So, I've heard many people say to not do RTK 2. How exactly do I learn the On/Kun-Yomi readings if I don't live in Japan?

SMSing will only get me so far (By the way SMSing is like Anki right)?
So any books/recommended DS games etc would be nice.

Thanks!

Bump (Sorry I need a reply to this)

O_O

Wow... I'll let someone less sleepy than me jump in here or provide a link, but might I suggest doing some searching of the forum first. Or better yet check out the "Users study methods" thread in the recent topics at the moment.

Good night (and good luck!)

*off to bed*

EDIT: ps. it's SRS by the way (Spaced Repetition System).

pps. have you finished RTK1?

Im finshing RTK 1 but I like to have a plan so Im not left hanging. I already use Anki, so exactly what book/programs/DS games should I use to learn how to Read kanji?
Again I only know the kanji and the basic meaning, as thought in RTK 1

Thanks again.

(1) Use the phonetic parts of kanji as hints to the on reading. For けん, you have 険、験、剣、倹 -- no need to learn them all separately if you can see the connection between them.

(2) Rather than trying to learn every on and kun reading at once, try learning words. Try learning words in the context of sentences. 下（した）is a useful word; but you could drive yourself crazy trying to remember, all at the same time, カ、ゲ、した、しも、もと、さげる／さがる、くだる、くだす、くださる、おろす、おりる. Yes, they're all readings for 下；yes, I chose a hard example on purpose. This is just my opinion, but I think it's better to learn the on and kun readings naturally as they come up in the course of your studying.

(For all those kanji that have multiple on readings, especially, it's not going to be that useful to you to know the on readings until you have enough vocabulary to use them; knowing that 下 is read カ and ゲ　doesn't much help you figure out how to read 下線、上下、下駄、下級...)

Roynsky Wrote:Im finshing RTK 1 but I like to have a plan so Im not left hanging. I already use Anki, so exactly what book/programs/DS games should I use to learn how to Read kanji?
Again I only know the kanji and the basic meaning, as thought in RTK 1

Thanks again.

We already have like 3423563242 threads about that question of yours. You think we can bother you to use that little button with "Search" on it?
Also bumping your own thread after 19 minutes? We don't have that kind of thread rotation

Start putting the kanji to use: Learn some grammar concepts via stuff like Tae Kim, follow that up with some vocabulary via the various lists floating around here. Follow-up with subs2srs of a simple JDrama.

Systematic On-yomi learning can be put on hold till later. There's a number of ways to do it: Key primitives ala RTK2 or Kanji Town methods ala Memory Palace (variant is Movie Method). Then there's just brute force method using normal flashcards.

I've never really understand what the difference is between the two readings, can anybody give me a quick explanation? At the risk of sounding lazy because I could probably google this.

Also, my recommendation for the OP is to just keep forcing exposure to kanji. Make sure everything you're studying has kanji, and that the answer has furigana (if need be). Just get familiar with it. I am still a beginner, but I think forcing myself to study with sentences full of kanji is helping.

I think SRS has the ability to get you as far as you're willing to let it. As long as you keep adding in stuff you don't know. It's entirely up to you, not the program itself, to adjust and fill in the gaps.

I finished RTK3 two weeks ago, but I skipped RTK2. I'm doing the Anki deck of KO2001 and it's great for learning a bit of grammar, a bit of vocabulary, and a bit of pronunciation at the same time.

Maybe I'll read RTK2, but only after the end of KO2001. For the moment, learning pronunciations without context would be too boring for me.

I shun furiganas, I read, I try to recognize, it's fun the Anki-way!

Quote:I've never really understand what the difference is between the two readings

I still suck at kanjis but here's what I understood:

There is no difference! It's just a way for dictionary writers to sell us more dictionaries. No, seriously, I haven't found the difference between ON and KUN other than: ON is used "a lot" in nouns in compounds, and KUN is used "a lot" where kanjis are left alone. But there are so many exceptions that you should learn those pronunciations without distinctions (but that's just my opinion).

It's really quite simple. on'yomi are the chinese-based pronunciations and are used in the sino-japanese stratum of the Japanese lexicon. The kun'yomi are the Japanese pronunciations, used in the yamato stratum of the Japanese lexicon.

This means that any Chinese loanword will use on'yomi while any japanese native word will use kun'yomi. However, a word doesn't have to be an actual word from Chinese to be classified as a sino-japanese word, there are sino-japanese words which are actually native to Japanese. These are still considered part of the sino-japanese stratum though. Of course, there are also many exceptions.

To simplify it, if a word is made up of several kanji without any kana, it's almost always uses on'yomi. If it's a single kanji with or without kana, it usually uses kun'yomi.

Examples:
Onyomi:
最後
現在
大学生

Kunyomi:
話す
問い
体

Exceptions:
物語 - native japanese word, read with kun'yomi.
手帳 - mixed word, 手 is kun'yomi, 帳 is on'yomi. (This type of combination is called 湯桶読み)
音読み - mixed word, 音 is on'yomi, 読み is kun'yomi. (This type of combination is called 重箱読み)
節 - Read using on'yomi even if it stands by itself as a noun.

thurd Wrote:

Roynsky Wrote:Im finshing RTK 1 but I like to have a plan so Im not left hanging. I already use Anki, so exactly what book/programs/DS games should I use to learn how to Read kanji?
Again I only know the kanji and the basic meaning, as thought in RTK 1

Thanks again.

We already have like 3423563242 threads about that question of yours. You think we can bother you to use that little button with "Search" on it?
Also bumping your own thread after 19 minutes? We don't have that kind of thread rotation

I don't wanna start a trolling thread here but go ahead and type: "After RTK 1" or any variation of that. A bunch of random stuff pops up. My thing is, if I can't find in with the 2nd time I use search then I start my own Thread.

Roynsky Wrote:

thurd Wrote:

Roynsky Wrote:Im finshing RTK 1 but I like to have a plan so Im not left hanging. I already use Anki, so exactly what book/programs/DS games should I use to learn how to Read kanji?
Again I only know the kanji and the basic meaning, as thought in RTK 1

Thanks again.

We already have like 3423563242 threads about that question of yours. You think we can bother you to use that little button with "Search" on it?
Also bumping your own thread after 19 minutes? We don't have that kind of thread rotation

I don't wanna start a trolling thread here but go ahead and type: "After RTK 1" or any variation of that. A bunch of random stuff pops up. My thing is, if I can't find in with the 2nd time I use search then I start my own Thread.

If you search for "after rtk" in just topic subjects, you find "Where to go after RTK?" and "Finished RTK: The Aftermath, what now?" on the first page though.

Roynsky Wrote:SMSing will only get me so far (By the way SMSing is like Anki right)?
Thanks!

たぶん、日本人の彼女にSMSした場合の返事を読めるようになる為に勉強したいと思いますが、SRSを使いたい方へANKIというソフトをダウンロードし、インストールして下さい。日本語が超上手になるまで、是非ANKIを使い倒して下さい。

/troll

みんな、文法はどう？