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Which is best method to learn kanji's pronounces?

#1
Hello everyone. As title suggests, I'd like to know which methods would be really nice to learn the pronounces of kanjis. I've already learned the jouyou kanjis -plus something extra- by meaning and writing with RTK. I felt really comfortable with it. It took really few time to complete first book and something of third one (40 days). I've also studied basic grammar with Tae Kim's guide. Since I can study all the day long, I think that I can find any good method to learn pronounces which is as comfortable as RTK was for learning kanjis writings and meanings.
I tried Kanji Odyssey but, to be honest, I don't feel comfortable with it... it looks too abstract, sentences are too long and I'd like to focus on both pronounce and vocab meanings (I mean, would it make sense if you know the pronounce of what you read but you can't understand the meaning?).
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For example: the pronounce for 先生 is so simple that I heard that 2903482390482390 times. If I take the separate pronounces they are せん for first kanji and せい for second one. Well, I already learned 2 pronounces in a simple and concrete way. If I studied them with KO, it surely would have took more time.
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I'm also trying with Core 10k, which I find better than KO, but I dunno what pace I can hold. I know it's totally subjective, but I established the RTK's pace (50 new kanjis per day) by comparing many people's comments or posts. I just know I have all the time to spend for this, nothing more. I also know that I'd like to take the JLPT N2 test on december of 2015, so I have 1y 3m of time. I'd like to begin this with a costant pace as soon as possible, but I'd want to use a sure method.
It would be nice if you could post some advices/tips with your experience to reinforce them.
Thank you in advance, and sorry for my bad english.
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#2
Study words, not separate kanji readings, these will come naturally as your vocabulary increases. Many kanji have multiple readings so knowing them separately won't necessarily make you able to guess which is the right one for many unknown words, learning the word itself will.
For instance, words that use different readings of the kanji for 先生:
生放送 (なまほうそう)
一生 (いっしょう)
誕生日 (たんじょうび)
生贄 (いけにえ)
お先(さき)に失礼します
Edited: 2014-09-17, 11:25 am
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#3
There is another thread going right now that covers your questions and then some. But basically the consensus is, as Odin89 said, study words, not separate kanji readings.
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#4
Thank you for the advices. I just have another question for people who used KO2001 or Core (or even both): how did you study with them? I mean, I'm trying to memorize pronounces for every word in every sentence, for example:
彼女[かのじょ]は 三[さん] 人[にん]の 子供[こども]の 母親[ははおや]だ。
In this case I try to memorize 彼女[かのじょ], 三[さん], 人[にん], 子供[こども] and 母親[ははおや] in once, just by repeating them at voice once and reviewing them later in the same way.

The main word in this case is 三. Should I just focus on its pronounce or all pronounces for every sentence like I'm already doing?
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#5
I always suggest starting out with a few hundred vocabulary cards before going to sentences. That way, you will already know most of the words in the sentences and will only be testing one or two words instead of a whole sentence full of unknown words.
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#6
I would suggest just focus on memorizing the single word (which should be bolded or something) - i.e. pass the card if you know the word + meaning. As you get through more cards, you will learn the other ones.
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#7
Someone had to say it: "Pronounces" doesn't work, you mean "pronunciations" Wink Moreover, in the context of Japanese, we usually refer to this as the "reading". Hahaha sorry ^^

I also recommend learning words rather then the readings of individual kanjis. You'll end up knowing them anyway and in the meantime, you'll learn actual Japanese words!
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