Learn Japanese Kanji - Could Kanji really be this easy??

[Trixiaoyu]

違います!!　音読みは、「モク、ボク」。訓読みが、「き、こ」。

[puppynolike]

at least she smiles unlike others

[shinigamiryuk]

It's a free account but you have to pay for most of the site.

[yazeed2411]

I want to say that I'm just a teenager and I really liked your website I wish I could pay but I can't could you please help me

[irsyadmuhbastaman]

what the .....

ha ... ha ......

[Manga0Love0Girl]

She is so cute!! ^_^

[Lukas4C756B6173]

Hey I know that girl Hiroko! She's also in Akibatteru.

[BobLeKatt]

This is a great video.

[Wra8h]

how I can know It's kun or on reading?! that's which makes it really difficult!

[x99wildonesteam]

i have question ><, when im going to say for examlpe tree; is it wrong to say it in the chinese thing?

[diulaid]

@x99wildonesteam

the meaning of kanji most likely the same meaning of chinese character. but they pronounce difference.

[x99wildonesteam]

@diulaid i have to learn the both or no?

[adam5metcalfe]

木!

[Titusaki]

Well I know Katakana, Hiragana. But I only know a few Kanji.

[LonelyCubone54]

You are cute. I like Japanese people. A lot

[jensssen]

how fast children can learn kanji XD

I am student in Japanese language at high school.

I did for my first 10 kanji's around a week.

My little nephew from 8, learn the same ones in 3 days.

[MoriAryka]

@jensssen kidz have a super imagination which is a huge advantage in learning kanji. Plus they don't have too much things in life (such as work stuff, houseworks, business...) to worry about, so it's easier for them to concertrate on learning.

My 10 years old cousin is learning both French and Japanese at once, seems like she's doing very well at both (she already speaks English and Vietnamese perfectly).

How wonderful kidz are :)

[pokebrickmaniac649]

Thanks japanesepod101!

[StormTrooperDelux]

ok so shes talking a bout how to write tree. but moku means thursday? aah durp my brain hurt a much

[0zzyninja]

@StormTrooperDelux the kanji means tree. so mokuyoubi= tree day as far as I'm concerned. like kinyoubi. Kin is gold, if I remember correctly.

[Clearie552]

No way... I thought it was a pine tree!

[DarlyFofa]

I love the opening music! lol

Great video, btw!

[flipballaz93]

could plz make a video for each 1,946 kanji hahahahah

[Chichiri520]

@flipballaz93

It's 2,136 now xD

[2012vsME]

cute teacher .. thanks for the lessons ^^

[ConnorIsKoolLikeThat]

How can you tell if a symbol Is Kanji ?

[KeroCalftw]

@ConnorIsKoolLikeThat

well, after you've learnt katakana and hiragana, you'll recognize the symbols :) anything that isn't a katakana or hiragana symbol is a kanji ;)

[windaquario101]

@ConnorIsKoolLikeThat anything chaotic :3

[xAnimeWatch]

Hey I have a question... what do you usually use - kun readings or on readings? can you mix them up?

[hexonite]

Almost kanji words are all the same with chinese words.

I think they're easy to learn. ^^

[jimmyjohanes88]

LOL hontou IMPOSSIBRU!!!

[imafreakinninja12]

It's funny of how they represent ideas and not sounds, but are more likely to same the same sound than english letters

[Nb3nB]

It seem easy but so hard for me

[BarsilaiBlue]

oh god i have to learn over 1000 characters and possibly their 4 diffrent meanings!? D:

[AgapitoMeloTuerces]

@AltarianPrincess It DOES matter, my teacher can detect when I did a stroke out of order.

[AltarianPrincess]

Does the stroke order matter? Because I usually can't remember which order I'm supposed to start in with each stroke =S

[CognitiveNetwork]

I want to bang her.

[kakuichi]

cool, she's using/teaching pictographix. I recommend Kanji Pictographix by Michael Rowley (look up the book on amazon). over 1,000 japanese kanji & kana Mnemoics (kun & on); combine this book w/ this site & it'll help out a LOT!

[forbiddenmuse]

I've got a question. How can I know if I can use "on" or "kun" reading? Is it used in the same situations/ phrases or I've to learn every phrase when I can use "on"/"kun" reading?

