I am using "A Guide To Remembering Kanji" by Kenneth G. Henshall

I have a question..

Also I cannot type in Kanji so bear with me..


An example.. For the Kanji meaning "One" the on readings are Ichi and Itsu and the Kun reading is -hito.

But when they show compound examples for one person and Ichi Gatsu both are in Kanji compounds rather than telling me how to tell why this reading is read with the kun reading rather than the on reading.


I am just confused a bit on how to read the Kanji that way.

There is no rule that will tell you when to use which reading. There are general guidelines, like "on readings in compounds", but there are also plenty of exceptions, including words which are a mix of kun/on readings and words which aren't read using either kun or on.

The "why" is historical - remember that kanji were imported from China over a period of time, and applied to existing words, which is why there are loads of readings for some kanji and lots of exceptions.

The only thing to do is to learn the vocabulary, particularly for those exceptional cases. There are kanji which have only one reading, or which have lots of readings but only one or two which are common in compounds. As your vocabulary increases you'll get better at making educated guesses about the reading of compounds you don't know.

Numbers & counting is an area which you're probably better off learning from some sort of textbook about counters.

(If you want to type in Japanese, you need some sort of IME - what operating system do you have?)

Ah, It's just difficult for me because even if I do learn the readings I'll never know how to actually read a word.

oh and it's a Windows 7 I believe

It's not different for anybody else, including native speakers - they're just better at making educated guesses (have a wider vocabulary). That's why people say to learn words, not the readings by themselves.

See here for info on installing Japanese language support.