When learning kanji through Wanikani, do you actively remember which reading is the onyomi reading, and which reading is the kunyomi reading? I am reaching a point now where I need to decide whether I will/need to do this, or just need to remember the readings irrespective of whether they are the onyomi or kunyomi reading. I hope this makes sense, but it may also be a very rookie-ish question!
Best,
Peter
It helps if you do!
I think most people take note of this. But, I canât say Iâve put much mental focus on it. After all, most readings will be the onâyomi. Itâs more of an exception that itâs the kunâyomi, and thatâs for items where youâll probably encounter it more, thus making it more relevant to learn first.
In the end, what you need to truly keep straight is the vocabulary as thatâs actual words, not readings you learn. There is only one correct answer there. Vocab will help you navigate the differences in kanji readings as you see them applied in words.
To expand on what has been said already, youâll quickly get a âfeelâ for it. A standalone Kanji almost always uses the Kunyomi, so if thatâs the same what you learned with the Kanji itâs probably kunyomi. If the reading when itâs used in a âsingle kanji verbâ is different, the one you were taught, was the onyomi.
For example you get äșș and çŹ early. For the first one youâll learn âninâ and âjinâ as readings, these are the onyomi. âHitoâ is how itâs read when itâs alone, thatâs kunyomi.
The second one has âinuâ as Kanji and vocab reading, so thatâs the kunyomi.
Tldr: Youâll get a feel for it, I would not worry about it too much.
I would recommend reading this article about onyomi vs kunyomi to understand the differences in their usage. I personally do usually remember which is which, but I donât necessarily have to actively make an effort to do so. They sort of have different vibes, so it becomes kind of natural to recognize âOh this must by a kunyomiâŠYep.â or âThis has gotta be an onyomi.â
The userscript âKatakana Madnessâ could also help to better distinguish between the two readings (at lest when reviewing kanji) as it turns the onâyomi readings into katakana. If thatâs something you might be looking for.
as a general rule if there is no ăČăăăȘ with the kanji it will be the éłèȘăż but there are exceptions like ç§èȘèș« or ć»șç©.
but as @M4tthi4s91said once you get a feel for the language it will become intuitive.
Personally I try to focus on just knowing the vocabulary words. Thatâs what youâll actually be encountering when you read.
True.
In another thread here I read complaints about âwrongâ meanings for Kanji that Wanikani teaches. There are no wrong meanings, Kanji donât have meaning. Words have meaning.
That starts with even a very simple one like æŹ. Does it mean origin? Or book? It probably comes from âbooks are the origin of knowledgeâ or some stretch like that, but just memorizing one keyword is not enough.
Or what does ç mean? Wear or arrive? Best to just learn the words ăă und ă€ă and accept that they are written with the same Kanji.
Hey, I had a similar problem when I started WK! I also posed almost the same question to the community. Since then, though, Iâve learned to take the vocab at face value, without dwelling too much on what reading rule itâs following, because there will always be special cases or exemptions. Instead of filling my memory with rules, I remember the vocab reading as is.
For example, I remember that the reading for äžă€ is ăČăšă€, not because I know âitâs kunâyomi reading when number kanji is paired with ă€,â but because I just memorized that thatâs the reading for this specific word.
Funnily enough, overtime as you advance through and encounter more kanjis, you do develop a sense of which reading is being used, even for me whoâs not paying too much attention which one is the kunâyomi and the onâyomi. I notice this more when Iâm stumped in a quiz and throw in a hail mary based on what I think the reading should be, and almost all the time I get a hit.
Hope my answer makes sense too. Good luck!
Yeah, Iâve heard the idea that itâs not great to learn English meanings for individual kanji, but itâs part of the WaniKani system which I otherwise enjoy.
I would say they have multiple meanings, not that they have no meaningsâŠ
Or perhaps that the kanji meanings cannot be equated one-to-one with English words and concepts.
I think thatâs the best way to put it. âNo meaningâ is of course provocation on my part.
the ç kanji derives itâs meaning from attachment if you look up ä»ăă you will also see çăă as an alternative form of the same vocabulary. we attach clothes to our body and we attach ourself to a location when we arrive. The biggest hurdle to understanding Japanese is European languages. the more you learn to easier it gets cause your mind stops translating to English and just knows it as what it is⊠Japanese. Itâs best to think of the English meanings as ideas not a definition.
