Yeah this is the way. You memorize the readings of kanji by memorizing the commonly used words that actually use them as a component (or as the whole word itself).
Depends on your goal. If you just wanna listen to stream in JP for example, you don't need to bother with kanji at all. For typing, you do it in kana anyway and the keyboard translates it into kanji for you (like Henya says at 6:00) (though you do have to know which words with the same pronunciation but different kanji and thus meaning you need to use, but you can get that just from experience).
Bang on. That's what Yuta told me (don't learn kanji, learn vocabulary!), I took it to heart, and started exposing myself to more and different words and always writing them in kanji form even when they're usually kana-only in regular Nihongo. it paid off massively in my studies: my teacher tells me I am learning abnormally fast and my handwriting is 'totemo kirei', so big bonus. One year in, and I'm considered mid-beginner by him and able to pass N5 with ease.
People complain about English, but Henya is showing why Written Japanese is the TRUE Nightmare!! Henya can't complain about English BS, when Japanese is WORSE!!
One time, my SLS teacher described what it’s like to have dyslexia. He likened it to if, say, the word “quiet” were spelled “gltxv”. Your brain can’t assemble the letters into a coherent word, you just have to memorize that that combination of symbols means “quiet”. I think in a way, that’s kind of like learning kanji.
I've heard learning to read as a deaf (from birth) person described that way. You can't sound it out in your head so you just have to memorize every word. Learning sign language is a lot like that too so a lot of deaf people just give up on learning it because learning to read is hard enough & you can only use sign language with other people who know it so it's usually not worth it.
Japan: _Develops a remarkably coherent language with clear pronunciation patterns_ China: Oh that's a nice language you have there, but don't you want to _write?_ We can teach you our PATENTLY INSANE writing system... it just takes about twenty years of study for one person to learn to read and write! ...That's totally normal, we assure you. I mean, not _everyone_ needs to be able to... right?
Once upon a time, the Japanese aristocracy wanted to write. So they stole China's writing system. Then they misspelled AND mispronounced it all. Then they kept it that way for seven hundred fucking years. Despite the fact that the rest of Japan invented TWO DIFFERENT perfectly good writing systems.
Homie, it only takes 6 months to learn 1000 kanji. Let’s not resort to hyperbole. If you actually spent 20 years learning kanji, you’d learn 40,000 kanji, which is completely useless for the average dude as 3000 is enough for fluency and everything else is just a bonus. You’d be considered highly literate if you knew 6000 since that’s what KanKen tests you for. If you knew 10,000, you’d be a literal kanji scholar or some shit. Anything more than that, you’re not gonna be able to find any kanji that’s useful in the actual language, so spending 20 years to learn is a ridiculously hyperbolic statement.
To be fair to Japan, the reason for those different pronunciations for day are all because the kanji is being used more for meaning than for the sounds. 3 + day = 3rd day, then you just say it the way 3rd day is said. Also saying the "hi" and "bi" are different pronunciations is a bit unfair, since the "bi" is just the sound being affected by the sound before it.
Always has been. (I bet there is a way to write that in kanji in a confusing way, to really drive home the joke. too bad, you will just have to imagine).
Japanese would be significantly easier to learn if they followed Korea's example and eliminated kanji in nearly every case. The kana work perfectly well without it.
Easier to learn, yes, but it would be a lot more annoying to read. They'd have to change more than just remove Kanji. So no, Kana don''t work perfectly well without Kanji.
@@m.b.5329 It would certainly be beneficial to everyone to strive for the best solution (perhaps involving spaces. Imeanjustlookathowmuchharderthisistoread, oneonone). but unquestionably stopping here with romanji, kana, and kanji is silly. Even just going to kana would be better. Just like, reverting to kanji would be better. Perhaps even romanji (though I am fond of the look of japanese characters).
People defending Kanji: "You need them because you would never know which word they were saying in kana" One Kanji: 120 meanings... Selfishly, it would be nice if they resumed moving away from it. So many writing systems, Kanji, Romanji, katakana, hiragana... meanwhile only 5 vowel sounds. Japanese is very contextual, it seems like tonal markers would be more useful than having so much memorization. I think english words would also benefit from them, if nothing else but to allow the author to better clarify the tone of the message. As it stands, having the reader interpret tone has caused an astronomical amount of internet arguments.
@@Aceshot-uu7yxunironically it requires a whole lot more nationalism that Japan current possess to abolish Kanji. Part of how Hangul came to prominent and largely displaced Hanja, was the desire to break away from “foreign influence” and use something quintessentially “their own”, during and after colonial time.
This is why i believe i should study japanese words as whole, not singled out kanji.
Yeah this is the way. You memorize the readings of kanji by memorizing the commonly used words that actually use them as a component (or as the whole word itself).
Depends on your goal. If you just wanna listen to stream in JP for example, you don't need to bother with kanji at all. For typing, you do it in kana anyway and the keyboard translates it into kanji for you (like Henya says at 6:00) (though you do have to know which words with the same pronunciation but different kanji and thus meaning you need to use, but you can get that just from experience).
Bang on. That's what Yuta told me (don't learn kanji, learn vocabulary!), I took it to heart, and started exposing myself to more and different words and always writing them in kanji form even when they're usually kana-only in regular Nihongo. it paid off massively in my studies: my teacher tells me I am learning abnormally fast and my handwriting is 'totemo kirei', so big bonus. One year in, and I'm considered mid-beginner by him and able to pass N5 with ease.
@@nobafan7515 You do learn japanese words as a whole.
