On’yomi is the imported Chinese reading of a kanji, which came with the kanji when they were imported from China. Kun’yomi is the native Japanese reading, from where kanji were applied to Japanese words that already existed.

General rule of thumb is that you use kun’yomi when a kanji’s standing on its own or has tacked-on okurigana, and on’yomi when it’s in a compound word with other kanji, but there’s about a thousand and one exceptions.

For example, 話 uses its kun’yomi はなし when it’s standing alone. With okurigana, as 話す, it’s read as just はな. In a multi-kanji word like 電話, it uses its on’yomi, わ (the word is read as でんわ).

An exception: 川口, despite being a multi-kanji word, uses kun’yomi for both kanji (it’s かわぐち). I think in general, the more concrete and natural-world-themed a word is, the more likely it’ll be to use kun’yomi. 川口 = river mouth.

Your best bet is to just start learning vocab, and you’ll start to get a feel for what readings to use where over time.

You really can’t avoid learning kanji altogether. It’s like learning the alphabet in English but never learning any words.

七 is a weird one in that its readings tend to be fairly interchangeable. I have heard ななにん used for 七人, but I think しちにん is more common.

That said, 七人 is not seven “things” but seven people. When he says “things” he means generic items without a specific counter word. これを七つください = “seven of these, please” uses ななつ.

That said, 七 tends to veer towards なな rather than しち when attached to counter words – 人 just happens to be one of the ones that goes the other way more often than not. Your children would be 七歳 = ななさい = seven years old.

I’m not having any issue. When I load textfugu.com/#top while logged in, it redirects me to my dashboard, but that’s the only redirecting I see.

Maybe it’s those stupid #top anchors that lurk at the end of every link?

Or since you can load chapter 1 just fine, maybe there’s an issue with your account. Maybe e-mail koichi about it. koichi@textfugu.com

Yeah, they’re not quite the same thing. The “prolonged sound mark” (called 長音符 = ちょうおんぷ in Japanese) is not quite an en- or em-dash. Nor is it a kanji 一.

Though since ロブ brought it up, what happens if you push the minus key on the numpad?

Fortunately, Japan loves Kentucky culture. Or at least, KFC.

That’s the same thing, right? =P

So, when you reach the point at which you’ve paid enough in recurring payments to equal a lifetime payment anyway, you get awarded a lifetime membership. It’s not automatic, though – maybe e-mail koichi and ask. Even if you’ve not been here enough to earn a lifetime membership, he can answer your question better than us anyway. =)

koichi@textfugu.com

I’d love to hang out in Japan with you. You’ll need to buy me a ticket, though…

Justin wrote:

Example: “i before e except after c”? Nope.

Fun fact: there are more words that break that rule than follow it. =P