Why can't we put spaces between words? It's easy, particles would just become conjugations onto the end of words. As to meaning, well maybe the Japanese would not have so many homophones if they didn't use kanji. They would eventually stop using uncommon homophones, or alter them.
--There are so many I wouldn't see how you could create more words without creating more homophones in the process. Maybe if the split up vowels and consonants to not be in pairs, but it doesn't work like that. Some words like Kakeru have dozens of different meanings, especially taking into consideration verb conjugations. So you'd need a huge and prioritized section of government to regulate this. It would make the French and Spain regulations look like a diner menu compared to an encyclopedia.
I think it's evident that these days, kanji is more difficult to learn for children than an alphabet and spelling. There has been research into this. The Chinese are trying to simplify the mess that they have continued to add to. Adults in Japan are forgetting how to write, through lack of practice.
--You know, even going through this, countries that use chinese characters have some of the highest literacy rates in the world. As for the adults are forgetting to write, it's not as if they just stare at paper blankly. I think it's blown out of proportion, they just forget the full strokes of the kanji or miss some strokes. Basically, how people in whatever language don't spell right. Because of computers and spellcheck, we don't have to worry about our spelling so much to remember it, just passively have it. Even with Spanish, which is much easier to spell than English by miles, because of computers and it's uses people spell badly over time. I think it's something natural, and not exclusive or a bigger priority in Kanji.
However, I'm pretty sure I could still write something in fifty years if I stopped writing today.
--And your spelling would probably be terrible *_~
If alphabets weren't superior, there wouldn't be a million of them separately created in the world.
--This could just be a cause of cultural and present trends towards whichever direction in communication, not necessarily superiority over another. Most languages in the world are actually Tonal. However most western ones are not, and because modern culture and world politics is dominated by it today, it feels "normal" to use a system with simple stress systems while tonal languages are 'weird' and 'hard'.
How many character sets are there in the world? Maybe two, chinese and egyptian hieroglyphs. Korean has ditched characters, why not other countries?
--Korean has a lot more sounds than japanese. A lot more. Basically using an alphabet in this language is fine because there are so many unique combinations of sounds, that words have their own distinct shapes and sounds, therefore writing it letter per letter doesn't detract from that.
--I mean, yes, japanese could stop using characters, but in order to stop doing so they might as well make a different language. We, in the US, don't even want to switch to using the metric system. I don't think a country is going to toss their own tongue to the side.
koichi
· 1 year ago
vier gets a point for this speech :) Another thing to add is that kanji teaches kids all sorts of other things besides just kanji that phonetic alphabets do not. There was a study and comparison done on this, and this is all I remember from the outcome, but positive things do happen. Sorry I don't remember :(
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
agreed totally
irene
· 1 year ago
one week I hate kanji, the other week I love kanji... it's a tough relationship! but it's all very true what's written here though. it's hard work but in the end it's so worth it.
Jak
· 1 year ago
I agree, especially with #2. I'm still a beginner, but knowing what little kanji I do makes it a whole lot easier to read. Because then, sentences become like pictures and you just glance at them at understand the meaning of the word, rather than having to read each character if it's kana. Even if I can't remember how to pronounce a kanji sometimes, I still know what it means.
Livvi_Spatula
· 1 year ago
How many kanji are there, really? I know for Chinese there's about 74056 billion....
koichi
· 1 year ago
yeah, that's about the right number.
Really, though, I don't know if there is any set "number of kanji." I've heard so many different estimations...ranging from the tens of thousands down to the thousands. Of course, then you have to look at things like "are they talking about kanji you need to get by," or are they talking about all kanji, or blah blah blah. I bet it's in the tens of thousands, but you only need to know one or two thousand to get by comfortably. I'm sure someone else knows better than me, though.
tomususan
· 1 year ago
1000-2000 thousand, not THAT bad . On one website on guy is telling that 800 is engugh to be FLUENT READER in japanese... Ehhhh
クリス
· 1 year ago
Don't know how many are used in Japanese, but the book I'm using to study kanji provides 1,945 commonly used characters, 1,006 of which are the ones taught in the six years of elementary school. If there's more, I think I'll be fine sticking with the first thousand or so...
Livvi_Spatula
· 1 year ago
Well, that's heartening. Though why I'm worrying about kanji when I can't keep half the hiragana straight is a mystery.
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
what book are you using ?
クリス
· 1 year ago
Reading and Writing Japanese - 3rd Ed. by Florence Sakade
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
thanks !
クリス
· 1 year ago
The book is pretty good imo, but you might want to check if they have a newer version. I bought that 3rd Ed. quite some time ago.
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
ah ok right now I'm leaning by myself so every lil bit counts lol i will look for the newer version first I want to be as prepared as I can be before I take classes lol thanks !
St
· 1 year ago
7. Using more obscure kanji makes you seem more erudite.
8. Using kanji is more respectful towards the native speakers. I know this is nowadays a very unfashionable way of looking at it, but I fundamentally disagree with those people who claim that the proper usage of kanji (or grammar, or idiom, or whatever) isn't important because what really matters is that you "can get your point accross". I believe that it is a basic sign of respects towards the native speakers of any language that you show you are willing to take the hard road when it comes to learning their language.
