Most students of Japanese go about learning to read Japanese the wrong way. In fact most teachers go about teaching Japanese the wrong way. It is harsh comment, but an unfortunate reality. It is the reason why most students never reach a level where they can read real Japanese.
Most students are taught to read Hiragana, Katakana and then memorize Kanji in order to read Japanese. This is obviously a logical learning pattern or method. However, too much emphasis is placed on learning individual kanji characters and all their readings. Once a student has reached a basic level, where they can read hiragana and katakana, they should start trying to read kanji in context. The problem is students try to learn and memorize hundreds of kanji in no context at all.
Learning To Read Kanji
Memorizing hundreds of kanji readings will not help you read Japanese. More emphasis should be place on actually reading kanji in context and on “kanji vocabulary”. I struggled for years in order to reach a level where I could read real Japanese. I spent hours and hours on trying to memorize hundreds of kanji and lots of grammar points. When I went to practice to read I couldn’t. It was like having all the right ingredients, but not knowing how to use them. This is the problem you are probably facing right now with your Japanese - you know hiragana, katakana, a few hundred kanji, basic grammar, but you can’t read.
Learn How To Read Japanese
My wife and I have developed a learning method to help people learn to read Japanese quickly – in 30 days in fact. We coach students to read with screen capture video tutorials. We teach the basics, hiragana and katakana, but we mainly focus on reading kanji in context. We go through twenty reading pieces word by word, phrases by phrase explaining everything. We also take into consideration learner needs and the ambiguity of Japanese.
Culture plays an important part of Japanese, too. Most teachers of Japanese forget this. We discuss culture, social customs and the Japanese mind-set in our video tutorials. These factors play an important part in learning, speaking and reading Japanese. We also give concise easy to understand grammar explanations as well.
If your goal is to learn how to read Japanese then I urge you to give our product a go. We can have you reading Japanese in 30 days. I know that sounds like a bunch of sushi. Ten years ago, when I first started learning Japanese I wouldn’t have believe it myself. We have tested our method and upgraded our product over several years. If you have a basic understanding of Japanese and are frustrated with your slow progress consider ”Read Japanese Fast”. Our product comes with an 8 week guarantee so you have plenty of time to try our product without risk.
Here is a link for more information. You can sign up to our newsletter and receive some sample videos.
Here is a sample from our learning package Read JapaneseFast. When learning to read Japanese students often make the mistake of focusing too much on memorizing kanji symbols. Students focus on learning the readings of several hundred kanji without really practicing reading. The best way to learn how to read Japanese is to read kanji in context. Also, more often than not learning compound kanji words is more effective than single kanji characters.
The Read Japanese FastMethod
1. Go to the vocabulary section and read the words.
2. Play the audio and follow the text (email) as Kaoru Sensei reads. Do this several times.
3. Try reading the email by yourself
4. Refer back to the vocabulary to check words you don’t understand
5. Read the text yourself aloud.
Reading Practice Vocabulary -読み練習の単語を覚えましょう
No. Kanji Reading Meaning
1 - 元気 - げんき - Well
2 - 私 - わたし - I
3 - 今 - いま - Now
4 - 人 - ひと - People
5 - 日本 - にほん - Japan
6 - 今日 - きょう - Today
7 - 十二時 - じゅうにじ - 12 o’clock
8 - 四十三 - よんじゅうさん - Fourty three
9 - 来月 - らいげつ - Next month
10 - 七日 - なのか – 7th
11 土曜日 - どようび - Saturday
Reading Practice – emails From New York 1
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
おにいちゃんへ
元気ですか。 私は今インターネットカフェにいます。おいしいコーヒーをのんでいます。
ニュウヨークはすごいまちですよ。人がおおくて、とてもにぎやかです。日本とぜんぜんちがいます。
今日は、まちのバスツアーをします。 たのしみですけど、ちょっとたかいです。
四十三ドルもする。そのあとは、ともだちのアパートにいきます。来月の七日までとまります。
土曜日にうちにでんわをしますね。 みんなによろしくね。
Note: にぎやか -Lively, bustling
The Kanji learning Package comes with video tutorials that coach you how to kanji in context.
Grammar explainantions are also provided for each lesson. To learn more visit Read Japanese Fast
Looking for Japanese Kanji lessons?
Want to learn how to read Japanese kanji in context?
In this sample Kanji lesson you’ll learn how to read Japanese. If you really want to start reading Kanji check out “Read Japanese Fast ” – it will have you reading Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji in 30 days. It focuses on reading rather than memorizing Kanji. Trying to memorize lots of Kanji adds up to whole lot of wasted time if you can’t read. You don’t need to know all the readings of each Kanji. You just want to start reading as soon as possible.
Read Japanese Fast Kanji Lessons
For more Japanese Kanji Lessons visit Read Japanese Fast
Kanji…to learn it or not to learn it – that is your question. Learning to read Kanji at a level equivalent to a native Japanese speaker does take a considerable amount of effort, commitment and most of all time. If you are wanting to read a Japanese newspaper or get to level where you can enter a Japanese university, then you are on very long road to Kanji proficiency.
Being able to read Japanese has numerous benefits and I certainly recommend learning Kanji if you desire to speak Japanese. I often tell new students of Japanese to think about learning Kanji in terms of a very beneficial learning process rather than just a means to be able to read Japanese.
Here is a sample audio lesson from our Kanji Supremacy Package.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you would like to learn how to read the above passage and actually understand it please take a look at our product Kanji Supremacy. The product has lots of lessons, video tutorials, audio files, several ebooks and lots of bonuses.
Having a Hiragana chart over your study desk will help you master the Hiragana syllabary. As Japanese has three scripts – kanji, hiragana and katakana, you need all the help you can get when you start to learn how to read and write Japanese. However, there are a few flaws with the common Hiragana chart which I will explain in this post.
First, lets talk about the three Japanese scripts a bit more. Kanji is used for semantics, while hiragana and katakana are sound scripts. Hiragana is used to indicate verb inflections, particles and simple words for which kanji are not required, or suitable. Katakana for loan words.
When learning to read Japanese you should start with Hiragana. I have read arguments that Katakana is better to learn first for non-native speaker. The idea being learners can relate to Katakana easily as it deals with foreign words. While this might be true, it won’t help you with your general understanding of Japanese. Unlike Hiragana, Katakana isn’t used for verb inflections, particles and other grammatical elements. Nor is it used with Kanji. Katakana is the script you should learn last as it won’t introduce you to any fundamentals of Japanese.
So Hiragana and Katakana are two writing systems both denoting the same thing – a set of 46 individual syllables that can be arranged in a table called the gojuuon, meaning “the 50 sounds” after the classical table that contained 50 sounds. These writing systems are represented to learners with romanized charts. The problem with the common romanized Hiragana chart is it can inadvertently teaches sounds, such as “tu” or “si”, which in fact do not exist. In particular, ra, ri, ru ,re ,ro sounds are not actually r sounds and really shouldn’t be learnt as such. In reality, these sounds have a consonant that can be pronounced anywhere from a soft “r”, to a normal “l” to a mix form of r/l/d.
So it is import to remember that a rominalized Hiragana chart is to help you identify characters, rather than teach you sounds. How do you learn the sounds? With our video lessons.
If you would like a series of 15 video lessons to teach you the sounds of the the Hiragana syllabary as well as some Hiragana charts and flash cards then sign up below. Also a set of flash cards would come in handy too. We are got them for you. Just sign up below to get your hands on the Hiragana chart and flash cards.
