Studying Kanji.. and Hiragana?

Index » RtK Volume 1

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Reply #1 - 2011 February 10, 3:05 pm
dcchoi1234 New member
From: Boston Registered: 2011-02-09 Posts: 2

Hi, I'm a new user in RtK here. I was just wondering, studying the kanji is going fine so far, (I am around 40 right now) but I wish to pronounce it as well. Is there any way to look up the pronunciation of the kanji character in hiragana?

Reply #2 - 2011 February 10, 3:11 pm
NoSleepTilFluent Member
From: The Dirty Jerz Registered: 2011-02-07 Posts: 358 Website

There's a lot of different ways you can do that.

If you can read Hiragana and Katakana already you can use websites like http://www.furiganizer.com/

Otherwise websites like http://www.romaji.org/ might work but idk how accurate it is.

also rikaichan is a plugin for Firefox that lets you read Kanji on the internet so if you copy paste the kanji into google or something you can then scroll over it and get the reading as well as meaning.

I wouldn't even really bother with learning how to say them until after you know all the Kanji meanings though. I only use the Kanji when I come across a word that uses the Kanji during my classes. I don't search for the readings.

Reply #3 - 2011 February 10, 3:12 pm
Asriel Member
From: 東京 Registered: 2008-02-26 Posts: 1343

Sure you can, but it wouldn't be very helpful. Each kanji has 1 to a whole boatload of readings, and knowing which reading to choose in a given word can be tricky.

I'd suggest you just learn the kanji as kanji, and then learn some words they make, and associate the kanji with the word. The reading is included in the word, so the more you become comfortable with more words, the more you become comfortable with the readings of the kanji.

But, if you really want to know the readings for the kanji, just use rikaichan and mouseover the kanji. Hit enter if you're in a word to get to the kanji page. Onyomi is in カタカナ and kunyomi is in ひらがな, iirc.

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Reply #4 - 2011 February 10, 3:12 pm
nest0r Member
Registered: 2007-10-19 Posts: 5236 Website

It might be best to just wait to learn the sounds (readings: onyomi/kunyomi) of the kanji when you learn words, but if you want to look through anyway, a quick way to check might be to use Rikaichan: in the lookup bar, at least (in Firefox, Tools-->Rikaichan Lookup Bar), if you just paste in the kanji or a word containing it, it'll show the readings.

And if the kanji in question can't be copy/pasted, you can always use cb4960's capture2text tool which'd allow you to just hit a hotkey, drag the mouse over the kanji, hit the same hotkey, and then paste the kanji into Rikaichan's lookup bar, but that's a bit of a tangent.

Edit: Asriel, I didn't realize you could do that from the mouseover. I mean, I totally knew that.

Last edited by nest0r (2011 February 10, 3:15 pm)

Reply #5 - 2011 February 10, 3:17 pm
dcchoi1234 New member
From: Boston Registered: 2011-02-09 Posts: 2

Ah, thank you for the quick reply, I've actually done a few years of japanese in high school, so I'm rather comfortable with hiragana and katakana. I wasn't introduced to that much Kanji so I'm a bit shaky on that matter. Anyways, learning how to pronounce a few vocab words on my way to learning the kanji can't hurt I hope

Reply #6 - 2011 February 11, 2:07 pm
TwoMoreCharacters Member
From: Sweden Registered: 2010-07-10 Posts: 480

I use a freeware program called WaKan together with RTK. You can set it up so that it displays the kanji facts (just like RikaiChan), the compounds for a given kanji (so that you can see what readings are the most prominent), and it's compatible with the Heisig keywords and the frame number index (so that you can easily look up the kanji as you go).

Then it also has the edict dictionary and a vocabulary list, which I find to be pretty useful.

Reply #7 - 2011 February 11, 3:59 pm
NoSleepTilFluent Member
From: The Dirty Jerz Registered: 2011-02-07 Posts: 358 Website

Yeah the lookup bar of rikaichan would be best actually. I forget about it sometimes even though I sometimes use it to make sure Kanji are correct. Multiple Kanji have the same reading.

I'm taking Japanese at Univeristy right now but i still don't bother with readings. It takes me about 110 seconds to learn each Kanji, inlcuding reading stories, writing it down, and reviews ( re looking up stories I forgot ). I don't want to add on to that number too much just yet.

I have started using some of the Kanji in class though as words that use them come up. IMO it solidifies the vocab much more. But again only as I come across it.

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