Essential kanji for reading newspapers?

[fixelbrumpf]

I recently scored a part-time job at the German office of a Japanese newspaper (yay!) and I was told it didn't really matter that my Japanese isn't that good yet as long as my English is up to scratch, which I think it is.

Still, I may have to do some reading and I haven't really dared to start reading any Japanese newspapers yet, as I kept on reading you need to know at least all of the jouyou kanji to get the gist of the articles. Are there any kanji that only occur in newspapers? I know nationalities are often written in kanji in newspapers, are there any other "special cases"? Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Maciamo]

Maybe the best for you is to read Japanese news sites on the Internet (asahi, yomiuri, mainichi, yahoo...) and experiment for yourself. If you find kanji you don't know then "copy and paste" them to JREF's online dictionary and they'll be translated. Good way to learn fast.

 

[PaulTB]

Are there any kanji that only occur in newspapers? I know nationalities are often written in kanji in newspapers, are there any other "special cases"? Thanks a lot in advance.

I wouldn't worry too @@@. If the odd word in 10 or @@@ is unreadable it generally doesn't slow you down that much.

 

[Elizabeth]

I seem to recall a similiar question posted probably six months or so ago from someone wanting to create a random flash card program for commonly found newspaper words.
There may not have been any responses, but it still may be worth searching for.

 

[fixelbrumpf]

Thanks a lot, guys, I'll do some digging. Maciamo, by "Mainichi" did you mean MSN Mainichi Interactive? It was the first Google hit.

 

[Ewok85]

I'd say apart from joyo kanji list the hardest thing would be jinmei (name) kanji.

 

[Elizabeth]

Nihon no 4 dai shimbun (4 largest papers) wa Asahi, Sankei, Yomiuri, Mainichi desu.
Sorezore onaji kiji demo kakikata ya bunshou ga chigatteite kurabetemiru to totemo ii benkyou ni naru to omoimasune.

 

[David Hallgren]

Check this out: Japanese Newspaper Word Frequency List - Flash Quizzes

Hope it helps!

 

[fixelbrumpf]

Check this out: Japanese Newspaper Word Frequency List - Flash Quizzes

Hope it helps!

Wow, that is one cool site. Thanks a lot!