JohtoKen
· 1 year ago
I can infer that this applies vice-versa to other languages such as English.
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
I completely agree with you St. When ever I e-mail my homestay mother, even if I don't know the kanji, I still make sure to use them for her sake. There's no point in me making things harder for her, when I can always quickly convert the kanji she sends me to hiragana to get their meanings.
paranoid
· 1 year ago
Seesmic video reply from Disqus.
eLsa
· 1 year ago
Having a Chinese background, i personally like kanji because MOST of the time the Chinese and Japanese characters have the same meanings, so it's easier to remember =P
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
yes unfortunately some of us aren't so lucky lol
~
· 1 year ago
While I only know 200 something, I'd have to agree on the kanji love. We went to Japan for 3 days and my mom was able to do all the communication for us via writing. (She's from Taiwan where they still use traditional characters... simplified ones are dumb! Boo!)
I'm also going to say that in Chinese children's books they have a lot of BoPoMoFo next to the characters... I'm sure someone else here had to learn that system in Chinese school. ...right?
NintendoExpedition
· 6 months ago
You are very fortunate. Even though some kanji meanings get distorted throughout the years they may not only have similar meanings, but also similar enunciations. What confuses me constantly is the on-yomi and kun-yomi readings. Perhaps years from now, the planets will align I will understand kanji.
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
What I've found that helps with the on-yomi and kun-yomi, is to not worry about them much at all. I just learn the kanji... and force it into my head, by example, how they are pronounced in different usages. Eventually, you just sorta get a "feeling" for how they should sound with other characters. The Japanese language, for the most part, has a very fluent feel to it and words like to flow..., so if it sounds kinda discombobulated saying it with one way, it could very like be said the other way.
Chester_King
· 1 year ago
One of the biggest complaints I hear about learning English is that so much of the language isn't spelled phonetically.
ief it wouz then moer piipel kuud lern it aend wii wuud all bii hapii.
I know that learning Kanji as well as a native speaker will never happen for me but I'll enjoy the process nonetheless... I've accepted without question that that is simply the way the Japanese language is written and understood.
But everybody here knows that Spanish is the best language in the world, ? NO ?
Good article
.
Fredy
· 1 year ago
¡Las lenguas foneticas son las mejores! (Phonetic languages are the best!) :D I remember when I was first spelling in school, I would think of English words in Spanish... "Because: 'be-kah-u-se'" "people: peh-o-pleh"
Spanish is cool! It's a cool language and I'm glad to have learned it first! English is cool too, but it's so wierd honestly. I'm not sure if I could handle if I wasn't in an English speaking country.
Japanese... is cool! ha. Phonetic language as well! All pure languages rock.
Chinese and Vietnamese... Tonal languages... wow... hahaha. They're kinda cool but just very difficult to pronounce. I'll stick to just counting in Vietnamese, which is all I can do. I'll try and learn Chinese later... like later, later and not right now, right now.
Speaking of all these langauges, whatever happened to that Rosetta Stone Article? :)
gary
· 1 year ago
LOL! I use the same trick! XD
WOTDsctoo
· 1 year ago
I open the article: "Wow six reasons!? I've never heard of this many!"
Then two of the reasons are it looks pretty and it could be worse? XD Ehhh, I guess it's true though.
But I have never thought/heard of the low readability of hiragana. This makes sense, and has provided a new perspective! :)
Fredy
· 1 year ago
YAY! Kanji! I think you've covered this before, but not with as much detail! Good article! This sucks to study all this kanji! But FAITO right? I heard Gokusen 3 is out. Ha!!! (Gokusen is not written in Kanji! Ohhh....) Also, once you actually learn it does feel good! I like just finding out random words that I can read in hiragana out there and recognize. As for the speed thing, I heard that reading in pictural or symbolic languages is much faster than reading alphabet based languages because the brain processes symbols much faster than it does reading and putting together letters.
insomniacgamer
· 1 year ago
kanji is the most important thing to learn in japanese IMO it can make or break you in your japanese abilities... a lot of teachers say to learn hiragana/katakana 1st before studying japanese but i would go ahead and say learn jouyou kanji using Heisig's Remembering the Kanji books before you even begin to learn japanese period. ( kanji.koohii.com is a great website that uses Heisig's techniques BTW) if you learn kanji 1st then you can apply the kanji to your vocabulary as you encounter them instead of just learning everything in stupid kana and having to backtrack everything you learned again to apply kanji to those words because you put off doing it for so long... if you learned the vocabulary in kanji the 1st time around you could just be further reinforcing the kanji in your brain with kanji heavy sentences as you progress!!! i think college courses that expect you to only have learned 500 kanji after 2 years of study are just retarded.... you can never become fluent that way >< kanji isn't that hard to learn anyways if people would stop complaining all the time... sheesh...