[Necromania92]

@forbiddenmuse i think when you speak japanese you use the kun readings

[japanesepod101]

@Necromania92 @forbiddenmuse Both "on" and "kun" readings are used in Japanese. As a very basic rule, when you have a compound with 2 or more kanji together, you usually use the "on" readings, and when you have a single kanji followed by hiragana, you usually use the "kun" readings - but there are exceptions to this, but the more you study, the more you start to get a feel for how each reading is used :)

[natoo121]

I've been trying to learn Japanese for a few years now, but I'd always become lazy and forget to study (I'm just studying out of various books, since my family is too poor to afford actual classes). This, should help me learn Kanji, which I have the most trouble remembering right now. I've only managed to memorize about 13 of them. 1-10 and then the kanji that make the word for the Japanese language.

[ShinGORingoArt]

Also, This kanji can be related to woods or other sort of things that related to 'tree' kanji rite? Because the KUN sentence for ki means a wooden block that WOOD is also in TREE kanji, rite rite?

[ShinGORingoArt]

btw, what is the best way to memorise kanji words? is it the strokes?

[everydayhanja]

@ songokukingdomhearts : Yes, Korean is easy to read. However, it is completely useless to be able to read out loud something you don't understand what it means, right ? when it comes to written language, knowing the meaning of what is written is far more important than knowing how to pronounce/read it.

[lmcluver]

I love the japanese language and kanji is really cool! BUT I'm left-handed and that makes it difficult to me to write the lines from left to right D:

[tiafuruya]

@lmcluver hahaha you know one thing dear? there are so many Japanese who are left-handed, so that's not a big deal for the left-handed people to learn writing Japanese characters :) Ganbatte!

[310BPM]

@lmcluver

howso? lol..

you know, there are lefthanded Japanese people, and they do just fine.

[lmcluver]

@310BPM i know that, but they've learned it from 1th grade right? and I already have problems writing my own language by hand xD

[waytopolyglot]

@lmcluver I am left-handed too, and it has nothing to do -.-! Unless you tell me that you have no arms...

[Ericules555]

@lmcluver should make it easier being its going left to right it is me n im left handed

[lmcluver]

@Ericules555 well, maybe my hands is just weird :) i don't know x}

[CHROMExGAMES]

@lmcluver Get Used to it alot of people are right handed and we have to write from left to right its not hard!

[lmcluver]

@CHROMExGAMES relax... I AM trying to get used to it xD

[hamigakigamukattene]

確かにこれだけなら簡単なのだが・・・・

[songokukingdomhearts]

Japanese: easy to speak, hard to read.

[everydayhanja]

In Korea, "Kanji" is called "Hanja". If you study Korean, the Kanji/Hanja will be easily understood in my opinion since there is only one reading for each character. In Korea, 木 is read as "mok", or in hanggeul, 목.

[songokukingdomhearts]

@everydayhanja Koreans don't use Kanji, Korean is easy to read lol

[Heyanimehobo]

-Pulls out hair- I don't get it :( some explain it better please...

[Zak4000life]

@NickelBacking

I honestly thought the same :P

[Zak4000life]

@NickelBacking

LOOL I didn't copy you!?

[Zak4000life]

If you can learn Japanese in minutes, why would you need a whole lifetime account?

[nickelbacking13]

@Zak4000life you are a STUPID COPY-CAT :P

[nickelbacking13]

@Zak4000life you are a STUPID COPY-CAT :P

[chocobolyoko]

Alguien sabe si existe un kanji para utopia? Solo lo encuentro en katakana (ユートピア) Gracias:)

[chocobolyoko]

Alguien sabe si existe un kanji para utopia? Solo lo encuentro en katakana (ユートピア) Gracias:)

[chocobolyoko]

Alguien sabe si existe un kanji para utopia? Solo lo encuentro en katakana (ユートピア) Gracias:)

[MsNintendoboy]

this is so confusing

[pinkdew13]

So when do you know when to read it in on or kun reading?

