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Learning to read Japanese is probably the most challenging aspect of studying the Japanese language. Most students find it far too confusing and time consuming to learn to read and give up. After spending a few months learning Hiragana and Katakana the prospect of learning a few thousand Kanji becomes too overwhelming.
However, learning to read Japanese doesn’t have to be a painful and confusing experience. A product called Read Japanese Fast has helped hundred of students become proficient readers of Japanese.
Most students make the mistake of learning to read Japanese in parts. First, students learn Hiragana, then Katanana. After this they learn a large number of grammar rules. Then comes learning hundreds of Kanji. Doing all of this would take several months of considerable study time with little results. Read Japanese Fast teaches students how to read Kanji in context in 30 days.
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.
How is your Kanji coming along? If you are at a stage where you are studying Kanji then it should come as no surprise that the bulk of Japanese script is not actually Japanese, but Chinese in origin. Originally, Japanese was a spoken language without written form. It was only after contact with the Chinese was established, that the Japanese were exposed to the concept of written record. Eventually this lead to the borrowing of the Chinese writing system for recording spoken Japanese.
Onyomi and Kunyomi Kanji Readings
Because Japanese was originally a spoken language and very different from Chinese, modern Japanese is a hybrid of classical Japanese and classical Chinese pronunciations expressed in Japanese phonemes. This is reflected in the names of the kanji readings: readings that come from classical spoken Japanese are called kunyomi, and readings that come from classical Chinese are called onyomi.
Take a look at this short lesson to see both Onyomi and Kunyomi
A problem with these readings is that it is not always clear when to use which reading. There are no rules that state that a kanji is read in a particular way when used on its own, or when part of a word. The only real way to make sure you are using the right reading for a kanji when encountered in a context that you had not seen it in before, is to look it up – while sometimes one can guess whether a kunyomi or onyomi is used, it is typically impossible to be certain.
This is a frustrating aspect of learning Kanji. Looking up kanji can be very time consuming and will tempt you to give up reading Japanese altogether. The best way to learn Kanji and vocabulary is in context. Depending on each Kanji, in most cases you will find one “dominate” reading that will appear in compounds (combined Kanji words) a large percentage of the time. More often than not you only need to know one reading for some kanji. This is while trying to memorize several readings for hundreds of Kanji in no context is pointless and time wasting. If you are going to learn Kanji, then try to learn Kanji by reading it in context. We have a product that has helped hundreds of students to do just the: Read Kanji in context.