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
Althought you have a point insomniacgamer, I don't exactly agree. Even the native speakers in Japan don't learn 500 kanji in 2 years. Even though it might be slow learning, it really allows time for the kanji to soak into your head and for you to become completely comfortable with them.
futatsuki
· 1 year ago
OMG KANJI...... there is still just too much kanji to memorize..... I am gonna be learning kanji soon after my finals this year. Kanji letters are and art to me, they look nice and they somehow symbolize that they means. Lots of people may complain that there are just too much to remember as there are different strokes. Koichi, i was wondering if i could get an invitation for mixi??
Caitlin
· 1 year ago
I love kanji too but I tend to get frustrated with the 16+ stroke kanji. Hand cramps. I also find that it's affected the type of writing tools I like...0.7 pens out, 0.5 or smaller in.
GEWALT
· 1 year ago
Amen to that. I am slacker with Kanji these days. But when you know them, it makes reading so much easyer.
Kanji!
Vier
· 1 year ago
I agree completely with all the points. One more important aspect though, is that in order to build a vocabulary, Kanji is the key aspect. It would be almost impossible at average studying progress to have a wider lexicon without them due to homonyms, incredibly similar readings, and compound kanji words made up of 3-4. I don't know, maybe someone can, but I could never memorize 大統領選 just by hearing it or spelling it in roman letters.
With kanji you won't plateau in your studies.
PS Plus, even if you are a bit low on speaking skills, you can still impress with your kanji knowledge =) Its your secret weapon.
insomniacgamer
· 1 year ago
kanji are really easy to write if you break them down into primitive elements ><
buratto
· 1 year ago
I think kanji are amazing, not only they are needed for the reasons mentioned above, they are also pleasant to write once you know them. Or is it just me who thinks so? (artist mind)
Instead of being overwhelmed by 2015 kanji and thousands more of combinations, its essential to just relax and learn them as they come, just a few kanji a day. Then eventually it will all be fine
Stephen
· 1 year ago
Very good points all. Kanji rock.
oo0speed0oo
· 1 year ago
fredydb327 - I agree with you, but i never found english to be wierd. I grew up with spanish but never really learned it, just heard it spoken, and I just winged it in class and I always passed.
insomniacgamer - I agree with you 100%, I'm learning kanji and i'm up to 135 symbols and I see them everywhere, and its easier to hiragana later when u knock out 2,000 symbols lol.
クリス - What book are you using? I'm using "Heisig - Remembering The Kanji"
yeh the AJATT method is awesome... if you know the kanji, japanese is just as easy to learn as spanish IMO oo0speed0oo you should use kanji.koohii.com to help you with the heisig stories if you aren't already... they have a lot of user submitted kanji stories for 3007 kanji there ^_^
oo0speed0oo
· 1 year ago
thanx insomniacgamer. i just started (kanji.koohii.com) its a cool website. The only trouble i'm having is creating the charters on the computer (when using Mnemosyne). I just dled the files from online but i want to learn how to make the computer myself on the pc (typing characters)
phauna
· 1 year ago
I think it must be said that if Japan were to design a writing method in this day and age and knew of the other world writing methods, then they would discard kanji completely. Yes of course you need kanji to read and write japanese, however, would it really be so difficult to convert to an alphabet? With some simple compromises, of course it could work well.
Why can't we put spaces between words? It's easy, particles would just become conjugations onto the end of words. As to meaning, well maybe the Japanese would not have so many homophones if they didn't use kanji. They would eventually stop using uncommon homophones, or alter them.
I think it's evident that these days, kanji is more difficult to learn for children than an alphabet and spelling. There has been research into this. The Chinese are trying to simplify the mess that they have continued to add to. Adults in Japan are forgetting how to write, through lack of practice. However, I'm pretty sure I could still write something in fifty years if I stopped writing today. If alphabets weren't superior, there wouldn't be a million of them separately created in the world. How many character sets are there in the world? Maybe two, chinese and egyptian hieroglyphs.
Korean has ditched characters, why not other countries?
Tofugu_Erin
· 1 year ago
If kids hundreds of years ago could learn kanji, kids today shouldn't be any different. I seriously dislike the idea of changing a written language just to make it easier to learn.
oo0speed0oo
· 1 year ago
i agree, people are just getting lazier.
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
its scary how much the world is changing and all of the things we do now are gonna effect how we live later and not only us but other generations to come I think that keeping to the order of things is a much better way than changing it to make it easier to learn who wants to change a whole language ? if kids back then could do it then so can the ones now Its time ti put down that wii remote step away frm the Mario kart and study lol I had to put Nintendo in there cause love em lol
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
plus I wanted to see how far this will slant to the right lol srry its three in the morn and I'm easily amused obviously lo k I will stop now l
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
I agree! Although no language EVER stays the same over time, it doesn't mean that it needs a complete overhaul. If you think about it, Japanses also started out being written as only the Chinese characters for the aristocratic men. It wasn't until the poorer and the women started using hiragana that it was introduced and the language started to become official, and then katakana was added over time. Disregard any historical inaccuracies please XD It's been a little while since I brushed up on my Japanese history.
zattsu-ooru
· 1 year ago
In reference to how many kanji there are, i know that one of the most elite tests on Japanese, the Kanji Kentei on level 1, tests 6000. So an expert on Japanese would know about that many. A native speaker would know about 2000, but would daily use about 100-200. A fluent speaker (non-native) should know about 3000, i think.
gueru
· 1 year ago
I think you have to learn to love kanji.... some way they get into your psique and you get the logic of them... Something interesting happen to me: sometimes I don’t now how they sound but I can imagine what they mean.... maybe you just see one familiar next to another one familiar an you can imagine what they mean together... make sense??
