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Kanji Reading 2007/11/22 04:37
Can someone give me a brief explanation on how to read Kanji please?
Not what symbols mean what. That would take forever ^_^
I mean like how to pronounces them when reading them.
by Chi  

Uh Oh . . . 2007/11/22 10:18
Kanji are not drawn in a way that tells you how to pronounce them. Each kanji character has its own meaning and its own pronunciation. Nearly all kanji have more than one way to say it, too.

The only way to learn how to pronounce them is to learn them individually.
by Dave G. rate this post as useful

kanji 2007/11/22 16:43
Some kanji have hints to the pronunciation in parts of the kanjo, but you need to know quite a lot of kanji already for this to work, and most do not have these hints in them anyway.

The main technique is: spend years memorising them. That is what Japanese people have to do is well. We would all be very happy if there was some trick or easy rule to knowing how to pronounce them!
by Sira rate this post as useful

Thank you 2007/11/23 03:01
Thank you for your help. I have another question though.

Once I've learned all the pronunciations, how do I pronounce them with eachother? Like Nihon.

In a book I have, the kanji 日 has many different pronunciations.
Nichi
Jitsu
Hi
Ka
Then 本 has the procunciation Hon
When two kanji are together, do I just pronounce each kanji as if they were alone? Do they change their pronunciation with another kanji? And if they do, how will I know which pronunciation to use?
by Chi rate this post as useful

reading 2007/11/26 12:36
That's also part of memorizing kanji. Often it's the kun (Japanese) reading when a word has a single kanji and the on (Chinese reading) when there are two or more kanji, but you just have to learn the words with their kanji, like 日本 as nihon/nippon. It takes some times to get used to, but I don't find it too difficult.
by zombie rate this post as useful

arigatou gozaimasu! 2007/11/26 12:37
That helps alot ^_^
by chi rate this post as useful

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