[hycfree2]

@pinkdew13 basically i rely on ur memory.Or in a simple way,kun reading usually use in simple words that originated in Japan,like "ki"for tree.When it comes to complex words,they are mostly read in on reading since they borrowed from China,like "mokuyobi" for thursday

[nusua]

@pinkdew13 Kanji is context-sensitive. 'Nuff said.

[Sparkxie]

@pinkdew13 A good and easy rule to that is that you use Kunyomi to read kanji that are alone, adjective or a verb. Onyomi is used on compounds. This is a generalised rule however, there are obviously exceptions.

[porpoise803]

山寨漢語

[Annihitate]

thanks to people like you it's so easy to learn japanese. <3

THANK YOU!!!

[markmd9]

If they have a simple alphabet like hiragana, why to torture themself with those hieroglyphs?

[Soul2311]

@markmd9 Otherwise the sentenceｓ would become freakiiiing loooong :3

[markmd9]

Now I realized that my native romanian language is the best in the world. It is melodious because it don't use many consonants like german or turkish. We have only 31 characters and how a word sounds in the same way it is written (not like in english, you ask "what's your name" and then "how to write it"). After the first year of school children can read an write but in Japan even after university they may still be illiterate.

[Kimberleyhartjemike]

i thougd boku was a way that boys use when they talk about themselves just like omae.. or something or did i think that wrong? sorry for the bad explenation and english haha

[SemimaruSakagami]

1 + 1 = 田

just saying

[kobeakashi123]

For the first, you'd better sturdy words. Then analys how the words are made of. By and by, you become to know 3000 kanjis. There is the decided limit for our happiness.

[YoYoChan013]

First let me say that JapanesePod is helping me incredibly with learning this language. But I have 1 question: How do you know when you say the Kun reading or the On reading?

[kobeakashi123]

Ou is always spoken as o-, oh or oo, so Jpnese can't understand he df between wind and window. Both are uindo- ウィンド- for Japanese people.

[acitapeh]

@kobeakashi123 No, wind is ウィンド while window is ウィンドー. The latter is one-mora longer, which is a big difference to Japanese ears.

[EvilJirachi]

@kobeakashi123 Huh? They can understand, they're more perceptive to hearing subtle differences because of their language.

[kobeakashi123]

紘子が手に持っているのは小学生の漢字辞典です。Hiroko ga teni motteiru nowa shougakusei no kanjijiten desu. The book in her hands is an E S K dic. 小学生 shou, little 学 gaku, study 生 sei, pupil, Though, we pronounce it as sho- gaku se-. " - " means long sound.

[royokinawa]

Great lesson. I'm always trying to learn more Kanji and the meaning. These videos are extremely helpful.

[kobeakashi123]

水準、水準器、準備、准教授、準 may be sa me as 准.

[kobeakashi123]

In Japanese elementary school kanji dictionares, they write why the kanji means it. For example 準 jun was a level machine using water. So it means holizontal level, standard, try to reach standard. You can find the ancient meaning of kanji in a book for elementary school boys adn girls. Hiroko has it on her has. I know is because it is printed in color.

[kaito0022]

I am Japanese.

Japanese Hiragana and Katakana are leading.

[goriration]

Most Japanese people begin to learn kanji from about 6 years old. The vocabulary of a six year old is said to be 3000-5000 words. I think it is painful to learn the kanji before reaching that level. In the beginning, fitting Kanji into related words is general.

[TheBigAnimation]

Learning ANY language is never fast and easy.

Evan Spanish takes time to learn. If you want to really learn Japanese and really learn how to appreciate it. Take your time.

If this works for you then fine.

But I suggest going to Amazon and buying a book that doesn't say "Fast and easy!!"

And then after a month or two or even three or four buy a Japanese Manga and see how much you learned.

Don't learn though manga and anime. Learn though real books.

[GirlWhoLikes2Comment]

@TheBigAnimation I know this, but I still live Hiroko. I watch her official channel and she's awesome~ I can pick up a few things from her, but I love the language and the culture and I appreciate all of it! ^^

[TheBigAnimation]

@GirlWhoLikes2Comment That's what I mean, if this works for you then fine. 83

But I still say buy the books to. There is a book that I recommend it's called: Learn Japanese the Fast and Fun Way (Fast and Fun Way Series) There are also many more books but this is one I like.