GoddessCarlie
· 1 year ago
eek, my comment got losted, I don't think I could be bothered typing it up again...
Tofugu_Erin
· 1 year ago
I have a copy of it (the Tofugu staff is notified of all comments via email, including the actual text), if you'd like me to copy-pasta it somewhere. Let me know.
Chimiko
· 1 year ago
As a someone who's known Mandarin Chinese well at one time in my life, I really like learning Kanji because I know how to write and read half of the kanji I'm seeing. That said, I agree with most of these reasons, including the "it's pretty" one. I've practiced Mandarin the calligraphic way, and when done well it really is an art. So yes, Kanji is pretty.
That said, I don't think Mandarin Chinese is any more difficult to learn than Japanese. In general, languages just takes interest and determination.
I think the best way to learn kanji is to not be afraid of it, and surround yourself with Japanese stuff (dramas, magazines, music, lyrics, anime, etc.) to absorb it over time. It's more natural that way, and it also stays with you longer... I think...
Deas
· 1 year ago
Alex at Victory Manual and I recently posted about this too. Kanji makes some things much more simple. The things it obfuscates seem few by comparison. But that's probably only after a breakthrough.
Mark
· 1 year ago
Nice article. I also have a love-hate relationship with kanji, but I think the *best* thing about learning kanji is when you come across a Japanese person who cannot remember how to write a kanji you (as a foreigner) *can* remember how to write.
I had this just the other day when my father-in-law admitted he couldn't remember how to write the kanji for "arm" (腕) and I could do so. We all laughed about that over dinner when I replied to him "それは問題だね". Hahaha!
With the high use of mobile phones and computers which aid Japanese people to write kanji without having to do much work, I think kanji comprehension is becoming a bit of a problem that is only going to get worse as time goes on unless something is done.
I predict that kanji knowledge and usage will have dropped considerably given another 50 years. Already now there are so many foreign words brought into Japanese all of the time using katakana (which is a pet hate of mine I have to admit) and quite a few frequently-used words are now mostly written in hiragana instead of kanji - only today my girlfriend questioned the fact I'd written "とうとう" in kanji (到頭) instead of hiragana. This is a shame I think.
Digger
· 1 year ago
I read somewhere (the Yookoso textbook, I think) that by high school graduation, a Japanese person must know at least (almost 2,000 kanji). But it also said that an educated Japanese person (although it didn't define educated) knows about 5,000. Still, the book also said that after the first 500 (~_~), memorizing them gets easier. I hope so....
Koichi! Get ready 'cuz I've got some questions for you....
Maggie
· 1 year ago
arghh. i hate kanji. although..it does have some good points. haha im taiwanese so ive been learning mandarin chinese for god knows how long and it hurts my head too memorize so much! haha.
kevinnwhat
· 1 year ago
kanji is 10x more easier to readdd
Qwertatious
· 1 year ago
I'm learning mandarin, people learning japanese have it way better.
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
I agree after Japanese Im taking Hebrew German Chinese and Korean I feel that Korean and Chinese are going to be my biggest road block lol
taroroot
· 1 year ago
When I first started learning Japanese I thought that Kanji was an absolute waste of time, however the more I learned the more I realized that it was quite necessary. But still I find that there are waaay to many Kanji...
Travesty
· 1 year ago
I live in Japan and study Japanese, without Kanji Japanese would very difficult to read (as pointed out by many people). I going to skip taking level 3 of the JLPT and go straight to level 2 (although, I am clearly not ready) this year and when I go back and do some practice tests for level 3 which are mostly written in hiragana sometimes I have trouble actually understanding the sentence.
Once you get to a certain level (around 3 or so) Kanji ceases to be a problem and just a part of Japanese.
Kitam
· 1 year ago
this will make things kinda complicated.. but in the long run i suppose its cool
Jeannette
· 1 year ago
My roommate often has a problem with #5 when writing papers for her Japanese language class. She has to write more in order to reach the page limit.
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
I'll agree with you on this point lol. I believe the problem isn't that she needed to write more, but that it just feels like more. Writing a paper in a language other than your natural language, at least for me, seems like I can never... think of enough to say, and not only that, but the topics are lame at times as well. I'm still just a beginner, and my vocabulary spans maybe only a few hundred words at the moment, but when I'm asked to write about my favorite restaurant or how the weather is, I have trouble coming up with 15-20 sentences about them in English alone sometimes.