Yup context is king
It ain't so bad until you come across a word that randomly uses a Tou reading you've never heard of out of nowhere-looking at you 行脚.
Henya is pretty Chirpy today, talking about written Japanese, gets her excited.
That awaits in my learning endeavor
Oh, no
People complain about English, but Henya is showing why Written Japanese is the TRUE Nightmare!!
Henya can't complain about English BS, when Japanese is WORSE!!
She can if she complains about both. As an English speaker studying Japanese, I do that all the time.
To be fair, there's a lot of BS to English as well
Kanji is the only thing keeping me from passing N3.
I barely passed mine with listening skill carried the rest lol
Need more words!
One time, my SLS teacher described what it’s like to have dyslexia. He likened it to if, say, the word “quiet” were spelled “gltxv”. Your brain can’t assemble the letters into a coherent word, you just have to memorize that that combination of symbols means “quiet”.
I think in a way, that’s kind of like learning kanji.
I've heard learning to read as a deaf (from birth) person described that way. You can't sound it out in your head so you just have to memorize every word. Learning sign language is a lot like that too so a lot of deaf people just give up on learning it because learning to read is hard enough & you can only use sign language with other people who know it so it's usually not worth it.
On the grind
Japan: _Develops a remarkably coherent language with clear pronunciation patterns_
China: Oh that's a nice language you have there, but don't you want to _write?_ We can teach you our PATENTLY INSANE writing system... it just takes about twenty years of study for one person to learn to read and write! ...That's totally normal, we assure you. I mean, not _everyone_ needs to be able to... right?
Japan has a 99% literacy rate, same as America.
@Kyleology Is that for Hirigana, Katakana, the 300 or so Kanji you learn by middle school or the some 3000 Kanji you learn as an adult?
Once upon a time, the Japanese aristocracy wanted to write. So they stole China's writing system. Then they misspelled AND mispronounced it all. Then they kept it that way for seven hundred fucking years. Despite the fact that the rest of Japan invented TWO DIFFERENT perfectly good writing systems.
@@Aceshot-uu7yx Around 3000-4000 kanji I would say.
Homie, it only takes 6 months to learn 1000 kanji. Let’s not resort to hyperbole. If you actually spent 20 years learning kanji, you’d learn 40,000 kanji, which is completely useless for the average dude as 3000 is enough for fluency and everything else is just a bonus. You’d be considered highly literate if you knew 6000 since that’s what KanKen tests you for. If you knew 10,000, you’d be a literal kanji scholar or some shit. Anything more than that, you’re not gonna be able to find any kanji that’s useful in the actual language, so spending 20 years to learn is a ridiculously hyperbolic statement.
To be fair to Japan, the reason for those different pronunciations for day are all because the kanji is being used more for meaning than for the sounds. 3 + day = 3rd day, then you just say it the way 3rd day is said. Also saying the "hi" and "bi" are different pronunciations is a bit unfair, since the "bi" is just the sound being affected by the sound before it.
me beating myself up for not remembering 祝日 out of the entire sentence.
2年は高校で日本語を勉強してました。
ひらがなとカタカナはやさしいです。
漢字を難しいです。
漢字を少し読めます。
KANJI! YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!
You were supposed to clarify homonyms, not create more confusion!
Always has been. (I bet there is a way to write that in kanji in a confusing way, to really drive home the joke. too bad, you will just have to imagine).
0:22 Ducky?
Yeah exactly lmao!
So basically that kanji is the Japanese written equivalent to the English 'shit'.
Japanese would be significantly easier to learn if they followed Korea's example and eliminated kanji in nearly every case. The kana work perfectly well without it.
Easier to learn, yes, but it would be a lot more annoying to read. They'd have to change more than just remove Kanji. So no, Kana don''t work perfectly well without Kanji.
@@m.b.5329 It would certainly be beneficial to everyone to strive for the best solution (perhaps involving spaces. Imeanjustlookathowmuchharderthisistoread, oneonone). but unquestionably stopping here with romanji, kana, and kanji is silly. Even just going to kana would be better. Just like, reverting to kanji would be better. Perhaps even romanji (though I am fond of the look of japanese characters).
Woah
Me when I don’t know the difference between 漢語(Kango) and 和語(Wago).
流石は日の本の天才さん (,,>᎑
Adorkable
People defending Kanji: "You need them because you would never know which word they were saying in kana"
One Kanji: 120 meanings...
Selfishly, it would be nice if they resumed moving away from it. So many writing systems, Kanji, Romanji, katakana, hiragana... meanwhile only 5 vowel sounds.
Japanese is very contextual, it seems like tonal markers would be more useful than having so much memorization. I think english words would also benefit from them, if nothing else but to allow the author to better clarify the tone of the message. As it stands, having the reader interpret tone has caused an astronomical amount of internet arguments.
half of japan's problems would go away if they got rid of kanji.
I rather hear the accent henya.
Thankfully the only little japanese I know is from anime. So its all the same to me. 😊😅
Just make my life easier and switch to korean script already Japan
You do know WHO you are asking to admit the Koreans did something better than them right?
Hahaha…
No…
They already have hiragana and katakana.
@@Aceshot-uu7yxunironically it requires a whole lot more nationalism that Japan current possess to abolish Kanji. Part of how Hangul came to prominent and largely displaced Hanja, was the desire to break away from “foreign influence” and use something quintessentially “their own”, during and after colonial time.
@@lc9245 Dude, they historically hate Koreans. That was the joke.