Now that I'm at a pretty high level of Japanese, my main challenges are (1) lack of vocab, (2) imitating native-like pronunciation, and (3) using natural phrasing.

Realistically, it'll be a while before I get those three to the same levels as adult native speakers of Japanese (and maybe I'll never get my pronunciation up there... unless I start taking my studies more seriously ^^).

It's interesting, because my challenges nowadays are radically different from what I was struggling with earlier in my studies. Namely, (1) kanji, (2) kanji, and (3) kanji.

My main issue with kanji tended to be recognizing the meaning of characters. I rarely worried about studying the readings of kanji, as I just learned them through learning vocabulary one word at a time.

Still, some kanji have a ridiculous amount of possible readings, meaning we'd have to learn quite a few words to be able to pronounce them in various sentences.

Case in point: 日.

(By the way, for more images of kanji and notes regarding their readings, check out our Instagram page.)

I'm guessing that many of you are highly familiar with this kanji, which means "sun" or "day," since it is the most commonly used kanji character in all of Japanese.

But do you know all of its readings?

They are...

Kunyomi Reading: ひ, -び, -か (hi, -bi, -ka)
Onyomi Reading: ジツ, ニチ (jitsu, nichi)

↑ There are more than that many readings for 日 if we include irregular readings, which we'll be doing in this lesson.

But studying readings in isolation is kind of a waste of time.

Let's learn vocabulary instead:

(The readings of 日 are written in bold hiragana below.)

日（ひ // day; sun）
１日 or 一日（いちにち // one day）
２日 or 二日 （ふつか // two days; the second [day of the month]）
日曜日（にちようび // Sunday）
祝日（しゅくじつ // national holiday; public holiday）

Also, here are words containing 日 that have irregular readings (so just learn the entire word as-is):

日本（にほん・にっぽん // Japan）
今日（きょう // today）
１日 or 一日（ついたち // the first [day of the month]）

Be sure to note that １日／一日 can have different readings and meanings depending on how it is used in a sentence. I've forgotten that the word １日 (ついたち // the first [day of the month]) existed about 1,000 times in the past, incorrectly saying １日 (いちにち // one day). It doesn't help that ２日 (ふつか) can mean both "the second [day of the month]" and "two days."

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Disclaimer: Before you go into panic mode at that long list of words, all with different readings for 日, note that this is an extreme example. For most of the kanji we learn, there will only be 1-3 readings. (You: "Only 1-3?" Me: "Yeah, sorry.")

It's a bit ironic that 日 is the most common character and is pretty easy to write and memorize the meaning of... but is ridiculously hard to memorize all of the readings for. That's the purpose of this lesson!

All of the words listed above are very common, so if we can just memorize those words, then we'll naturally be learning the readings for 日 as well.

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Maybe these sentences will help this variety of words and readings stick...

日本は島国です。
にほん　は　しまぐに　です。
Japan is an island country.
Literally: “Japan + は + island country + です.”

４月１日はエイプリルフールです。
しがつ　ついたち　は　エイプリルフール　です。
April 1st is April Fools’ Day.
Literally: “April + the first + は + April Fools’ + です.”

コンビニのバイトは１日で辞めた。
コンビニ　の　バイト　は　いちにち　で　やめた。
I quit my job at the convenience store after one day.
Literally: “convenience store + の + (part-time) job + は + one day + で + quit.”

今週の日曜日暇？
こんしゅう　の　にちようび　ひま？
Are you free this Sunday?
Literally: “this week + の + Sunday + spare time / free / bored?”

雨の日は出かけたくない。
あめ　の　ひ　は　でかけたくない。
I don’t want to go out on a rainy day.
Literally: “rain + の + day + は + don’t want to go out.”

メキシコは祝日が少ない。
メキシコ　は　しゅくじつ　が　すくない。
They have few public holidays in Mexico.
Literally: “Mexico + は + national [public] holiday + が + few.”

今日は１１月２日です。
きょう　は　じゅういちがつ　ふつか　です。
Today is November 2nd.
Literally: “today + は + November + the second + です.”

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Like I mentioned above, if you're a fellow kanji nerd, then you should check out our Instagram page.

Also, take a look at these past lessons:

- [NDL #110] - Different Kanji for the Same Words
- [NDL #225] - Kanji Close-Up: 得
- [NDL #226] - Another Kanji Close-Up: 得 → 損
- [NDL #253] - Enter the Kanji Combo Game
- [NDL #283] - Electric Kanji
- [NDL #320] - Kanji Close-Up: 月