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Question to Teacher: How come Kanji readings are sometimes Hiragana and sometimes Katakana?
Course 3 Lesson 3: My Loud Mother ()

Gangis

Post Date: 2003-08-31 15:58:38

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2003 Jul 13

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Hey,

I noticed one thing. Some Kanji has readings that are in both Hiragana and Katakana. It's kind of confusing because I thought Kanji were derived from Chinese and were "attached" to Hiragana since Hiragana was based on domestic words. Could you please help clear it up?　ありがとう！

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JFZ_George

Post Date: 2003-08-31 16:13:09

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1997 Aug 25

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This is because the KUN YOMI also refered to as the Japanese Reading of the Kanji is always written in Hiragna. However the ON YOMI also refered to as the Chinese Readings of the Kanji are written in Katakana. This is just how it is done in Japan. You can consider that the Chinese readings of the Kanji are not native Japanese readings and this is maybe why Katakana is used instead of Hiragana.

It isn't that way to be confusing but instead is that way to keep track of which reading is being learned.

I hope this had cleared it up a bit.

George @ YesJapan.com