from what we would expect it to be normally. In a sense, this is much like the problem foreigners face when learning English; the pronunciation of the word “cough”, for example, has little connection with the normal sound of the letters from which it is made. Fortunately there are not many irregular readings to be learned (less than fifty appear in this book), but as they are all in common use it is best to come to grips with them the moment they are encountered, by memorizing them as individual words. All irregular readings in this book will be presented separately from the “COMMON WORDS AND COMPOUNDS” section, to make it clear that these are some truly oddball pronunciations.
A Method for Memorizing the Visual and Aural Aspects of Kanji
As we have seen, kanji are typically more visually complex than hiragana and katakana. Because of this, a good way to simplify the task of committing kanji to memory is to look at their constituent parts. We will do just that, breaking the characters down piece-by-piece and assigning meanings to these components based exclusively on how they look. When these various components then join together to build kanji, we will make use of short stories featuring the pieces as “actors”, accompanied by drawings to help solidify the appearance of the characters in a unique way. This part of our memorization approach, therefore, will focus exclusively on the visual aspect of each kanji.
For the aural side of the equation, we need to take one other difference between the on- and kun-yomi into account when devising our memorization strategy: there are far fewer on-yomi to learn than kun-yomi. This is because on-yomi are not often complete words on their own – it helps to think of them as short “blocks” of sound that in most cases form words only when they are strung together. (It is worth keeping in mind, though, that the kanji for numbers are a notable exception to this.) Given that roughly 300 on-yomi suffice to cover the entire range of Japan’s 2,136 general-use characters, a single reading can be attached to many different kanji. SHŌ (ショウ), for example, is an on-yomi for more than 60 characters. We will be taking advantage of this aspect of Japanese to cut down on the work involved in memorizing these readings.
Our basic plan for committing both the on-yomi and kun-yomi to memory will be to come up with English keywords that approximate their sounds as closely as possible, and to use these in sentences that also contain a word encompassing the general meaning of the character.
As an example, the kanji for “two” has an on-yomi of NI (ニ), and a kun-yomi of futa (ふた). If we choose the word “knee” to suggest NI, and the phrase “who ta ns” for futa, a possible sentence might be the following: “TWO knees? Who ta ns only those?”. This second side to our approach, therefore, will focus exclusively on the aural aspect of a kanji.
A useful shortcut will involve using the same on-yomi keyword every time a kanji having that reading appears (recall that many kanji can share the same on-yomi). In the preceding example, therefore, the word “knee” will be used each time a kanji with the on-yomi “NI” crops up, and will simply be combined with the different kun-yomi and meaning of the new kanji. A major advantage of this approach is that it will make easily confused on-yomi such as HŌ (ホウ) and HO (ホ) absolutely distinctive in your mind, as you will have assigned different keywords to each of these. Given their importance (they will need to be used over and over again with different kanji), the creation of on-yomi keywords will be left up to you once a few examples have been provided at the beginning of Chapter 1 – your sentences will be more memorable if these words have a distinct personal meaning for you. The On-Yomi Keyword Table at the end of the book will help you manage your list of these keywords as it grows, and is designed to be filled in as you encounter each on-yomi in the pages ahead. By keeping all these readings in one place, you can refer to them quickly when needed.
The kun-yomi, on the other hand, are far greater in number, and therefore best learned individually. Fortunately, they tend to be more distinctive than the on-yomi, and are, as a result, often easier to remember once a unique keyword phrase has been created. In order to help with the workload in this respect, suggestions for kun-yomi keywords are provided through the first ten chapters of this book, but you should not hesitate to use an idea of your own should one spring immediately to mind.
Presentation of the Entries in This Book
Each entry will offer one kanji along with a word embracing its broadest possible meaning, followed by a grid showing its stroke order. Next, you’ll see a list of the components making up the character, together with reference numbers indicating the points at which these have been introduced earlier in the book. After a short background section describes the various shades of meaning the character conveys, a story (when required) and illustration are presented to help you memorize the kanji visually. A pronunciation section then lists the most common on- and kun-yomi for the character followed by readings that you will encounter less frequently. Entries conclude with a section showing the character’s use in a number of common Japanese words, and a sample sentence in which the kanji is featured.
There is an important point to keep in mind with respect to the “Common words and compounds” table in each entry: any word or compound consisting of kanji you have already learned will be shown in bold face. This will allow you to focus on reviewing those words you have previously encountered. One useful way to review would involve covering up the right-hand columns in the table with your hand or a piece of paper, then drawing it back to reveal the individual kanji meanings, pronunciation, and the overall meaning of the word in question.
In order to make your task a bit more manageable – you’ll be mastering 520 of the most important kanji in Japanese, after all! – the book is divided into chapters of 20 to 30 entries each. This will allow you to periodically review a reasonable number of characters before proceeding onward. Short review sections at the end of each chapter will help you check your learning, along with cumulative exercises following Chapters 5, 10, 16 and 22. Use these reviews to see exactly how far you’ve come in your mastery of the kanji, and to find out which entries to return to for more practice, if you need it. You’ll find answer keys, along with indices listing kanji by stroke count, English meaning and pronunciation at the end of the book. Remember that all of the on-yomi are presented in katakana and employ upper-case Roman letters for romaji. The kun-yomi are written with hiragana, and have lower-case Roman letters for romaji.
To add an audio aspect to your kanji learning, the accompanying
Learning to read kanji is fascinating; the characters, so different from those used in our own writing system, have a mysterious quality that attracts everyone who studies Japanese. As you progress through this book and see how kanji are easily able to present even the most complex ideas, it is worth keeping in mind that you are not only setting out to learn a new means of written communication, but another way of conceptualizing the world around you. It’s an exciting task, and by using the present book as your guide you will find this process to be not only interesting, but fun. So let’s jump right in – and start learning Japanese kanji!
CHAPTER ONE
KANJI #1—20
KANJI #1
| 山 | MOUNTAIN |
Meaning
Mountain.
