Japanese Kanji help!?

Question

Can some one plz deeply explain how to read kanji. the on and kun just confuses me to death ><

Answer 1

Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there are thousands of different kanji that are known to be used in Japan... not to mention some of them can have as many as four or more different ways of reading them.

My suggestion would be to download a Japanese word processing program so that you can start learning the different kanji. There are probably books that you could buy or borrow from the library that could help you as well..

Sorry I'm not of much help, but I know how frustrating learning kanji can be. I'm taking Japanese right now... and I think the best way to learn would be to take a Japanese class.

Answer 2

Most books order the usage and, generally, the first three used are what should be remembered for the KUN reading. For ON, usually the first or second.
Your best bet for remembering is to not focus on the kanji but the words they make. If you can identify the kana that comes after it, you should be just fine when it comes to reading. The more you read text with kanji in it the more you'll be able to remember it.

For example, if I saw 初 I would not immediately think "haji!", but when I see the めまして after it I know how to say it because I know what "hajimemashite" means.

Answer 3

The "on" reading is the "Chinese" reading. (I put "Chinese" in quotes because the reading typically came to Japan several centuries ago, and so often is different from the current Chinese reading"

The "kun" reading is the indigenous or Japanese reading.

Most kanji in Japanese have an "on" reading and a "kun" reading. However, some characters have more than one "on" or "kun" reading, and some have only an "on" but not a "kun" reading, or vice-versa.

In general, "kun" readings simply have to be memorized, but often you can guess an "on" reading if you know a similar character. Many kanji characters have a left side and a right side. Different characters which have the same element on the right side are often pronounced the same, or similarly.

Example:

同 on reading DOU, kun reading ONAJI--English "same"

胴 on reading DOU, no common kun reading--trunk of a body etc

銅 on reading DOU, no common kun reading--copper

桐 on reading DOU or TOU, kun reading KIRI--pauwlonia (a kind of tree)

All these characters have the same element on the right side (the first character has no left side, of course), and all have the "on" reading of DOU.

One more thing: two characters in a single word (compound) are typically both read using either the "on" or the "kun" readings. There are exceptions but they are rare. Thus 突出 is read "TOSSHUTSU", that is, two "on" readings; but 突き出す is read "TSUKIDASU", with two "kun" readings.

HTH

Answer 4

Well, my explaination is
Kun sound is the original sound that Japanese people use before the Kanji even exist in Japanese language.
Then after chinese character had been used 'On' sound [which is adapted sound from Chinese language] use for name and mostly nouns for example:
夢の中 (ゆめのなか) = middle of dream
夢中 (むちゅう) = engrossment

so briefly 夢 has む for On sound [Chinese pronounciation is mèng ]
and has ゆめ for Kun sound

and 中 has ちゅう for On sound [Chinese pronounciation is zhōng ]
and has なか for Kun sound

but it doesn't mean that these 2 kanji has only those sounds, I'm not very sure though. but mostly that's it for 夢 and 中

*Like Krys-chan says I think it is better to look for a Kanji dictionary
and for me Talking to Japanese people help improve language
a lot, read Manga and listen to Japanese music does help too*

I'm not sure if that would explain?
I understand how confusing it is, I used to be.
I took almost 2 months just reading about On and Kun sound
Gosh