Jeannette
· 4 months ago
I have the same problem as you (since I'm also a beginner), but my roommate's Japanese is very advanced, and I really do think, with her problem, it's more about that she has to write more and not completely about not being able to think of enough to say. If she were to write something in English, and then write the same thing in Japanese, the Japanese would take up less space. It's just how the language works in comparison. Maybe what you've said can still counter what I've just said, but I really think for my roommate, the fact that writing with kanji takes up less space is an inconvenience. :P
Also, according to the Wakan program (electronic dictionary/learning tool for Chinese and Japanese), There have been 6,355 kanji found and 18,522 traditional Chinese characters found. You don't need to know them all (thank God). In Japanese, you only need to know about 2,000 or so. I don't know how many you need to know for Chinese. So, Japanese really isn't too bad.
david
· 1 year ago
yay I'm just starting out and I'm learning kanji first and foremost, good post!
Bella
· 1 year ago
I used to hate kanji but now I actually look forward to learning more - it pays off and I study every day. I just learned like 37 kanji last week ( http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html that really helps...) and I'm learning compounds and already I'm seeing that reading japanese is easy if you know the kanji!
Bella
· 1 year ago
But, as Vier mentioned, I'm one of those people who can't write kanji. I can read and type the ones I know, but I can't write them. Also like what Vier said, it's not as if you forget what the kanji IS you just forget the strokes or how to write the entire thing...there's a word for it, I've heard it somewhere...
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
thanks for the link I will try it out
Sean
· 1 year ago
I went to Japan for an exchange trip. Before that time though I didnt even bother with Kanji, but now I'm studying my arse off with it. Its just a necessit, especially if you wanna be able to read things in Japan.
heartlessangel
· 1 year ago
ok ok so I know this and as much as I hate kanji I understand its importance to the Japanese language Im just sayin I would have alot more brain cells if I didn't fry most of them trying to learn kanji lol jk but its a difficult thing to learn no doubt about it esp if your learning on you own ( like me at the moment ) but its work and you gotta work for wat you want rite ?
YoyoKirby
· 12 months ago
First off, Koichi you finally convinced me to learn Japanese. So as you can assume I'm new to it. My question is, why bother learning Hiragana when you're not supposed to use it? (Just a newb question)
koichi
· 12 months ago
You use it plenty :)
Definitely learn hiragana first - hiragana is often paired up with kanji to make a single word (and give the kanji context).
YoyoKirby
· 12 months ago
Ok, I haven't gotten there yet, but what about Katakana?
koichi
· 12 months ago
Learn it right after hiragana, but learn kanji at the same time as this - of course, you'll get done with katakana fairly quickly, and then you'll only have kanji to fret about :)
YoyoKirby
· 12 months ago
Alright. Also, I have a suggestion for a learning tool. The Nintendo DS game My Japanese Coach. It's actually really good. (except a few mistakes noted on wikipedia) but it actually helps me learn by providing games, puzzles and quizes to practice on. It also helps you write the symbols on the touch screen. Maybe you can write about it in your next post. Lol.
Vyre
· 10 months ago
You know, Latin used to not have any spaces, or punctuation marks! Thank goodness they fixed it. ex. VBITVVSSACCVSESSACCVSSVVSONMENSAESTIVLIVS
Iulia, qui plorat, a Marco Pulsatur. Iam Ea Aemeliam, Qui Mater Eius, vocat.
Julia, who cries, is hit by Marcus. Now She calls Aemilia, who is her mother.
João Vitor
· 9 months ago
Kanji is absolutely fantastic in my opinion! Not only because the writing is as Koichi stated beatiful, but also because it provides us a challange to overcome. My first language is portuguese and I find It particularly difficult comparing to english. Here in Brazil is rather common to learn english when you are really young (at about 10/11). However, other languages are not learned as well as english... we have some private schools which provide german, french, italian and spanish courses but they are not so good as the english ones. What is really difficult to find here are schools teaching asian language such as chinese, korean or japanese. Anyway, if you have the right motivation kanji is only a mere obstacle!
Guest
· 6 months ago
Don't stop learning people. Just keep at it and you'll get it eventually.
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
Great article Koichi! I really enjoyed your points and also agree. The reading part is really true. My 先生 doesn't like us to use the kanji when we haven't learned them in class so that she knows we know the correct spelling/pronunciation for them, so, when we finally got around to learning numbers... it REALLY helped lol...
はちまんごせんしちひゃくごじゅうきゅう is certainly much harder to read than 八万五千七百五十九 Although I'm not too sure how much the Japanese still really use the kanji for their numbers vs. the arabic system like the rest of the world, but it still helped XD
dshack
· 4 months ago
俺は日本語を全然わからないから、こういう「漢字」って何かわからないもん笑
guest
· 4 months ago
please change the title to 6 Reasons Why Kanji *are* Necessary. Plurals use "are".
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
Ah, but in the Japanese language... there ARE no plurals! So... in koichi's defense... he could be referring to just a single kanji and you would never know!
koichi
· 4 months ago
Yes, I agree with Ikari ;)
Craig
· 4 months ago
Great Read! I sometimes wonder if Kanji holds Japanese learners back, as it's just something extra they have to focus on when they could have already mastered a simple alphabet, but then I think of English and how we're hard pressed to spell everything and spend years upon years getting basic spellings down too!
