For you, Japanese speakers: How is it speaking Japanese and using the proper pronunciation? Does the differentiation come with time? Do you just learn an array of vocabulary and then know the proper pronunciation?
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By proper pronunciation it looks like youâre just meaning how the word is read, right? Not intonation/pitch accent?
Im somewhat confused because the onyomi and kunyomi is no different while speaking as compared to reading. ćŠç is both read as ăăăă and pronounced as ăăăă and you should learn that when you learn the word ćŠç. Could you maybe elaborate on what you mean?
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Seconding Vanilla above. I donât know what you mean. Kun and On readings refer to how the kanji is read, but each word uses the same readings whether you read them aloud or transcribe them as kana. Maybe you misunderstood what Kun and On are supposed to be? Itâs a mostly etymological difference. On readings are derived from the original Chinese readings of kanji, whereas kun readings have their origins in Japanese itself.
If youâre referring to pitch accent, though, that takes a lot of practice to pick up, and itâs only important when youâre already comfortable with the language and want to take your skills a step further. For now, focus on building a more general understanding of things.
Japanese natives just know words. They donât think about onyomi kunyomi. They donât even learn the difference until like 3rd grade (when they already know like 300 kanji). So itâs not something you need to be aware of when speaking Japanese.
If you are guessing the readings of written words youâve never seen before, or are taking a Japanese test, you might need to think about it.
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When you learn a word, that particular word will either use onyomi or kunyomi (exceptions exist, but I digress). Some words are a single kanji, some are compounds made up of kanji that can possibly stand on their own. Examples at level 4 would be something like if you wanted to say princess, you would say çć„ł. Princess is always pronounced ăăăă. As far as when ć„ł is by itself, I donât think there is ever a time where you would just say ăă, and if there is, you wonât have to worry about that for a long while.
MOST of the time when a kanji is by itself, it will the kunâyomi reading. If itâs in a compound, itâll probably be onâyomi (minus the stuff they tell you about, like compounds that have kanji for body parts frequently being kunâyomi, like ć „ćŁ).
This is the one.
When youâre speaking English, you donât think âok, I want to say âvocabularyâ - thatâs spelt V-O-CâŠâ You just plain say âvocabularyâ. Ditto for Japanese - people arenât thinking âćèȘ, oh boy, was that kunâyomi or onâyomi?â They just know that the word is ăăă and arenât thinking anything more.
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Gonna repost something I wrote about this a few days ago:
LOL im embarrassed that I forgot to delete this post but that makes sense. Youre saying once I know more Japanese Ill know the correct pronunciation? As in I wont be thinking is it the Kunâyomi or Onâyomi. Ill just know 
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