Apologies for bringing up an oft discussed topic, but I found that most of the threads on this topic are archived.
I’m facing this issue on WaniKani- when I learn a new kanji, I can’t recall if it’s onyomi or kunyomi. Now, I do know the common reading rules: jugoko words typically use onyomi, words with kanji and hiragana typically use kunyomi. And single kanji are usually kunyomi (numbers being an exception). That said, I can’t recall which of the readings I learned are onyomi vs kunyomi. I’m thinking of using this mnemonic for onyomi readings- think of the object or mnemonic as being red. For kunyomi readings, think of it as blue. I used this technique in the past to memorize noun genders in German (der Eis, das Buch, etc).
So for example, you get red from scratching yourself after being itchy (ichi or いち) while hito (ひと) is a chilled out, ice-cold dude.
Was wondering if folks here use similar techniques/mnemonics to remember the reading type.
Are you sure you need to put special effort into memorizing this? For noun genders, I imagine you want to memorize them because getting them wrong can cause mistakes when speaking. But for onyomi/kunyomi I can’t see a similar reason.
I didn’t even know there were onyomi and kunyomi readings until I was multiple levels in it took me a while to work it out (really should have done some reading up on that before I started lol), but in the end it just sort of sunk in on its own. I don’t need mnemonics to remember which is which, my brain just kinda figured out the pattern through repetition and reinforcement. Now I find myself sounding out words and being surprised when I know them.
Occasionally WaniKani throws me a curveball by teaching a kunyomi for a kanji instead of an onyomi, but I feel like… it’s usually noticeable when they do? So even that hasn’t really thrown me off too much in most cases.
Uh… so I guess all of that to say, trust your brain: with a lot of exposure and repetition it will sort it out even if you’re silly like me and don’t bother to learn what onyomi and kunyomi are beforehand.
Utilizing the color dimension sounds smart. It’s generally unused otherwise, and makes stories more vivid.
I think the reason that on/kun distinction becomes obvious after some point is because on and kun sets (almost?) don’t intersect.
As an example of an early kanji, let’s take 入. There are other kanji where ニュウ is also an on reading (乳, 柔), but there are no kanji at all where にゅう is a kun reading. So at some point you just remember what sort of readings can be on and which can be kun.
it took me a while to work it out (really should have done some reading up on that before I started lol), but in the end it just sort of sunk in on its own. I don’t need mnemonics to remember which is which, my brain just kinda figured out the pattern through repetition and reinforcement. Now I find myself sounding out words and being surprised when I know them.
even if you’re silly like me and don’t bother to learn what onyomi and kunyomi are beforehand.