How do schools teach Japanese words that use a higher-level kanji than the learner is familiar with?


So lets say that I'm going through my Japanese textbook, and I'm I see a page
of vocabulary. This page of vocabulary contains such words as:

> 寝る｛ねる｝ (to sleep)
>
> 晩｛ばん｝御｛ご｝飯｛はん｝ (Dinner)

The kanji in 寝る is not taught until middle school, and neither is 御. 晩 is not
taught until the 6th grade. The textbook that I am currently using is an
introductory one. As such, I am familiar with very few kanji, and certainly
not these ones. If I was an elementary schooler in Japan, how would I go about
learning these terms that are quite ubiquitous in everyday speech? Would I
just learn the kana for them, and then learn how to write them properly down
the line? Or would I learn to write the word with kanji without actually
knowing what the kanji mean?

**Background:** I'm making flash cards right now and I'm trying to figure out
if I should just learn the kana forms or if I should try to memorize the words
as Kanji + Kana forms and simply learn the meanings of the kanji later.




_This is mostly a suggestion rather than an answer but is too long to post as
a comment and is meant to provide a reasonable point of view, not a hard
fact._

I suggest you learn the word with the Kanji as is, and worry about learning
the individual meaning of the Kanji later.

Part of the reason I suggest this is because when you know that the Kanji
belongs in the word, it becomes easier to read text whenever this word
appears. As you study more Kanji, you acquire a sense of deduction/reduction
when it comes to tracing possible meanings to Kanji that over time, you might
figure it out.

For example, take 晩御飯 as a good example. Suppose you learn/already know that 晩
is evening, and 飯 is meal. You might not know that 御 is an honorific yet, but
that doesn't subtract from the fact that the word 晩御飯 is _dinner_. However, if
you know that 御飯｛ごはん｝ is always in a word about a meal, but you begin to learn
that the Kanji 御 shows up in words and phrases like 御茶｛おちゃ｝and 御嬢{おじょう}さん, you
might make the inference that it is probably an honorific prefix (which it
is). You didn't need to research to know that that Kanji holds this meaning
and words that contain it likely have that meaning.

The other part of the reason is that, sometimes, you will find compound Kanji
words that utilize Kanji in a way that do not line up with the Kanji's
individual meaning. Oftentimes this is because the Kanji exists solely to
provide the sound for the word, and not to provide meaning to the word. It
might sound like a contradiction, but in reality, learning the individual
Kanji does not guarantee that you will be able to know the proper vocabulary
for things. As a matter of fact, focusing on just learning Kanji will probably
render you less able to use the vocabulary that most people use, and you'll
sound visibly non-native.

Likewise, it's just as important to know when a Kanji can be written in just
Kana, and whether most people do that or not. It won't come as a curveball to
read 晩御飯 even if you yourself, as do most people, write it 晩ご飯 instead, or 御茶
as お茶, for example.

As I mentioned before, you absolutely should learn the Kanji, but you may want
to wait before you delve in learning all of the possible readings and its
singular meaning, if the context is beyond you at the moment. My personal rule
of thumb is, if the Kanji shows up in more than 3 vocabulary words that you
should know, it's probably time to investigate the individual meaning of the
Kanji, and try and understand what inherent connection there is between the
three (or more) words that feature the same Kanji.




_This is mostly a suggestion rather than an answer but is too long to post as
a comment and is meant to provide a reasonable point of view, not a hard
fact._

I suggest you learn the word with the Kanji as is, and worry about learning
the individual meaning of the Kanji later.

Part of the reason I suggest this is because when you know that the Kanji
belongs in the word, it becomes easier to read text whenever this word
appears. As you study more Kanji, you acquire a sense of deduction/reduction
when it comes to tracing possible meanings to Kanji that over time, you might
figure it out.

For example, take 晩御飯 as a good example. Suppose you learn/already know that 晩
is evening, and 飯 is meal. You might not know that 御 is an honorific yet, but
that doesn't subtract from the fact that the word 晩御飯 is _dinner_. However, if
you know that 御飯｛ごはん｝ is always in a word about a meal, but you begin to learn
that the Kanji 御 shows up in words and phrases like 御茶｛おちゃ｝and 御嬢{おじょう}さん, you
might make the inference that it is probably an honorific prefix (which it
is). You didn't need to research to know that that Kanji holds this meaning
and words that contain it likely have that meaning.

The other part of the reason is that, sometimes, you will find compound Kanji
words that utilize Kanji in a way that do not line up with the Kanji's
individual meaning. Oftentimes this is because the Kanji exists solely to
provide the sound for the word, and not to provide meaning to the word. It
might sound like a contradiction, but in reality, learning the individual
Kanji does not guarantee that you will be able to know the proper vocabulary
for things. As a matter of fact, focusing on just learning Kanji will probably
render you less able to use the vocabulary that most people use, and you'll
sound visibly non-native.

Likewise, it's just as important to know when a Kanji can be written in just
Kana, and whether most people do that or not. It won't come as a curveball to
read 晩御飯 even if you yourself, as do most people, write it 晩ご飯 instead, or 御茶
as お茶, for example.

As I mentioned before, you absolutely should learn the Kanji, but you may want
to wait before you delve in learning all of the possible readings and its
singular meaning, if the context is beyond you at the moment. My personal rule
of thumb is, if the Kanji shows up in more than 3 vocabulary words that you
should know, it's probably time to investigate the individual meaning of the
Kanji, and try and understand what inherent connection there is between the
three (or more) words that feature the same Kanji.

