis used in everyday life in Japan to their kids. So you have a long way to go. Usually, in Japanese class, we read stories in textbooks, using some kanjis we have not learned. Then teachers tell us how to read and write each kanji we have just learned. We are told to write every kanji more than 10 times to memorize it. So after all, you have to memorize every kun/on reading, either alone or in context. >Which of the two is the best way? I don't think you have to choose one. I mean, there are 2 kinds of dictionaries in Japan. One is like the former (telling he meaning of the kanji by it self and in compounds.), the other is like the latter (others teach the kun'yomi and on"yomi readings.). We use both of them to learn kanji. Like us, you should use both. Good luck!
2 :
Don't worry too much about how they learn them in Japan; learning a second language is different from first-language acquisition. Japanese kids can already speak at kid-level fluency before they enter school. They're learning kanji for words they already know. Learning just the meaning (as a first step) is a good strategy that a lot of people use. Learning words and their kanji together is another way some people try. I would just say, don't try to memorize readings that you can't connect with words. A lot of the "possible" readings of a given kanji are either rare or unique to a single word. If you already know some vocabulary, you'll notice these exceptional cases & remember them easily. If you just memorize lists of readings, they'll get jumbled together in your head & it will slow everything down. Just my opinion
