Basically, kanji were imported from chinese a long time ago. But at that time, Japanese already had their own words and Chinese had their own way to read kanji.
The result is the Kunyomi (Readings of Japanese origin) and Onyomi (Readings of chinese origin). Oh and the yomi part come from the verb 読む (to read).
And yeah, it's about how to read kanji. Like よむ (yomu) is the kunyomi of 読.
PS: Small advise but don't try to remember everything at the same time. Also most people learn the readings through words rather than directly study the readings. But both methods work.
Pretty much what Shamugan said. I guess the main thing is to understanding that kanji don't have one fixed pronunciation — the reading depends on the word.
Kun'yomi (訓読み) are typically used when a kanji appears by itself, such as:
雨 → あめ (rain)
猫 → ねこ (cat)
or anything that has 送り仮名(おくりがな), e.g. 大きい
On'yomi (音読み) are typically used in words made up of two or more kanji, such as:
雨天 → うてん (rainy weather)
愛猫 → あいびょう (pet cat, beloved cat)
These are general patterns rather than strict rules. For example, 雨水(あまみず) uses kun'yomi for both kanji.
One thing that's useful to know is that you can't always work out a word's pronunciation just from knowing the possible readings of its kanji.
For example, even if you memorised every on'yomi and kun'yomi, many kanji have several possible readings, so when you encounter a new compound word there may be no reliable way to know which combination is correct.
That's why it's important to learn readings as part of vocabulary rather than just as isolated kanji. As your vocabulary grows, you'll start recognising common patterns and will be able to make educated guesses about unfamiliar words.
That doesn't mean learning kanji meanings and readings in isolation is pointless — it's still very helpful and makes learning vocabulary much easier. It's just important to keep encountering those kanji in actual words, since vocabulary is what ultimately tells you how a kanji is being used and read in any given context.
so that even japanese people don't know the reading of a kanji . and when encountering a new word makes a guess ? like there are many words in English which don't know how to correctly pronounce.
It's usually less "I can't read this kanji" and more "I can read this kanji in 2-5 ways, which one is it here?".
Names are by far the worst offenders. For example, 小鳥遊 being read たかなし makes no sense unless you know the story, which is that "small birds (小鳥) can play (遊) peacefully when there are no hawks around" = 鷹無し (たかなし) ("no hawks"). It's basically wordplay, not even a reading issue at that point :D
To be claer, for natives, the vast majority of text is read effortlessly. They're not sitting there deciding between on'yomi and kun'yomi any more than you're consciously decoding English spelling patterns.
You can usually just read words as "chunks". For example, I just know how to read 森羅万象 when I see it — I don't think about each kanji individually. In fact, if you showed me 羅 by itself, I wouldn't even recognise it.
Yeah =p But at the same time, it's not as bad as it seems. Like you said, it's comparable to english pronounciation. You get used to it at some point (more or less, I guess x) ). Also when you start to really get used to some kanji, you will able to guess the meaning of a lot of words.
Like 雨水 mentioned by ギョルギ九十三. 雨 is rain, 水 is water and 雨水 is... rain water =p The basic pattern are like that. There are more complicated pattern which are not always obvious (Like verb + object, instead of just noun + noun) but as you study more words they will easier to recognize.
Anyway, take your time and have fun and it will be okay =p 頑張ってね～
At reaching level 700 to 800 I think these things make sense. Btw from how much time are you guys studying japanese. I am like from 2 months and that too not very much constant. But I think I am improving. You the feeling when you are finally able to catch one word in a whole song .
I guess it depends on how you count it. I started around 15 years ago, but I've had pretty long gaps with very minimal studying. I usually just say 5-6 years of "serious" learning.
But yeah, it's all about consistency, keep studying and you'll keep improving :)
Currently not that much. And I'm not very consistent too right now. At least on renshuu. But I'm consistently watching some video on youtube everyday and every week-end, I'm talking with some japanese friends online. And that is already using too much of my energy so I'm only learning a few words that I heard here and then on youtube as well as some kanji. Also, I feel like I learned too much words without properly studying them. Like I can recognize them but I'm too slow to process them in a conversation. Or the nuances/usages were different from what I thought. Or I just don't recognize them/I'm unable to remember them when I need to
So I really keep things at a minimum right now on the studying part since ironically studying doesn't really help right now. Like 0-20 mn on average. For youtube or talking on the week-end, it's a lot more tho. But I can't call "studying" even if it is practicing my japanese.
Another advise but if you're not constant, just reduce the pace, learn less per day/week. Especially when you start. It better to go slow, take your time with a few words, learn a few sentences with those words, perhaps also take a look at the kanji without studying but just being curious. And after that, like you said, catch one word in a song =p Another tips is, don't always do the same things for months or years. Like once you cleared a word schedule, don't rush to the next one but maybe try to study the words in sentences. Or create a custom schedule/list to study something you like, want to talk about later. Or try some immersion (Don't expect anything but it never too soon to learn a few words about you like). Alterning how and what you're studying can help with keeping your motivation. It's a bit like a reset. Because when you're keep doing the same things for months or years (or even weeks or day when you start), at some point, your brain just say "no more" no matter what
