Reading without kanji seems harder now! And you?

Since I use WaniKani to learn kanjis I noticed something. :scream:
When I read a japanese text without kanji, I have difficulties to understand it. :exploding_head:
It’s kinda cool (I guess …) but for the JLPT N4 exam I prepare, some tests are about vocabulary only written in Hiragana and my brain can’t remember the meaning with only hiraganas … :cold_sweat:
Do you have some advices/tricks to help me to remember the meaning only with hiraganas? (maybe try to vocalyze the reading in my head?) :hugs:
Thanks!

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Still getting it sometimes. Especially since my teacher uses kana in most of the materials. 1 of the first things I didn’t get was something as simple as みせ as it looked like it was part of some conjugation.

Best way to get better at it is to immerse yourself. Start reading some simple stuff and words will start to stick. Yotsuba is great at this as Yotsuba speaks only in kana and she’s often repeating something she just heard or someone might repeat what she said but with kanji included.
The best time to start reading/watching content is now. It might get a bit easier after studying but it will always be hard before you start.

It will help of course if you read your reviews out loud but do keep the pronunciation in mind.

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Thanks for advices!
I already have the first よつばと!manga but when I started it, my level was too low.
Maybe I’ll try to read it agin now!

Practice listening. If you think about it reading in hiragana is essentially listening (for the most part words in Japanese are spelled the same way they are pronounced, unlike English). You don’t get the extra info from kanji and have to rely on context to parse the meaning.

For hiragana only vocab I think you’d either have context or the word won’t be ambiguous.

Also practice speaking. This will help you create a better connection between a word and what it sounds like.

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Congratulations! You’ve reached the second stage of Japanese learning.

Stage one, of course, is “Gah, why are there so many kanji?!”
And stage two is “Why are there so few kanji?!”

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I feel like it’s because at some point, we begin to know many possible kanjis for a combination of kana, and our brains try to guess which kanji it is :teapot:

I personally read them aloud, it helps me sometimes! :tea:

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I know that feel bro.

Right as example in this article:

I couldn’t remember about bite and bark just by reading the hiragana, if it was in kanji for sure I would remember.

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maybe that’s why it doesn’t bother me, I do a fair amount of speaking. But I have also read furigana heavy books, so it’s probably also just practice.

Read a book for 1st or 2nd graders, then you’ll get really good at this :slight_smile:

If I ever have trouble with a kana heavy text passage I just read it out loud until it sounds right and that gives me the parsing, which helps me get most of the meaning and then I look up anything else if needed.

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Are you doing KameSame or KaniWani? It’s not that same, but since it helps with ENG → JAP recall, I reckon, it will actually help with that.

I do, but just for 1 week now …
I didn’t know these websites before ^-^
And I’m french, so my english is quite rusty 'cause I don’t use it in everyday life…
But thans for the advice :slight_smile:

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