It's by Nobuo Akiyama. (look for it on Amazon)

I first got it from my library and I loved it. 8)

[TheTerminator248]

speaking japanese in Minutes?

Impossibru!

[GirlWhoLikes2Comment]

@TheTerminator248 She means a few basic words. It's still speaking it.

[waytopolyglot]

@TheTerminator248 Of course, even if it takes 4 or 6 years to learn, minutes have passed. Problems?

[CamelOnDirtBike]

@DrMMHMD yea i know but do i have to learn the on reading at all?

[mrankhrm]

learning kanji was hellish time for me. learning hiragana and katakana only took me half a month consists of more than 100 syllables including additional syllables to learn. my guess it will be 1 year to learn japanese language fully and fluent in it.

[ciaoskater]

@mrankhrm

The only way you could learn Japanese in a year is not with complete fluency but with complete exposure. You could have intermediate conversations if you study hard enough, but fluency takes a lot of real world exposure and practice.

A tip with kanji, learn easier readings that build up to the more complicated ones, learn first grade then second grade, learn for words you already know how to speak and hear fluently so you can read and write them. This has helped me greatly.

[RG7621]

The only thing I don't understand about reading Kanji is when to know which reading to use. If I see 'Tree' do I say/read it as the on or kun reading? As far as I know, the on reading is for when 2 Kanjis are together and Kun for for when Kanji is next to Kana

[DonNoypi]

Is there a particular reason why the 'On' reading for this Kanji is も(Hiragana) and ク(Katakana)? Shouldn't it be all Hiragana or all Katakana?

[CamelOnDirtBike]

Hi! Can someone answer my question please. Do you even have to be able to ready kanji the "on" way? I mean, since its the chinese reading. Do the japanese natives know how to read all these kanjis the Chinese way aswell? I mean that seems like twice the work to learn all of them. Thanks!

[macrick]

@CamelOnDirtBike I can seriously tell you, they dont.

[CamelOnDirtBike]

@macrick Is it even nessesary to now any kanjis the on reading at all in that case?

[macrick]

@CamelOnDirtBike I'm afraid that I'm not the best person to answer that. As I hardly can string a sentence in Japanese.

[kobeakashi123]

On is the chinese sound of the words of the age when they were imported. Kun is the meaning of kanji you can freely put it. For example, the word 'soul' has already been imported to Japan. It's on is souru and kun is tamasii, kokoro, etc. Like this, kun is something people have made in long years. It's not to memorize but something very creative.

[kobeakashi123]

木星 moku sei, wood star Jupiter 金星 kin sei, metal star Venus

[xBl00dBrothersX]

There are 1,945 Kanji (means Chinese characters). If you memorize 5 Kanjis per day, then in 389 days you'll be done, which is roughly a little over a year. This means that if you are VERY serious about learning how to read Japanese, it'll take you one year to learn Kanji and let's say at the same time you learn Hiragana and Katagana (the easy ones). So, 1-2 years and you're done. I'm thinking of learning Japanese (I watch anime xD).

[Ehal256]

@xBl00dBrothersX The are actually tens of thousand of kanji.. I've learned 1400 kanji in less than half a year using the Heisig method (so far just writing and recognizing the kanji), and thats actually very slow.  I personally know people who've learned all 2042 covered in vol 1 of heisig's book in a month.

[xBl00dBrothersX]

@Ehal256 1400 chinese characters in less than 6 months? And that is "very slow?" I don't believe you at all. You know "people" who've learned all 2042 chinese characters in a month using that magic book? Yeah, sure, I'll go buy the book because I am a total idiot who's buying your lie.

[Ehal256]

@xBl00dBrothersX I wouldn't say it's a lie until you've read a thorough explanation of the method, and how it works (it uses 'imaginative memory', look it up). And you don't need to buy it at first, there's a sample that covers the first 200 kanji. You can find it by searching "RTK 1 sample" on google. There's also a great community on [kanji . koohii . com] that can supplement your study. Believe me, I wouldn't waste my time unless I thought I was actually helping someone.

[Ehal256]

@xBl00dBrothersX Also, the first book (and the 6 months) only covers writing and recognition of the kanji. The second volume covers reading the meaning.

