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If I am going to print some text to give to backpackers, is adding furigana
worthwhile? It's important to avoid misunderstanding, but I would think people
coming from Japan to Spain would be fairly literate.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-07T14:33:32.393
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2017-02-09T05:35:57.713
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question
furigana
How useful is furigana for most adults and teenagers?
Some difficult kanji is unreadable for some adult in Japan. For example taro
aso or shinzo abe couldn't read 踏襲 未曽有 云々(toshu,mizou,unnnun). Japanese
standard reader may dislike furigana. On the other side, furigana is useful
for kids or foreigner.
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2017-02-07T15:23:15.270
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2017-02-07T15:23:15.270
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answer
Furigana is basically not necessary because backpackers are not elementary
school kids. Adding furigana to easy words can even be disturbing. Ordinary
news articles written in Japanese have almost zero furigana. There are many
difficult words which native speakers cannot read without furigana, but simple
guidance text should not contain such difficult words in the first place. One
exception is uncommon kanji proper nouns which can be very difficult. But
since your text seems to be about Spain, this should not be relevant.

At any rate, I recommend you have that text proofread by a native speaker :)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-07T23:26:09.597
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2017-02-07T23:26:09.597
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answer
Unless the write want readers to read the kanji in an unconventional way
(e.g., 歳月｛とき｝) or if the kanji is non-regular use, i.e., 表外字 _hyōgaiji_ (e.g.,
蘇｛よみがえ｝る), there will be absolutely no need for furigana if the intended
audience is adults/teenagers. Meanwhile, there is no reason to include
difficult kanji anyway; these usages appear almost only in literary works.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-09T05:35:57.713
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2017-02-09T05:35:57.713
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answer