I have to wonder about a culture with a simple alphabet and simple spelling though....they might have all that time to fill their brain with other stuff!
ikari7789
· 4 months ago
Although you have a point Craig, what you said made me realize something. When you think about the English language, we actually DO spend so much time taking spelling tests and such during our years in school, it's as if we are learning something similar to kanji because, really, when you think about it, how many words in the English language actually sound the way they are spelled? So what if we have an alphabet of only 26 letters, those 26 letters can be combined into so many different combinations that it isn't even funny.
caughtredhanded
· 4 months ago
Lovely post. Kanji is integral to Japanese and without it, it just would not work. Government think tanks have rejected the notion of disbanding kanji again and again as the positives far out way the negatives. Think about it though, yes you may have to learn 1945 separate kanji in order to be able to effectively read Japanese, but then think about how many words those kanji can actually make. Would it be possible to read English fluently only knowing 1945 English words? I doubt it very much..
xexexe
· 3 months ago
I'm forwarding this article to my friends! ^_^
I have been learning Japanese for 3 years now. As a native Chinese speaker, I have to say that personally I find Japanese much easier to read AND to understand when it's written with kanji. (Reason #1 as discussed.)
I think you can add another reason: kanji also facilitates cultural exchange and communication in the Sinosphere (漢字文化圏). For example, even in Korea, where usage of hanja (the Korean name for Chinese characters) is now very limited, they still use hanja together with their native hangul for signs to help tourists. For example, Chinese or Japanese tourists will understand with no problem a sign that says "出口" ("chukou" in Chinese, "deguchi" in Japanese), but they might not recognize what an "Exit" is. (Not everyone knows English, you know?)
A simple Chinese sentence: 我的弟弟去年買了一頭牛。
Even without any knowledge of Chinese, a Japanese speaker will somehow know that the sentence has to do with "I", "younger brother", "last year", "buy", "a cow".
Japanese translation: 私の弟は去年牛を一頭買った。 "My younger brother bought a cow last year."
See the similarities between the Chinese and the Japanese sentences?
This is why I think it's a shame that Korea virtually abandoned the use of hanja. If they had continued to write Korean in hanja-hangul mixed script, then it would have made communication a lot easier among the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Koreans today.
Here's a segment from the preamble of the Korean constitution:
Hangul only: 유구한 역사와 전통에 빛나는 우리 대한 국민은... Hanja + Hangul: 悠久한 歷史와 傳統에 빛나는 우리 大韓國民은... Japanese translation: 悠久の歴史と伝統に輝く我が大韓国民は... Chinese translation: 擁有悠久歷史和光輝傳統的大韓國民... English: We, the people of Korea, proud of a resplendent history and traditions dating from time immemorial...
Very interesting, don't you think?
club penguine cheats
· 2 months ago
I'm still a beginner, but knowing what little kanji I do makes it a whole lot easier to read. Because then, sentences become like pictures and you just glance at them at understand the meaning of the word, rather than having to read each character if it's kana.
Sammy J
· 2 months ago
Great article, but I'm going to have to disagree with most of what you've written.
1. Once you start writing sentences, hiragana is no longer readable. This is only because their are no spaces. Why not just make spaces? (Follows on to below Q) 2. Kanji gives meaning to words. Yes this is true, but only because there are so many different words that sound identical, which is brought about by there being so few sounds you can make with the Japanese language. 3. It looks nicer when you write in kanji. Yes, Kanji can be beautiful. But many people think it can look cluttered and messy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 4. Kanji is easier to read. Kanji would be easy to read, if you learnt, mastered, and read many times the particular Kanji you were reading at that time. But then again that's true of anything you learn, master and look at a lot. 5. Kanji Takes up less space. This is a common misconception that I don't agree with at all. Complex Kanji can be very difficult to read, even for native speakers, when it is written in small font. Kanji written on A4 paper is generally as small as it can be, whilst Latin alphabets can go several fonts smaller whilst still being readable. Yes, Japanese is typically shorter than English in practice, but that's only because the Latin font isn't as small as what it could be. 6. It could be worse. Well yeah I guess it could be. But then again it could be a lot easier too.
Don't get me wrong, Japanese as it stands today couldn't get by without Kanji. What I'm saying is that no language is perfect, and there are many inefficiencies with Japanese, in particular its reliance on Kanji, just like any other language.
Japanese Words
· 2 months ago
Great list. It's weird to think that kanji actually does make sentences easier to read. Who would have thought!
payday loans
· 1 month ago
Great blog! Thank you very much for this useful article and the comments.
Kyle
· 2 weeks ago
for me kanji is the easiest cause Im half chinese and basically I know chinese correct me if im wrong but kanji is chinese if not chinese its taken from chinese
All Comments
--There are so many I wouldn't see how you could create more words without creating more homophones in the process. Maybe if the split up vowels and consonants to not be in pairs, but it doesn't work like that. Some words like Kakeru have dozens of different meanings, especially taking into consideration verb conjugations. So you'd need a huge and prioritized section of government to regulate this. It would make the French and Spain regulations look like a diner menu compared to an encyclopedia.
