Write the reading of the following kanji in hiragana!


I just started learning Japanese and I'm trying to understand the whole kanji
thing. The book I'm using gives some kanjis and then some exercise of the
type: "Write the reading of the following kanji in hiragana", follows. I don't
really get them. Like this example:

  1. 男子トイレ and according to the answer sheet the book provides, the reading of this word is だんし.

Can someone please explain what is going on here, what is happening with the
extra katakana there is in the word? Are these two different words or are they
together. And how do you decide which reading (Chinese, Japanese, irregular)
you use? Or, is it by pure memorization?




There is a lot of memorization involved for new learners of Japanese.

Let me separate your points... In this case, the katakana you're confused by
is a second word, and according to your text instructions, you can safely
ignore it. Though you should probably try and memorize your katakana and
hiragana readings as soon as possible, since they are sound based and should
not be all that hard. A few hours with flashcards does a lot of good for
memorizing the kana.

Secondly, it might help you to know that most Japanese kanji use their
Japanese reading when standing "alone", but switch to their Chinese reading
when combined with other kanji. It's not a perfect "either/or" situation, but
it is _often_ true, as it is in this case.

It may be hard to memorize every reading of 男 and every reading of 子, but the
combination of those two, 男子 , is a very very common word in Japanese, so you
should do your best to memorize that pairing and its reading. As you might
guess from what I said above, it's the Chinese reading. As you found in the
book, the reading is だんし. If you know the anime "Daily Lives of High School
Boys", you will have heard this word dozens if not hundreds of times. It's
literally in the title. ^_^




There is a lot of memorization involved for new learners of Japanese.

Let me separate your points... In this case, the katakana you're confused by
is a second word, and according to your text instructions, you can safely
ignore it. Though you should probably try and memorize your katakana and
hiragana readings as soon as possible, since they are sound based and should
not be all that hard. A few hours with flashcards does a lot of good for
memorizing the kana.

Secondly, it might help you to know that most Japanese kanji use their
Japanese reading when standing "alone", but switch to their Chinese reading
when combined with other kanji. It's not a perfect "either/or" situation, but
it is _often_ true, as it is in this case.

It may be hard to memorize every reading of 男 and every reading of 子, but the
combination of those two, 男子 , is a very very common word in Japanese, so you
should do your best to memorize that pairing and its reading. As you might
guess from what I said above, it's the Chinese reading. As you found in the
book, the reading is だんし. If you know the anime "Daily Lives of High School
Boys", you will have heard this word dozens if not hundreds of times. It's
literally in the title. ^_^

