How Do You Actually Read Japanese Kanji?

If you are new to learning Japanese you are probably already aware of the fear around kanji, and it is justified as it is a very complex part of the language.

One of the big questions you will hear is …how do you actually read it? How do you look at a new kanji and know what it means!

Unfortunately it’s not as easy as just reading a new word like you can in English, there is a little more research and memorisation required, but I will explain how it all works below.

Just be aware that Kanji is tough, but not impossible.

You Don’t Really “Read” Kanji

The truth is that you don’t really “read” kanji, you more “remember” them, which really means you need to learn them all individually.

You either know the kanji or not, it’s that simple. You have either seen it before and learned it and remembered it …or you haven’t. 

You can’t really see a kanji for the first time and know what it says. Well, that’s not fully true, you can look at some of them and guess what they mean, but you wouldn’t know how to pronounce them.

This can result you in reading something and sort of understanding what it means, but also not knowing how to “read” the pronunciation at the same time.

This is kind of the opposite of English, where you can read any word and you can see its pronunciation …but you will at the same time not understand it what it means.

This is because English words are made up of letters and you can sound your way through the word based on the letters, kanji are more like pictures, they represent a word, so you can’t really read them in the same way and it is why they need to be remembered.

Kanji Can Be Represented As Hiragana

Luckily all the Kanji can also be represented with hiragana, so you can actually find out how they should be pronounced and in this way they can be read more like how English words are. This is usually how people learn new kanji.

If we take the kanji – 猫 (this mean cat) you will also see it written asねこand if you can read hiragana …you can now understand that you read 猫 as “Ne-ko”.

You will see in a lot of children’s books, where there will be hiragana written in small text above the kanji, and this is so you know how to pronounce the word and can still read what is written, even if you don’t know that kanji.

This is called “furigana” and it is how Japanese kids get used to new kanji. They will learn the characters in school, but also their books show them the words above like this to help them. If there is a kanji they have not seen before, they can still read it, or it reminds them of ones they should know, but are maybe not fully comfortable with yet.

Furigana is also extremely useful for us as learners, so if you can find text with this it can be very useful. Furigana allows you to read above your current level and it will help you in the same way it helps Japanese children.

Kanji Are Made Up Of Radicals

While kanji can all seem very different and random to us as learners, there is actually some logic and system to them. Complex kanji are actually made up of smaller parts called “radicals” and learning these can be very helpful.

This is exactly how you can see a new kanji and have no idea how to say it …but you kind of understand what it means.

You can look at a kanji and break it down into its individual radicals and from this, kind infer what the meaning might be. This is a pretty advanced skill and is often not 100% correct, but this something you will see natives do when they comes across a kanji they are not sure about.

They will end up working out what it means, but not knowing how it is pronounced and while this seems a bit strange to us, it is how it works in Japanese.

You Need To Know About 2000 Kanji To Get By

If you want to get by in Japanese, then you will need to know the core list of kanji, which is called the “Joyo kanji” and made up of around 2000 kanji.

This is a lot, but it is possible to learn them all. These are the kanji taught in school and are also pretty much all of the kanji used in daily life and in the newspapers.

You are going to have to sit down and go through them all individually, so it’s pretty intense. The fact that the kids have these spread out over their whole school life shows it can be done, but it does take time. 

Although, once you can recognise and remember these you are pretty much going to understand most things in Japanese and you will find anything that falls outside of this is list usually accompanied by furigana to help you see how it should be pronounced.     

Kanji Can Be Paired Together To Form New Words

You will also find that kanji are paired together to form new words, which can both throw you off and help you.

Usually you will recognise the individual kanji and from this you can work out meaning of the word, but you will not know how to pronounce it and you will need the hiragana to tell you how this paring should be said.

There Are On and Kun Readings

To make things more complicated, you can read a kanji a few different ways. While there is only one general meaning, there is usually at least two pronunciations, known as the “on” and “kun” readings, but really most kanji have way more than this. Some kanji can have hundreds of different readings, which just seems insane.

These different readings actually stem back to the fact that kanji was taken from Chinese. When the characters were first introduced they used a Chinese like pronunciation for the word, which is the “on” reading, then they also started pairing the characters with already existing Japanese words, which is the “kun” reading.

How Do You Know Which Reading To Use?

Once you realise there can be multiple way to pronounce a single kanji, panic will set it, how on earth can you learn all of these different versions and more importantly, how do you know what version to use?

The answer is in the context and this means you need to learn words as you come across them, rather than in isolation.

You need to listen to and read a lot of Japanese and with this exposure you will learn what version is needed at certain times and in certain contexts.

So really there is no easy way, you just have to put the time and effort in and slowly you will learn what way you should read a kanji.

Use Anki To Help You With Kanji

Since you have to learn all the kanji and their pronunciation, it is going to be sensible to use a spaced repetition system like Anki to help you.

Japanese kids are made to write out kanji hundreds of times at school and this drills things into them  and while you don’t need to be this extreme, you will still need to see the kanji multiple times to commit it to memory.

Apps like Anki make this process a lot more simple and organised and you will find your ability does increase when you put the effort and in and use tools like this.

You will find that you can end up learning the main 2000 characters a lot faster than a child would do at school. It might only take you several months, rather than a few years. It’s not easy, but this can be achieved.

Build Up Your Kanji Knowledge Slowly

The best way to deal with kanji is to go slow and start with the easy ones and then build up the complexity.

Starting with the simpler kanji and the radicals is going to be more like the approach the Japanese children take. You will find your ability takes a similar path to a native speaker, and while you may not get to their same level of understanding, you can get pretty good at kanji by working through them in this way and as I already mentioned, you can go at a much quicker pace than their school system.

(You can read more about – Why You Need To Learn Japanese Like The Japanese)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that you don’t really “read” kanji and it is more of a “recognise” them.

This can make things seem difficult and it will be this way for a while, but as you learn more and more kanji, you will start to feel more confident.

You will also reach a point where you understand most of the kanji you are seeing, which will make a huge difference to how you feel about things. It takes a lot of work, but you can get there and it will feel like you are “reading” them, even if it more of just remembering what each one is.  

(You can read more about – Why “Remembering The Kanji” Is Great …But Also Isn’t The Best Way To Learn Japanese)