I think it's evident that these days, kanji is more difficult to learn for children than an alphabet and spelling. There has been research into this. The Chinese are trying to simplify the mess that they have continued to add to. Adults in Japan are forgetting how to write, through lack of practice.
--You know, even going through this, countries that use chinese characters have some of the highest literacy rates in the world. As for the adults are forgetting to write, it's not as if they just stare at paper blankly. I think it's blown out of proportion, they just forget the full strokes of the kanji or miss some strokes. Basically, how people in whatever language don't spell right. Because of computers and spellcheck, we don't have to worry about our spelling so much to remember it, just passively have it. Even with Spanish, which is much easier to spell than English by miles, because of computers and it's uses people spell badly over time. I think it's something natural, and not exclusive or a bigger priority in Kanji.
However, I'm pretty sure I could still write something in fifty years if I stopped writing today.
--And your spelling would probably be terrible *_~
If alphabets weren't superior, there wouldn't be a million of them separately created in the world.
--This could just be a cause of cultural and present trends towards whichever direction in communication, not necessarily superiority over another. Most languages in the world are actually Tonal. However most western ones are not, and because modern culture and world politics is dominated by it today, it feels "normal" to use a system with simple stress systems while tonal languages are 'weird' and 'hard'.
How many character sets are there in the world? Maybe two, chinese and egyptian hieroglyphs.
Korean has ditched characters, why not other countries?
--Korean has a lot more sounds than japanese. A lot more. Basically using an alphabet in this language is fine because there are so many unique combinations of sounds, that words have their own distinct shapes and sounds, therefore writing it letter per letter doesn't detract from that.
--I mean, yes, japanese could stop using characters, but in order to stop doing so they might as well make a different language. We, in the US, don't even want to switch to using the metric system. I don't think a country is going to toss their own tongue to the side.
Another thing to add is that kanji teaches kids all sorts of other things besides just kanji that phonetic alphabets do not. There was a study and comparison done on this, and this is all I remember from the outcome, but positive things do happen. Sorry I don't remember :(
but it's all very true what's written here though. it's hard work but in the end it's so worth it.
Really, though, I don't know if there is any set "number of kanji." I've heard so many different estimations...ranging from the tens of thousands down to the thousands. Of course, then you have to look at things like "are they talking about kanji you need to get by," or are they talking about all kanji, or blah blah blah. I bet it's in the tens of thousands, but you only need to know one or two thousand to get by comfortably. I'm sure someone else knows better than me, though.
i will look for the newer version first I want to be as prepared as I can be before I take classes lol thanks !
8. Using kanji is more respectful towards the native speakers. I know this is nowadays a very unfashionable way of looking at it, but I fundamentally disagree with those people who claim that the proper usage of kanji (or grammar, or idiom, or whatever) isn't important because what really matters is that you "can get your point accross". I believe that it is a basic sign of respects towards the native speakers of any language that you show you are willing to take the hard road when it comes to learning their language.
I'm also going to say that in Chinese children's books they have a lot of BoPoMoFo next to the characters... I'm sure someone else here had to learn that system in Chinese school. ...right?
ief it wouz then moer piipel kuud lern it aend wii wuud all bii hapii.
I know that learning Kanji as well as a native speaker will never happen for me but I'll enjoy the process nonetheless... I've accepted without question that that is simply the way the Japanese language is written and understood.
But everybody here knows that Spanish is the best language in the world, ? NO ?
Good article
.
I remember when I was first spelling in school, I would think of English words in Spanish...
"Because: 'be-kah-u-se'" "people: peh-o-pleh"
Spanish is cool! It's a cool language and I'm glad to have learned it first!
English is cool too, but it's so wierd honestly. I'm not sure if I could handle if I wasn't in an English speaking country.
Japanese... is cool! ha. Phonetic language as well! All pure languages rock.
Chinese and Vietnamese... Tonal languages... wow... hahaha. They're kinda cool but just very difficult to pronounce. I'll stick to just counting in Vietnamese, which is all I can do. I'll try and learn Chinese later... like later, later and not right now, right now.
Speaking of all these langauges, whatever happened to that Rosetta Stone Article? :)
"Wow six reasons!? I've never heard of this many!"
Then two of the reasons are it looks pretty and it could be worse? XD Ehhh, I guess it's true though.
But I have never thought/heard of the low readability of hiragana. This makes sense, and has provided a new perspective! :)
Kanji!
I think you've covered this before, but not with as much detail! Good article! This sucks to study all this kanji! But FAITO right? I heard Gokusen 3 is out. Ha!!! (Gokusen is not written in Kanji! Ohhh....)
Also, once you actually learn it does feel good! I like just finding out random words that I can read in hiragana out there and recognize.
