Have you noticed that after every comic there’s a transcript? And have you noticed that you can copy and paste kanji from this transcript? So if you can’t remember a word I’m using you can always just paste it into your favorite electronic dictionary to get the pronunciation and definition.
Although in the long run it’s probably better for you to do your best to memorize words when I first introduce them. And when you do forget a kanji it’s probably best if you try to look it up by radical or stroke-count before taking the easy way out and just copy pasting.
Transcript
言語ガールズ #47
Tough Love
Yellow: I was looking at a Japanese comic book and they had a bunch of tiny hiragana next to every kanji.
Blue: Those are called “furigana”.
Blue: Furigana are pronunciation guides for the kanji. They show up mainly in works for children and teens who haven’t memorized all the kanji yet.
Blue: They can be really useful to us foreigners too.
Yellow: How come our comic doesn’t have any furigana?
Blue: By using pure kanji we force the audience to practice their memorization and dictionary skills.
Yellow: Are you sure it’s not just cutting corners?
Blue: My mother always said you should give people the benefit of the doubt.