[sijotakane]

100000 get

[SuperAwesomecomment]

SO WHEN DO JAPANESE BABIES LEARN TO SPEAK THIS UBER COMPLEX LANGUAGE? AT THE AGE OF 20??!!!!!!!

[iso53145314]

lol, had to sign in to give you a tumbs up

[nickelbacking13]

If you can learn Japanese in minutes, why would you need a whole lifetime account?

[vumpirekizz]

@nickelbacking13 this part of the business, who's in the world will do such an effort like this for free source. XD

[Annihitate]

@nickelbacking13 ;') made me smile

[SmileFIN]

yep, japan is hard, when you have no idea what you are trying to learn :p

[lcovenant]

Hi, to help to remember kanji, you can try "kanji" program if you have a smarthphone with android.

market.android.com/details?id=­mx.com.covenant.kanjifull

[dragonriderrosa]

thats too cool!!! xD

[a77kmr001]

@deiteas

すごく自然な日本語ですね。

ネイティブスピーカーですか？

そうでなければどうやって勉強したか教えてくれますか？

僕は日本語ネイティブだけど、興味があるので。

[deiteas]

このビデオはあんまり有用じゃないと思う。長さは４分でも、一つ­の漢字だけを紹介する。その間に、僕は５字の漢字を習う事が出来­る。時間をもっと便利なように使った方が良いと思う。

[vukeidge]

Is Kanji used only for homophones which wouldn't be distinguishable in Hiragana/Katakana?

[HesDaryl]

@52849266 if you find the answer to that pls tell me

[a77kmr001]

@52849266

In Japanese we don't make space between words unlike English, and therefore you can't distinguish one word's end and another's beginning, right? Sorry, but I don't get it well...please explain it in detail. If so, you have to know gramatical knowledge(theory), then read a lot of Japanese sentences(practice), and get used to it(reading aloud must work out ). There is no other way... And spelling has nothing to do with intonation. That's probably true of any language.

[a77kmr001]

@52849266

Besides, hiragana, katakana, kanji, give us different impressions and feelings respectively.

Hiragana is friendly, gentle,and soft. But abuse of hiragana brings about a very childish impression. Katakana is cool, young, somehow alien to us. e.g. If an author wants to suggest or indicate that a remark is made by a foreigner or an alien (for instance in a manga or novel), he wouild write all in Katakana to make it not ordinary Japanese. Finally, Kanji is rigid, stiff, abstruct.

[a77kmr001]

@52849266

It would take us much more time to read Japanese if written in romaji... Kanji really helps us to identify its meaning quickly, for Japanese has so many words that have the same pronunciation but have different meanings. For example, 協会(association)、教会(chirch)、境界(­border)、all of these are read as 'kyoukai' and have the same tone. If written in romaji, we have to competely depend on context, which just adds burden.

[zamox7]

the difficulty of the charcters to write is not the problem. the problem is that you 1945 of this characters to learn if you want to be a proper Japanese speaker

[ss11311086]

check this one out: 𪚥

[Gameboygenius]

びくは　ボク　です！

[MrJumpFalcons]

So... Kanji comes from picture

[MattRodrig]

Kanji is not the problem, the problem is the different readings

[IvoryRoseify]

@MattRodrig mines too

[myromance123]

She has vampire teeth...

[totallyCrazy4anime]

is it true that the men write with katakana and the women with hiragana????

[Andjealous]

@totallyCrazy4anime In modern Japan all schoolchildren learn hiragana, katakana and the jouyou kanji. Katakana is used for loan words and hiragana is used for a variety of reasons, usually for particles, verb or adjective endings and certain words where the kanji has become rare or disused. Both hiragana and katakana represent the same sounds and it is more common to see books written entirely in hiragana. But these are books for children who haven't yet learned kanji.

[MissLiliChan]

3:38 - 4:09 epic music ^^

[totallyCrazy4anime]

Is the kun reading written with katakana or something else???????????

[xxsweetyflowerxx]

@totallyCrazy4anime in dictionarys the Kun readin is almost written in Katakana....and the On readin in Hiragana ;)

[ss11311086]

Is learning Chinese word a more fast and 根本 way to learn the so-called "Kanji"?

