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Kanji and Furigana

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FrankenBeenz

Kanji and Furigana

Post by FrankenBeenz »

I'm still very new to Japanese. Obviously I will have to learn Kanji, I'm just working through hiragana and katakana first, but I am wondering about Furigana. Until I can write kanji on my own, is it acceptable to write the kanji in the hiragana/katakana that appear in the Furigana above the kanji?

Thanks in advance 😊

McGonnagle
Japan

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by McGonnagle »

FrankenBeenz wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 12:57 am

I'm still very new to Japanese. Obviously I will have to learn Kanji, I'm just working through hiragana and katakana first, but I am wondering about Furigana. Until I can write kanji on my own, is it acceptable to write the kanji in the hiragana/katakana that appear in the Furigana above the kanji?

Thanks in advance 😊

Welcome to the world of Japanese language!  
  
I think that is a good way to start learning Japanese. Japanese children also learn to write in the same way. First graders in Japan only memorize 80 to 100 kanji.   

In Japanese, the same sound has many different meanings, and because words are not written in spaces, even the same sentence can have completely different contents depending on how it is read. Therefore, if you can't read Kanji, reading will eventually become difficult. Even if you can't write, you'll be fine if you can read. And when you convert Hiragana to Kanji by typing, you will be presented with a few/ several options, so if you can select the appropriate kanji from among them, then there should be no problem.   
  
At the beginning of learning, it may be easier to understand if you write in spaces. It seems that the Japanese version of Pokemon is written in spaces with Furigana so that even children can read it. I think the same is true for bulletins that are written in an easy-to-understand manner for foreigners.

Gan'batte!

User avatar
OCgXt4Pu
Poland

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by OCgXt4Pu »

Except for some silly jocular uses of furigana, replacing the kanji with the furigana attached to it should, together with okurigana, if any, simply give you the phonetic kana spelling of the word in question, right?
Writing something like たべる instead of 食べる or こうえん instead of 公園, that is using just kana, is sometimes done in texts for very young children or foreign learners. People have varying opinions on how to approach learning kanji, but it's not unusual to write down everything in kana only when you're just starting.
I can't tell you if advising to do that is pedagogically sound, but generally, it is acceptable and sometimes done in other kinds of texts too for a variety of reasons.

One thing to be wary of is writing parts of one word differently (mazegaki) because this makes it extra hard to read. For example, I once encountered 洗たく in some manga and it took me a few seconds to realize it is supposed to read 洗濯. Such spellings are unusual. They are, however, sometimes used too and there are even words like 宝くじ for which this is its normal spelling despite it being possible to write it 宝籤.

McGonnagle
Japan

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by McGonnagle »

Kanji are like Emoji. Once you get used to it, you will be able to grasp the general contents of what is written reflexively in half second, making it easier to read than sentences with only hiragana.  

Examples of words/ sentences that are difficult to read with only hiragana (Words/Sentences that have several different interpretations depending on how they are read) :

おしょくじけん:  
お/食事/券 (meal ticket)  
汚職/事件 (Corruption case)

きょうはくじょうがかいしゃにきた:  
今日/は/苦情/が/会社/に/来た。 (A complaint came to the company today.)
脅迫状/が/会社/に/来た。 (A threatening letter came to the company.)

あするすばんにこい:
明日/留守/ 晩/に/来い。 (I'm away tomorrow, come in the evening.)
明日/留守番/に/来い。 (Come over for house-sitting tomorrow.)

うらにわにはにわとりがいる:  
裏庭 / には / 鶏 / が / いる。 (There are chickens in the backyard.)  
裏庭 / には / 二 / 羽 / 鳥/ が / いる。 (There are two birds in the backyard.)   
裏庭 / に / 埴輪 / 取り / が / いる (There is a Haniwa collector in the backyard.)

