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Even when I think I've memorized how to read a particular kanji, 人 (ひと) for
example, and try to read other words I find that it's also pronounced じん...and
I'm sure it probably has many other readings.

Should readings just be taken on a case-by-case basis / word-by-word basis? Is
there any point to memorizing a single kanji reading and applying it else
where or is there some structure to when each reading is used?
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kanji readings
How are the different pronunciations of kanji used, such as onyomi and kunyomi?
Both strategies have their place, depending on _which_ set of readings you're
studying at a given time.

# 音読み

When you're studying 音読み【おんよみ】(the Chinese-derived readings), it's best to
learn the sound first, and then learn a couple of words that use it with each
reading so that you can get a sense of when it's used.

To use your 人 example, learn that it's pronounced じん, then find words that use
じん—things like 日本人【にほんじん】 and 人類【じんるい】. Then move on to the next reading (にん)
and do the same: 人間【にんげん】、上人【じょうにん】, etc. The words don't have to be exotic;
as a matter of fact, picking ones that you commonly use is ideal when
possible.

The great thing about this strategy is that it enables you to make educated
guesses at new words if you haven't seen them before, but know the character's
meanings and probable readings. You won't always get it right on the first
try, but the skill refines itself over time and practice.

# 訓読み

One of the biggest mistakes I made with 訓読み【くんよみ】(native Japanese readings)
was to start out learning many of them as just readings, devoid of distinct
meaning. Let's take an example:

> 見：み・る、み・える、み・せる

The character 見 has a collection of general meanings regarding vision ("look",
"see", etc.). But if all you know about it is that it has to do with seeing
and you have 3 possible verbs to use, how do you tell which one?

In cases like this, it's best to suck it up and put in a bit of extra effort
to learn the actual meanings of the words associated with the readings. In
this case:

  * 見る【みる】: to see
  * 見える【みえる】: to be seen; to appear
  * 見せる【みせる】: to show

As you can see (forgive the pun), the general meaning of "see" isn't
completely off the mark, but the choice of which verb to use depends on which
dimension of that meaning you're trying to convey.

Another thing to be aware of is that sometimes some 訓読み are more commonly used
in conjunction with something else, instead of as standalone words. Moving
back to your 人 example, we have the following:

> 人：ひと、り、と

In this case, 人【ひと】 can stand on its own, meaning "person". The other two mean
"person" as well, but in slightly different contexts:

  * り is used as a counter for people when using Japanese numbers (ie. 一人【ひとり】、二人【ふたり】. These usually switch over to 人【にん】 appended to Chinese numbers starting with 3: 三人【さんにん】、十人【じゅうにん】, etc.)
  * と is used in some words that combine two 訓読み readings to refer to "one who does something". For example, 狩人【かりうど】 combines the verb 狩る【かる】 ("to hunt") and と (slurred into ど) to create "hunter". It also appears at the end of some names (e.g. 隼人【はやと】).

# Prioritization

Just because a reading is listed under a kanji doesn't _necessarily_ mean
you're going to find many examples of it out in the wild, especially as a
foreigner. 生 famously has about 20 readings, but many of them (such as
な・す、む・す、and お・う) really don't come up often, while others overlap with
contextually more specific characters (活ける【いける】、産む【うむ】). Likewise, KANJIDIC
(which is the source of most free online kanji dictionaries) has occasional
errors or archaic/hard-to-find readings (e.g. it lists 二び【ふたたび】, which is a
valid reading, but rather
[obscure](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sci.lang.japan/S_ssBOZ7d-4/neEC9Ffp8YsJ)).

In short, if you're having trouble finding examples of a reading in use, don't
stress over it; move on to the next one on the list or ask a native speaker to
help provide you with an example.
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Most of the time, kanji are used to write **words** or **parts of words**
--prefixes, suffixes, and so on. To know which reading is appropriate, you
have to know the relevant Japanese words or parts of words.

For example, look at the following:

> にほん **じん** _'Japanese person/people'_  
>  アメリカ **じん** _'American(s)'_  
>  がいこく **じん** _'foreigner(s)'_

Here, we have a suffix じん meaning "person". As you can see, it attaches to
nouns that denote places people are from. That's not the only way じん can be
used, but it's a pattern you need to learn. And once you know this pattern,
you can read the following:

> 日本 **人** にほん **じん** (not *にほん **にん** )  
>  アメリカ **人** アメリカ **じん** (not *アメリカ **にん** )  
>  外国 **人** がいこく **じん** (not *がいこく **にん** )

There are two ways you can learn this sort of pattern:

  * **Explicitly** : You can be taught that じん is used this way, and that it's written 人 in kanji.
  * **Implicitly** : You can learn words like the above and read new words _by analogy_ :

> Hmm, what's this word? It says フランス **人** , but I haven't learned that word
> yet, so how do I know which reading to use? Well, I know the words 日本 **人**
> and アメリカ **人** , and it's **じん** in both of those. _I bet this word is_ フランス
> **じん**!

You'll probably do a combination of both as you learn. When you do, you'll be
learning facts about the Japanese language--not just about kanji or readings,
but about how words and parts of words fit together and what they mean when
they do.

There are certain overarching patterns you'll notice pretty early on in your
studies, and you can fall back on these patterns when you aren't sure:

  * **_Kun_** readings tend to go with other **_kun_** readings.
  * **_On_** readings tend to go with other **_on_** readings.
  * Foreign words tend to go with **_on_** readings.

These rules are far from absolute! Although most compounds are _kun-kun_ or
_on-on_ , mixed compounds (called
[重箱読み](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%8D%E7%AE%B1%E8%AA%AD%E3%81%BF) and
[湯桶読み](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B9%AF%E6%A1%B6%E8%AA%AD%E3%81%BF)) are
still relatively common--much like how in English, we have hybrids like
_television_ (Greek-Latin) and _biathlon_ (Latin-Greek).

And there are overriding factors:

  * Some words or parts of words are **productive** , meaning they form new words or compounds readily. Our example of じん above is very productive; you can invent a place name and combine it with that name, if you like. Others are less productive, or not productive at all. For example, 一人 is ひとり, but り only appears in a very small set of words that you'll have to memorize. You can't form new words with it yourself.

  * Occasionally words are **suppletive** , meaning they take the place of an expected form. Although にん as a counter for people is very productive, the suppletive words ひとり and ふたり generally take the place of the expected forms いちにん and ににん. You have to memorize these words as exceptions. 

  * Sometimes different readings have **different meanings**. For example, 塞 has two _on_ readings, そく and さい. The former is used when it means ふさぐ _'obstruct'_ , and the latter when it means とりで _'fortress'_.

So you can't simply memorize a set of readings for each kanji, I'm afraid.
You'll have to learn Japanese words and parts of words, to learn how those are
written, and to make educated guesses based on what you've learned so far when
your knowledge falls short.
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