After completing the 1st review of radicals the program takes me to the 1st lesson of kanji. This is where I get lost. Where do I learn the proper readings before I get to the kanji lessons? Why does some translation sites give me a different answer for the # one? I feel like I missed something prior to the Kanji lessons. In other words, what do I have to do to get thru the 1st kanji lessons? Many thanks.
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Kanji usually have at least 2 readings, maybe this is where you are getting confused?
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Wanikani initially teaches you either the onyomi or kunyomi reading for a kanji depending on which will be used more often (typically the onyomi, since thatâs how itâll be used in many compound words).
Just go with what WaniKani teaches you. If you learn onyomi first then know youâll probably learn the kunyomi in the vocab lessons for when itâs used as a verb or for standalone words/nouns. Just make sure to check if youâre being taught the onyomi or kunyomi at first so you donât confused.
Eventually you can kinda tell when itâs an onyomi or kunyomi reading based on how different it is
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Is it the hirigana that you donât know? The japanese symbols that make up the sound. Then I suggest you take a look at this guide and learn the hirigana first
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Hello! Welcome to WaniKani!
You learn them while doing the lessonsâwhatever that means for you. You may have to write things down or draw a picture to help memorize the reading. Itâs up to you. You need to learn hiragana to use WaniKani effectively, so that should be your first stop if you donât already know it (as @Kimmy95 pointed out).
This is an important concept to become familiar with. Thereâs not a one-to-one correspondence between kanji and sounds in Japanese. Part of the reason for this is the significant influence Chinese has had on the Japanese language; a significant fraction of Japanese vocabulary is of Chinese origin, just as English is influenced by other languages (e.g., âlanguageâ is from the Old French âlangage,â which is itself from the Latin âlinguaâ). Such Chinese-derived readings for kanji are called âonâyomiâ readings, as @Kimmy95 mentioned. There may even be multiple onâyomi readings, depending on the character. It doesnât stop there, however, as there are also âkunâyomiâ readings, which are readings given to characters used to write (native) Japanese words. There are also plenty of exceptions to learn, particularly for very common characters or words.
WaniKani will teach you either the onâyomi reading(s) or the kunâyomi reading(s) when you learn kanji. For example, in level 1, you learn ć „ by its onâyomi reading (ă«ă ă), but you learn ć· by its kunâyomi reading (ăă).
This is good advice. You should be aware that there are differences, though.
You will have to keep track of the different readings while you learn vocabulary. This is quite possibly one of the most confusing aspects of Japanese to an adult learner coming from another languageâespecially one with an alphabet. Even compared to Chinese, where there are multiple readings for some characters, it can seem a bit absurd at first. For example, consider the characters äž and äșș, which you will learn in level 1, and æ„, which you will learn in level 2. You can make words like
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| person | |
| alone | |
| one person | |
| ăąăĄăȘă« |
American (person) |
| sun | |
| first of the month | |
| one day |
How do you know which pronunciation to use? Well, you learn it with your vocabulary and you use it while reading, speaking, and listening to Japanese. It will take time and practice.
Hopefully this helps you understand why there can be different ways to say the same character. If you look in a dictionary, youâll see a few different readings listed. For example, with äž, you might see
and now you know what the âkunâ and âonâ parts mean and why there are multiple readings. 
(Youâll also notice the onâyomi readings are written in katakana here, which is a choice some publishers make because theyâre technically derived from Chinese and foreign words are typically written with katakana. You should learn katakana along with hiragana.)
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