This has probably been asked before, but I could not find exactly what I am looking for. My question is: do I need to actively remember if, when learning a new kanji or vocabulary, the reading I am learning is the kunyomi or onyomi reading? Currently, I’m not actively doing that (although I may be able to figure it out on the basis of whether the kanji appears alone or in a compound.
Best,
Peter
No. Primarily what you need to learn is how vocabulary words are read. For example, 川口 is かわぐち - it just so happens to be kun’yomi in this example, but it’s not vitally important to know that.
Knowing which reading is on’yomi and which is kun’yomi can help you to guess the readings of words you’ve never seen before, but you start to get a feel for which is which just by how they sound after a while.