Problems learning Japanese

[Adam J]

Hi, I need your help!:sorry: I'm in the midst of putting together an online Japanese course and I would really appreciate some feedback. What are the areas of Japanese that you found/ find the most difficult?
Or do you have any other questions to do with learning Japanese?
I'd be more than happy to help in return for your questions

 

[eeky]

These are the things I find hardest:

So many words seem so similar (in sound), and non-distinctive, and difficult to remember. My acquisition of vocabulary seems painfully slow.

Obviously learning the kanji is a lot of work, but I'm disappointed that even when I know the core meanings of all the kanji involved, I often can't figure out the meaning of kanji compounds.

I find it very hard to remember kanji readings -- much harder than meanings. There are so many characters, so many readings, and, again, so many are duplicated/non-distinctive.

 

[Adam J]

Thank you for your input.
I guess the lack of distinctivness stems from the fact that there are far less sound variations than we have in English.
As for the readings and meaning of kanji, which I often struggle with also, I find that most Japanese natives have to guess a lot of the time, too. Similar to us being unsure of the pronunciation or spelling of a word that we are unfamiliar with.

 

[eeky]

I find that most Japanese natives have to guess a lot of the time, too.

Surely native speakers don't have any problems with the vast majority of kanji encountered in everyday situations, do they? Are you just talking about difficult/obscure kanji?

 

[Glenn]

Definitely difficult readings for everyday kanji, like 日日是好日 (にちにち これ こうじつ), or 思しき (おぼしき). Well, maybe not the second one, but I did hear a Japanese girl read it おもしき once, and she was in college, so I figured it's probably one that trips people up.

 

[Adam J]

Yeah, most natives would be fine with the meanings and main readings of everyday kanji but depending on the context they're in, they may have trouble with the reading sometimes. And definitely with more obscure kanji. There are a lot to remember! Especially if you are talking about remembering all of the readings for all of the kanji you are required to learn in order to even read a newspaper for example.