    

FrankenBeenz

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by FrankenBeenz »

Thank you all for your answers! I'll definitely be learning Kanji, I'm just going through Hiragana and Katakana right now, and was curious about how Kanji really function because having the Furigana there had me a little confused

どうもありがとう 😊

McGonnagle
Japan

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by McGonnagle »

FrankenBeenz wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:43 am

Thank you all for your answers! I'll definitely be learning Kanji, I'm just going through Hiragana and Katakana right now, and was curious about how Kanji really function because having the Furigana there had me a little confused

どうもありがとう 😊

Happy to help!
Here is one more to encourage you to learn Kanji : :P

なべにおすをいれ、どうりょうのさとうをいれて、なくなるまでにとかします。:
  
鍋にお酢を入れ、同量の砂糖を入れて、無くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pan, add the same amount of sugar, and boil until dissolved.)
鍋にお酢を入れ、同僚の佐藤を入れて、亡くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pot, put Sato, the colleague, in and boil until he dies. )

User avatar
PtolemysXX
Uganda

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by PtolemysXX »

McGonnagle wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:46 pm

 
鍋にお酢を入れ、同量の砂糖を入れて、無くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pan, add the same amount of sugar, and boil until dissolved.)
鍋にお酢を入れ、同僚の佐藤を入れて、亡くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pot, put Sato, the colleague, in and boil until he dies. )

What would happen if you heard this sentence without seeing it written down? You cannot hear the Kanji... Would you know immediately which version is correct (let's say by applying "common sense") or would you need to do something like a "second pass" on the contents to get the correct words? Is the tonality of both sentences the same?

Last edited by PtolemysXX on Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
FrankenBeenz

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by FrankenBeenz »

McGonnagle wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:46 pm
FrankenBeenz wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:43 am

Thank you all for your answers! I'll definitely be learning Kanji, I'm just going through Hiragana and Katakana right now, and was curious about how Kanji really function because having the Furigana there had me a little confused

どうもありがとう 😊

Happy to help!
Here is one more to encourage you to learn Kanji : :P


なべにおすをいれ、どうりょうのさとうをいれて、なくなるまでにとかします。:
  
鍋にお酢を入れ、同量の砂糖を入れて、無くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pan, add the same amount of sugar, and boil until dissolved.)
鍋にお酢を入れ、同僚の佐藤を入れて、亡くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pot, put Sato, the colleague, in and boil until he dies. )

Next time I need to tell someone how to cook my colleagues in Japanese, I'll make sure to remember this one haha 😜

McGonnagle
Japan

Re: Kanji and Furigana

Post by McGonnagle »

PtolemysXX wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:42 pm
McGonnagle wrote: Fri Jun 02, 2023 3:46 pm

 
鍋にお酢を入れ、同量の砂糖を入れて、無くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pan, add the same amount of sugar, and boil until dissolved.)
鍋にお酢を入れ、同僚の佐藤を入れて、亡くなるまで煮溶かします。: (Put vinegar in a pot, put Sato, the colleague, in and boil until he dies. )

What would happen if you heard this sentence without seeing it written down? You cannot hear the Kanji... Would you know immediately which version is correct (let's say by applying "common sense") or would you need to do something like a "second pass" on the contents to get the correct words? Is the tonality of both sentences the same?

In the previous sentence, only ``さとう'' has a different intonation, but all other words are the same. When native speakers speak or listen, they judge by context, intonation, and common sense, so they can almost only imagine one content. Although rare, there are times when a conversation requires a second pass.   

Example:
うちのこはしりつのがっこうにかよっています。:
うちの子は私立の学校に通っています。My child goes to a private school.   
うちの子は市立の学校に通っています。My child goes to public school.   

The tonality of both sentences are exactly the same.
"しりつ (shi-ri-tsu)" has two completely opposite meanings: one is「私立(private)」, the other is「市立(public)」.
These followings are not correct way of reading, but in order to indicate which meaning, sometimes say ``わたくしりつ(私立: private)'' or ``いちりつ(市立: public/municipal)'' to indicate which Kanji is written by sound. In this case, the On-yomi (し shi) is switched to the Kun-yomi (one is Watakushi , the other is Ichi). It is a quicker way of explaining whether the school is a funded by the local government or not.
  

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