Hip-Pop Palace Forums :: Kanji Overview

Nephie15 · Web Headmistress

Kanji are Chinese Characters that are used in the Japanese writing system. Most are Simplified Chinese Characters, but there are Traditional Chinese Characters that pop up too. There are also Chinese characters that are 'simplified' differently in Japanese to supposedly make it easier for Japanese writers.

The concept of reading Kanji seems to follow the reading patterns of Classical Chinese, seeing as Kanji was introduced by Japanese scholars who were very intrigued in the philosophical qualities of Classical Chinese in compared to modern, which in comparison, has become heavily colloquial and generalized.

The exact number of Kanji is unknown but is estimated to be over 40,000. Don't worry, you should be okay knowing about 6,000.

Knowing all of them might sound nice, but no one person does, not even a native Japanese. The reason I say you should be okay knowing 6,000 kanji is because that is the estimated number of how many Kanji are tested in the average Kanji test.

The Japanese have grown attached to the idea of giving Kanji readings to shorten the writing process. If you want to get technical, they are used to express Japanese terms on a phonetic level. Besides, it's a heck of a lot easier for a Japanese to read a kanji with a specific meaning than read every single Hiragana character.

Kanji is used for mostly Nouns, Verb stems, and some Adjectives and adverbs; particles are never written in Kanji. Japanese school children are taught Hiragana and Katakana first (in that order), then learn Kanji starting in 1st grade, the order depends on their textbook. The Kanji get more & more complicated as they go through the school system. By the time they graduate high school, they are expected to know 2,000 Kanji.

In a formal Japanese class, and this coming from a college perspective, foreigners get an introduction to Kanji in a Japanese 1 class along with beginning speech skills, in Japanese 2 you learn Kanji by chapter, depending on the textbook you use. In my text book, I was supposed to learn 90 Kanji in Japanese 2, which I recently just passed.

Foreigners usually learn 'handy' Kanji, not popular Kanji, which are two different things.

So to cover the Popular Kanji, I will do separate 'Popular Kanji' lessons too.

Oh, and to destroy this little myth:

Just because Kanji are Chinese characters does NOT mean if you learn Chinese you will have an advantage in learning Kanji. They are two totally different things. Yes, Kanji On-readings are based on Mandarin Chinese readings, but note that I said BASED.

As in On readings of Kanji are imitating Mandarin Chinese readings of the same character. The only thing actual Chinese script and Kanji have in common is they're core meaning. For example:

The Japanese word for 'friend' is 'Tomodachi'.

In Kanji, it is:

友達

The Mandarin Chinese word for 'friend' is 'péngyou' and spelt '朋友'.

Having said that, there are some Kanji that are not written the same way as in Chinese. I should know, I'm studying both.

See? so, bottom line:

Learning Chinese: Absolutely NO Kanji Advantage.

Guest

I have a question (sorry) ,but how do you read kanji if it has two different readings how do you read it? Just guess?

Nephie15 · Web Headmistress

It's not exactly guesswork....well, it is, but that's only half the thing.

Some Kanji have more than two readings, some have only one.

If you are to read Kanji you must first memorize the readings and remember weather they are the On or Kun readings. You use the On readings if a Kanji is compounded with (next to) other Kanji. If it is by itself and the character after it is either Hiragana or Katakana, you use Kun readings.

For Kanjis with more than two readings, most of it is guesswork. But if you are good with your Kanji, it's pretty easy to make out the word.