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Kanji Reading Question - Lixoo - 2014-06-11
I'm sure this has been asked before, but I just can't seem to word myself correctly when searching/googling, and I don't get any good answers...
I'm about 50 kanji into RTK 1 and I've been learning the kun-readings from anki flashcards for these... But I feel like I'm wasting my time, possibly. Anyway...
Are INDIVIDUAL KANJI actually used as words? What readings do they use then?
I just feel like, if I don't learn the reading of the individual kanji, I will encounter some time where they use the individual kanji's reading as a word and I won't be able to understand what they are talking about. (Talking about listening comprehension here, of course)
Thanks!
Kanji Reading Question - yudantaiteki - 2014-06-11
First off, don't forget that when people are speaking, they're just speaking Japanese and using Japanese words. They're not using speaking in kanji readings. Studying readings of kanji is only vaguely related to listening comprehension.
Some kanji are used individually to represent words. Most of these are native Japanese words and thus the kanji is read with the kun-yomi, but there are some Sino-Japanese words that are formed from a single morpheme (or that plus "suru" to make a verb).
You often see the advice "learn words, not readings" -- there's a lot of validity to that approach. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "learning the kun-readings," but quite a number of kanji have no common kun-reading, so make sure you're going by some reliable list of readings that just doesn't list every possible reading for every character regardless of the rarity.
Kanji Reading Question - mc962 - 2014-06-11
Some recommend not to do this, personally I find it helpful when I find words that use just that kanji as sometimes the Japanese is stronger for me. There will be a fair bunch where finding meanings that use just that kanji will be tricky.
I actually use some of the readings as my mnemonics as they work better sometimes.
Off the top of my head (水＝みず、日＝ひ、all the basic numbers, 木＝き、犬＝いぬ, etc.) Individual Kanji are definitely used as words, really important words as you can see above. But there are also a ton that are used in compounds with other kanji to make words. Eventually you will obviously need to learn the readings, but you probably won't be able to list the first 10 readings off the top of your head to all the kanji you know. You want to learn the readings you have use for, which you will probably discover by reading and finding stuff you don't know (along with some of the most basic readings poured onto you by textbooks, such as the kanji I mentioned above).
Kanji Reading Question - Linval - 2014-06-11
Some kanjis are individually used as words yes.
If you really want to learn some readings while doing RTK, then do so with example sentences / words. It might be hard to make isolated readings stick, especially when you're not sure which one is actually the most common.
However be aware that RTK's goal is not teach you how to read, much less improve your listening comprehension. If you want to improve that, well, listen to stuff =).
I'd advise dropping learning the readings altogether while doing RTK. You'll have plenty of time to learn those in further studies, and having been through RTK makes it very easy to learn vocabulary afterwards.