Attachment is a nice keyword for both of these meaning actually, but of course attachment in English can mean so much more. So yeah, a 1 on 1 keyword will always be pretty hard.
The standalone kanji (like itâs used in a vocab word) will use the kunâyomi reading. The onâyomi reading is not a word in and of itself unless the kanji uses the same kanji for onâyomi and kunâyomi, but when we review kanji, we answer with the onâyomi reading. Itâs not actually a word, itâs just what will typically be used for jukugo, or compound words.
Something about the pink and purple backgrounds might trigger something that gives me the right reading without thinking too hard. It definitely comes with practice. You do something multiple times daily for long enough and youâll get a hang of it. When I started, I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to âguess the readingâ for vocab, and got it wrong most time before looking even for phonetic ones. By now, I can do the phonetic ones no problem, and am getting a feel for guessing rendaku. Itâs all about practice, youâll get the hang of it in no time!
ăČăăăȘïŒ
âŠAlso just so you know itâs probably a good idea to cater to your reader a lil more, OPâs level 2 so he doesnât know any of those kanji or their readings⊠Romanjiâll do just fine 
Iâm a Chinese speaker, so I guess I canât really not pay attention when a reading sounds like its cousin in Mandarin or other Chinese dialects. However, I donât think that knowing which reading is which is useful per se beyond increased general knowledge: Iâm pretty sure that before the modern Japanese education system, there were relatively uneducated but otherwise fluent Japanese people who went around without worrying too much about whether they were using an onâyomi or kunâyomi. However, if you use the classification as a means of helping you figure out how to read a kanji, then it has value. When you get a feel for it, you might say, âOK, this seems like more of a kunâyomi situation. Iâll use the kunâyomi,â and reach for it in your memory. Thatâs the point of knowing which is which, in my opinion.
I guess Iâll just try to give you a few ideas about how to tell when youâre looking at an onâyomi. These are just general rules, and Iâm pretty sure there are exceptions. Here goes:
Thatâs about all I can think of for now. I hope that helps.
Sorry to nitpick, but Iâve been seeing this quite a bit on the forums, and I just wanted to say: itâs rĆmaji. Long O, no N. (The accent bar can be dropped if you want, since itâs kinda troublesome to type with all that.) I think the reason is that Rome is âRomaâ in Latin. Your point about catering to oneâs reader still stands though. 
Guess Iâll just break these down for OP: the first is read âwatashi jishinâ. The second is âtatemonoâ. The reason this seems unexpected is that if the onâyomi were used for all the kanji, the first would be âshijishinâ and the second would be âkenbutsuâ. Iâm no expert, so I probably canât explain everything, but I think readings are chosen depending on how words break down in the speakerâs head. It has to be âwatashi jishinâ in the first case because the three characters donât form a single concept. It is, rather, âIâ (watashi) âmyselfâ (jishin). Iâm not sure why the second word uses kunâyomi, but I think it has to do with where the word came from. I donât think ć»șç© exists in Chinese. The equivalent in Mandarin is ć»șçç© (the second character is the simplified version of çŻ, a character that appears in Tsukiji çŻć°, the name of that famous fish market in Tokyo), which means âconstructed objectâ. The second character is necessary in Mandarin for clarification, I guess, since ć»ș means âto buildâ, but not necessarily in the literal sense. As support for my theory, well⊠youâll notice that ć»șçŻç© also exists in Japanese, but itâs read âken chiku butsuâ â the onâyomi is back. Tatemono probably comes from ć»șăŠă(tateru), meaning âto buildâ and âmonoâ, which is the general word for âobjectâ and usually written as ç©.
By the way, for future reference, ç© is probably one of the characters that switches between onâyomi (butsu) and kunâyomi (mono) the most in compounds, so itâs best to be aware of both readings.
Thanks everyone for the helpful comments, and glad to see I am (or was?) not the only person to struggle with this! I will just carry on and see where this road leads me 