Progressive Kanji implementation

Japanese Language Kanji
#1

I am currently going through Japanese from Zero 3, the book where kanji gets implemented. This series have a progressive inclusion of the Japanese writing systems. So denわ, でんわ、でん話、電話 is a way the words can progress. I got halfway through the third book before I stared WaniKani, but have now begun to complete it again. The thing is that the progressive system makes it much more difficult to read the kanji right in my opinion. I can’t see if it uses on or kun reading since there is hiragana everywhere, and I don’t recognize vocab I would have known if they where only kanji.

Are there any books intended for Japanese people that have this system where only half the vocab is written in kanji?
Have you tried reading with progressive kanji before, how did you think it was?
Should I continue this book series, or might it hurt more than it does good?

#2

I feel like you should probably stop and pick up a different textbook, like genki or Minna no nihongo. If you’re intermediate, pick Tobira

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#3

For “denわ” alone, I feel like you should burn the book with fire, and pick up a different textbook.

That said, I don’t see how “hiragana everywhere” makes it more difficult to tell on’yomi from kun’yomi, but neither do I think that’s something you need to trouble yourself too much about - 電話 is でんわ, regardless of what type of reading it is (though it’s on’yomi, if you must know).

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#4

I concur. Burn it.

1 Like
#5

I really liked denわ and the like when I started to lear Japanese, but the books and classes I took all had this form, so I’m a bit biased. The thing is that I think it is good for katana and hiragana, since they have one or more letters that corresponds with them. With kanji it is by far not that easy :sweat_smile:

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#6

い ドn’t kノw whアt 用r probleム is.

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#7

I legit knew someone in my youth that thought she wrote actual japanese when doing this. (with french words though, but hey, it’s japanese after all, isn’t it)

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#8

A friend of my mother’s once wrote her a Facebook message, but didn’t notice until she was done that she’d done it with her IME still on, so it basically came out like フォ宇rsこれ案d背ヴぇんいぇアrsあご. So she finished off with “oh, whoops. Oh well, you’ll figure it out” and sent it. It’s like… you didn’t accidentally write with caps lock on - you wrote it in a different character set all together.

Fortunately, I was able to work it out, and boy was it a learning experience. My mother wouldn’t have stood a chance. (Props if anyone can work out what I typed above. :slightly_smiling_face:)

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#9

Only thing I get which doesn’t really make sense is: “four score and seven years ago”.

#10

Yeah. It’s the start of the Gettysburg Address. :stuck_out_tongue:

I originally had “to be or not to be, that is the question”, but it mostly came out in hiragana, so it wasn’t so much fun.

#11

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