Kanji is one of the three alphabets utilised in Japanese. Unlike the other two alphabets, hiragana and katakana, kanji is symbol-based, meaning that there are immense quantities of letters, and each letter represents a concept rather than a sound. Admittedly, kanji can be said to be more about the Japanese language than Japan itself, but I disagree with this sentiment. Kanji is part of day-to-day life in Japan, and in anywhere that is not a really big city, a knowledge of kanji can be an absolute lifesaver.
But, is kanji cool? Obviously I believe it is, because I am writing an article for a website about ‘Cool Japan’ on kanji. But some people might not agree. To many westerners (and people from other cultures) learning Japanese as a second language, kanji is the bane of their existence because as an alphabet it is completely different from the English alphabet and the alphabet of many European languages, as well as completely different from the other two Japanese alphabets. But when you take a moment to learn about kanji and see how it works, it is actually pretty amazing, and in my admittedly biased, problem-solving, Linguistics-obsessed opinion, it is one of the coolest things about Japan.
There are thousands of different kanji characters. Many of us second language learners are told that we should learn 2000 of them or so if we are serious about becoming fluent in Japanese. Kanji are used to make lexical (content) words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), while the other two alphabets are used to make other lexical words, hiragana is used to make function words (prepositions, modals, auxiliaries, etc), and katakana is used to make foreign lexical words, 95% of which are derived from English.
Each kanji has a basic meaning, often created by the meanings of the individual parts of the kanji (called ‘radicals’), and these kanji can be put together to create more complicated words. The more kanji there are in a particular word, the more complicated that word. In this article I will present a few examples of different kanji, and show how they come together to create different layers of meaning.
Some Individual Kanji
The most basic individual kanji are one-radical symbols. These are said to have evolved from drawings of the things they symbolise. So 日means ‘sun’, and co-incidentally ‘day’, 田 means ‘rice field’ (yes, I think it should mean ‘window’ too), and 木 means ‘tree’. The vast majority of kanji are made from two or three of these kanji compacted and fitted together. For example, 田 (which also means ‘brain’) and 心 (‘heart’, or ‘spirit’) come together to make the kanji 思, which means ‘to think’, or more literally, the combination of the brain and the spirit working together. When three木 are grouped together, you get the kanji 森, which means ‘lots of trees,’ or, more simply, ‘forest’. This system of ‘building’ kanji can be used to help you remember them as well, and it is the way that kanji is taught in James Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji series. The kanji for ‘specialty’, 専, for instance, is made up of three radicals. 十 (‘ten’), 田, and 寸 (‘glue’, in this case). With these meanings you can make up a ‘specialty’ story, like ‘a person’s SPECIALTIES are gathered like TEN RICE FIELDS, each containing one specialty, GLUED together’.
Some Kanji Compounds
The idea of building individual kanji to make new kanji branches out into the realm of combining kanji to make new words. For example, if you want to say something like ‘doctor’, you combine the kanji 医 (‘medicine’, as in the practice of) with 者 (‘person’) to make 医者, ‘doctor’. Then if you wanted to say ‘dentist’, which is a more specific type of doctor, you add 歯 (‘tooth’) and make the word 歯医者. The majority of Japanese words and concepts are made this way. ‘Footpath’, for instance, is 歩道 (‘walking street’). ‘Movie’ is 映画 (‘projecting picture’), and ‘cinema’ is 映画館 (movie building). One of my personal favourites is ‘vending machine’, which is built from 自動 (‘automatic’, lit: ‘self-moving’), 販売 (‘sell’, made from two kanji that mean ‘sell’) and 機 (‘machine’) – 自動販売機.
In conclusion, kanji, whether you as a foreigner may like it or not, is an integral part of Japan. A lot of Japanese learners, and indeed some native Japanese speakers, may begrudge kanji as it can be pretty difficult to learn and memorise. As far as I’m concerned, however, if you can learn how kanji work and learn how to embrace kanji as a unique, fascinating alphabet, it is one of the coolest things about Japan.
Thanks to jisho.org and Remembering the Kanji Vol. 1 for the insight.
But, is kanji cool? Obviously I believe it is, because I am writing an article for a website about ‘Cool Japan’ on kanji. But some people might not agree. To many westerners (and people from other cultures) learning Japanese as a second language, kanji is the bane of their existence because as an alphabet it is completely different from the English alphabet and the alphabet of many European languages, as well as completely different from the other two Japanese alphabets. But when you take a moment to learn about kanji and see how it works, it is actually pretty amazing, and in my admittedly biased, problem-solving, Linguistics-obsessed opinion, it is one of the coolest things about Japan.
There are thousands of different kanji characters. Many of us second language learners are told that we should learn 2000 of them or so if we are serious about becoming fluent in Japanese. Kanji are used to make lexical (content) words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), while the other two alphabets are used to make other lexical words, hiragana is used to make function words (prepositions, modals, auxiliaries, etc), and katakana is used to make foreign lexical words, 95% of which are derived from English.
Each kanji has a basic meaning, often created by the meanings of the individual parts of the kanji (called ‘radicals’), and these kanji can be put together to create more complicated words. The more kanji there are in a particular word, the more complicated that word. In this article I will present a few examples of different kanji, and show how they come together to create different layers of meaning.
Some Individual Kanji
The most basic individual kanji are one-radical symbols. These are said to have evolved from drawings of the things they symbolise. So 日means ‘sun’, and co-incidentally ‘day’, 田 means ‘rice field’ (yes, I think it should mean ‘window’ too), and 木 means ‘tree’. The vast majority of kanji are made from two or three of these kanji compacted and fitted together. For example, 田 (which also means ‘brain’) and 心 (‘heart’, or ‘spirit’) come together to make the kanji 思, which means ‘to think’, or more literally, the combination of the brain and the spirit working together. When three木 are grouped together, you get the kanji 森, which means ‘lots of trees,’ or, more simply, ‘forest’. This system of ‘building’ kanji can be used to help you remember them as well, and it is the way that kanji is taught in James Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji series. The kanji for ‘specialty’, 専, for instance, is made up of three radicals. 十 (‘ten’), 田, and 寸 (‘glue’, in this case). With these meanings you can make up a ‘specialty’ story, like ‘a person’s SPECIALTIES are gathered like TEN RICE FIELDS, each containing one specialty, GLUED together’.
Some Kanji Compounds
The idea of building individual kanji to make new kanji branches out into the realm of combining kanji to make new words. For example, if you want to say something like ‘doctor’, you combine the kanji 医 (‘medicine’, as in the practice of) with 者 (‘person’) to make 医者, ‘doctor’. Then if you wanted to say ‘dentist’, which is a more specific type of doctor, you add 歯 (‘tooth’) and make the word 歯医者. The majority of Japanese words and concepts are made this way. ‘Footpath’, for instance, is 歩道 (‘walking street’). ‘Movie’ is 映画 (‘projecting picture’), and ‘cinema’ is 映画館 (movie building). One of my personal favourites is ‘vending machine’, which is built from 自動 (‘automatic’, lit: ‘self-moving’), 販売 (‘sell’, made from two kanji that mean ‘sell’) and 機 (‘machine’) – 自動販売機.
In conclusion, kanji, whether you as a foreigner may like it or not, is an integral part of Japan. A lot of Japanese learners, and indeed some native Japanese speakers, may begrudge kanji as it can be pretty difficult to learn and memorise. As far as I’m concerned, however, if you can learn how kanji work and learn how to embrace kanji as a unique, fascinating alphabet, it is one of the coolest things about Japan.
Thanks to jisho.org and Remembering the Kanji Vol. 1 for the insight.
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