When to Use Kanji

[Sideshow]

I've got a few different japanese books. Some teach you the kanji and some teach you words with either hiragana or in English, but I've not yet learned how and when to use kanji. I assume if there's a kanji, use it, but I'm not sure how, if any, it would chance the sentence structure or the on/kun readings of the kanji. Is there a good book or easy way that teaches HOW to use kanji and not just the kanji and their meanings?

[nikoneko]

My Japanese isn't the greatest so someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think you'll find as you learn more about Japan and Japanese it all comes down to experience and how everyday people speak and write. Read as much normal (non-study) material as you can and you will get the idea quickly. There is no hard and fast rule. Nobody writes こんにちは as 今日は for example, but much more difficult things are sometimes written in kanji, and some both, ありがとう and 有り難う are both common (usually the latter I see in business emails and the like).

The best advice I ever got on learning Japanese was from my wife when we first got here, when trying to figure out how to read/write something just listen to how it sounds in your mind and the best is probably right.

Oh and my personal advice is do what I did and never regretted, learn it like the natives do, go get kids books (if you can where you are) and start at kindergarten. (Been here 10 years and I am up to 4th grade yay! Technically I kinda quit after I got busy in my defense.)

[nikoneko]

Wait.. crap.. was that way too nice of a post to a newbie on FG? Am I ostracized now?? :hehe:

[Iraira]

Wait.. crap.. was that way too nice of a post to a newbie on FG? Am I ostracized now?? :hehe:

You can absolve yourself of your sin by rapid fornication with a domesticated quadruped....preferably a mammal, we aren't perverted deviates or anything.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Oh and my personal advice is do what I did and never regretted, learn it like the natives do, go get kids books (if you can where you are) and start at kindergarten. (Been here 10 years and I am up to 4th grade yay! Technically I kinda quit after I got busy in my defense.)

I'd say that's terrible advice. The way children in Japan are taught kanji is generally not appropriate for adult learners.

[nikoneko]

I'd say that's terrible advice. The way children in Japan are taught kanji is generally not appropriate for adult learners.
Really? I have always liked this. It taught stroke order which means I can read all kinds of fucked up stuff, and started from the beginning up with ki then hayashi then mori etc. Basically focused on the roots which has made it easy for me to figure out other kanji. Not being flippant at all and would be willing to hear the other side. Maybe it just worked for me.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Really? I have always liked this. It taught stroke order which means I can read all kinds of fucked up stuff, and started from the beginning up with ki then hayashi then mori etc. Basically focused on the roots which has made it easy for me to figure out other kanji. Not being flippant at all and would be willing to hear the other side. Maybe it just worked for me.

You said to get kids' books. That's not a good idea because you aren't necessarily introduced to adult concepts and vocabulary in a kids' book.

[nikoneko]

It's getting late and hard to articulate but that was my basic concept. The one thing I have come into in Japan is kid's books is where it all begins and really ends. In English it's all about the adults, but here not so much. It is such a simple language and as we all know they have a tendency to stay there at least in the mainstream. For me starting at that point made it all easier to understand. My 60s mom-in-law latched on to it right away when we were living with her. She totally got into it, got me a calligraphy set and the whole bit. As everyone does I feel silly a lot and feel like I'm getting laughed at internally at times, but also get respect for being able to say "nihongo ha daijobu desu yo" in some kind of reasonably confident sounding dialect at the post office or whatever.

Late.. Hard to articulate, but most Japanese (at least in Kansai) speak half sentences anyway, so start with the basics and go from there is where I was going. When in Rome..

(I shall now spend the rest of my waking hours figuring out how to make my FG avatar one of Black Nikka.)

[Sideshow]

Wait.. crap.. was that way too nice of a post to a newbie on FG? Am I ostracized now?? :hehe:

Yeah, I knew it was a basic question and the experienced users would frown upon it. I bought a few anime/manga books, but then I read previously on here that you won't read actual japanese in them. It'll be stuff like "Golly gee willikers!".

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

You said to get kids' books. That's not a good idea because you aren't necessarily introduced to adult concepts and vocabulary in a kids' book.

Mate, we are talking about a cuntry where adults have an unhealty fascination with dress-ups, wearing cat's ears and eye-glasses.
Let him study from the kids' kanji books....

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I read previously on here that you won't read actual japanese in them. It'll be stuff like "Golly gee willikers!".

Who wrote that? Gomer Pyle?

[Sideshow]

Dunno. I've been a couple of months reading nearly the whole board.

[Ganma]

I've got a few different japanese books. Some teach you the kanji and some teach you words with either hiragana or in English, but I've not yet learned how and when to use kanji. I assume if there's a kanji, use it, but I'm not sure how, if any, it would chance the sentence structure or the on/kun readings of the kanji. Is there a good book or easy way that teaches HOW to use kanji and not just the kanji and their meanings?
You really should get some instruction if you are starting out. Especially if you are learning reading and writing. Learning kanji is a step by step process. At university we studied 10 ~ 20 kanji a week which is kind of an accelerated version of the learning process kids go through here ― they get a kanji chart which doubles in number each year.
As kanji is just a part of vocab, if you want to learn kanji, learn the kanji to every new word you learn (as long as it's kanji in standard use).