[reneki999]

@ss11311086 hello, well.. i've been on a Chinese school since birth, and knew a bit of the language (why, because I didn't take it seriously). Learning Chinese at first hand can give quite a boost in learning kanji, since some of the readings are or almost the same. But if you're 0 in the Mandarin vocabulary, just go straight on learning Kanji. ^^

[ss11311086]

@reneki999 Well I'm similar to you. But the difference between me and you is that, my first language is Chinese, since I'm a Hong Kong people. Just like you, I'm also studying another language, which is Japanese. I found that the Kanji is very identical to Chinese words from many perspectives and in many aspects. Since Kanji derives from Chinese words, I believe learning Chinese word a more fast and 根本 way to learn the so-called "Kanji". Thank you for your comment.

[cutemacmac]

konichiwa! watashino mark-des. arigatou gosaimas hiroku/hiroko-sama! ^_^

[Jilltheanimelover]

how do you know when you need to read it in the'on'way or the 'kun'way?

and how do you know if it's moku or boku, ki or ko?

[weidoha]

@Jilltheanimelover

Theres no real trick to that...You just have to learn it word by word...

[TheAbridgedGamer]

@Jilltheanimelover

I'm only a beginner, but from what i know.

Onyomi: usually have more than one kanji in the sentence.

Kunyomi: Has usually just one Kanji, followed by hiragana or katakana.

However, it's usually the sentence that explains what to use i think :)

[TheRainbowHurricane]

@Jilltheanimelover well, if its just that kanji alone, its usually ki-tree, but if its next to another kanji, it has the onyomi reading.

[bbbzzz234]

@Jilltheanimelover You dont. just like in english you dont neccessarily know if a word is german or french in origin, ect, but that does affect how it is pronounced. For example, alot of our words with soft c's in them are french, and words that are german have hard c's. You grew up with the language and so you don't even need to think about that kind of thing.

@53849266 (why the hell did you use that name) - #1 China is communist so Japan wins right there

@SuperAwesomeComment English is hard 2

[Gautigoth]

@bbbzzz234 I learned Hiragana and Katakana in just one week. Kanji however will be a different task. I just don't get it.

There's ON-reading (chinese) and KUN-reading (japanese). ON-reading is when the kanji is in a word with other kanji. KUN-reading is when the kanji stands alone. Am I right on this?

But there are different ON- and KUN- readings for almost every kanji. That confuses me.

[migencluz]

@Jilltheanimelover The words were there even before. If it is not one way, then it is the other.

[yamashisho]

@Jilltheanimelover Also in Japan, the pronunciation has written in kana in the book that the child reads.

I think that the marks are more difficult than the conversations of Japanese.

Kanji is an ideographic script. I think it is interesting when the mark of the word is learnt little by little.

[SPOREthomas]

@Jilltheanimelover It's all context.

[TheNightTimeSun]

@Jilltheanimelover You don't, but at the same time you learn... eventually. It depends on which Kanji is followed after or before. Japanese and Chinese are all about strict memorization. It's a language that takes time to learn, but once you learn it, you begin to find out its a very efficient language.

[zfan2591]

These are all the easy kanji, there's fuckin thousands of these things, just wait till you learn all the verbs and adjectives, there's no tricks to learning those sadly

[KokoroAiNeko]

木 = き、こ

＾＾私はトリックで勉強！ｗｗｗ

漢字私には簡単です！

[selenahat]

That is tree in Chinese too. It is called mu4

[seiya21demento]

arigatou gozaimasu Hiroko sensei!

[hotamali]

weaboo overload

[Mreleezy]

漢字 -- Trad.Chinese Using in HK,Taiwan,Japan,Malysia,South Korea(their IDs)

汉字 -- Simp.Chinese Using in Mainland,Singapore

[Ladomendigo]

thumbs up if you remember the meaning of 木 because it looks like a pine tree. I'm just saying, I never thought the bottom part of the this Kanji were roots, I always saw 木 as a whole tree

[LearningNorwegian]

@Ladomendigo So did I xD

[naaaaaagz]

@Ladomendigo same here

@Ladomendigo I know