As for the speed thing, I heard that reading in pictural or symbolic languages is much faster than reading alphabet based languages because the brain processes symbols much faster than it does reading and putting together letters.
Kanji!
With kanji you won't plateau in your studies.
PS Plus, even if you are a bit low on speaking skills, you can still impress with your kanji knowledge =) Its your secret weapon.
Instead of being overwhelmed by 2015 kanji and thousands more of combinations, its essential to just relax and learn them as they come, just a few kanji a day. Then eventually it will all be fine
insomniacgamer - I agree with you 100%, I'm learning kanji and i'm up to 135 symbols and I see them everywhere, and its easier to hiragana later when u knock out 2,000 symbols lol.
クリス - What book are you using? I'm using "Heisig - Remembering The Kanji"
I'm using the http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com method to learn japanese anyone else using it?
Why can't we put spaces between words? It's easy, particles would just become conjugations onto the end of words. As to meaning, well maybe the Japanese would not have so many homophones if they didn't use kanji. They would eventually stop using uncommon homophones, or alter them.
I think it's evident that these days, kanji is more difficult to learn for children than an alphabet and spelling. There has been research into this. The Chinese are trying to simplify the mess that they have continued to add to. Adults in Japan are forgetting how to write, through lack of practice. However, I'm pretty sure I could still write something in fifty years if I stopped writing today. If alphabets weren't superior, there wouldn't be a million of them separately created in the world. How many character sets are there in the world? Maybe two, chinese and egyptian hieroglyphs.
Korean has ditched characters, why not other countries?
Something interesting happen to me: sometimes I don’t now how they sound but I can imagine what they mean.... maybe you just see one familiar next to another one familiar an you can imagine what they mean together... make sense??
That said, I don't think Mandarin Chinese is any more difficult to learn than Japanese. In general, languages just takes interest and determination.
I think the best way to learn kanji is to not be afraid of it, and surround yourself with Japanese stuff (dramas, magazines, music, lyrics, anime, etc.) to absorb it over time. It's more natural that way, and it also stays with you longer... I think...
I had this just the other day when my father-in-law admitted he couldn't remember how to write the kanji for "arm" (腕) and I could do so. We all laughed about that over dinner when I replied to him "それは問題だね". Hahaha!
With the high use of mobile phones and computers which aid Japanese people to write kanji without having to do much work, I think kanji comprehension is becoming a bit of a problem that is only going to get worse as time goes on unless something is done.
I predict that kanji knowledge and usage will have dropped considerably given another 50 years. Already now there are so many foreign words brought into Japanese all of the time using katakana (which is a pet hate of mine I have to admit) and quite a few frequently-used words are now mostly written in hiragana instead of kanji - only today my girlfriend questioned the fact I'd written "とうとう" in kanji (到頭) instead of hiragana. This is a shame I think.
Koichi! Get ready 'cuz I've got some questions for you....
i hate kanji. although..it does have some good points. haha
im taiwanese so ive been learning mandarin chinese for god knows how long and it hurts my head too memorize so much! haha.
Once you get to a certain level (around 3 or so) Kanji ceases to be a problem and just a part of Japanese.
Also, according to the Wakan program (electronic dictionary/learning tool for Chinese and Japanese), There have been 6,355 kanji found and 18,522 traditional Chinese characters found. You don't need to know them all (thank God). In Japanese, you only need to know about 2,000 or so. I don't know how many you need to know for Chinese. So, Japanese really isn't too bad.
Definitely learn hiragana first - hiragana is often paired up with kanji to make a single word (and give the kanji context).
this - of course, you'll get done with katakana fairly quickly, and
then you'll only have kanji to fret about :)
Maybe you can write about it in your next post. Lol.
ex. VBITVVSSACCVSESSACCVSSVVSONMENSAESTIVLIVS
Ubi tuus saccus es? Saccus Suus on mensa est.
Where is your sack? His sack is on the table.
IVLIAQVIPLORATAMARCOPVLSATURIAMEAAEMELIAMQVIMATEREIVSVOCAT
Iulia, qui plorat, a Marco Pulsatur. Iam Ea Aemeliam, Qui Mater Eius, vocat.
Julia, who cries, is hit by Marcus. Now She calls Aemilia, who is her mother.
はちまんごせんしちひゃくごじゅうきゅう is certainly much harder to read than
八万五千七百五十九
Although I'm not too sure how much the Japanese still really use the kanji for their numbers vs. the arabic system like the rest of the world, but it still helped XD
I have to wonder about a culture with a simple alphabet and simple spelling though....they might have all that time to fill their brain with other stuff!
I have been learning Japanese for 3 years now. As a native Chinese speaker, I have to say that personally I find Japanese much easier to read AND to understand when it's written with kanji. (Reason #1 as discussed.)
I think you can add another reason: kanji also facilitates cultural exchange and communication in the Sinosphere (漢字文化圏). For example, even in Korea, where usage of hanja (the Korean name for Chinese characters) is now very limited, they still use hanja together with their native hangul for signs to help tourists. For example, Chinese or Japanese tourists will understand with no problem a sign that says "出口" ("chukou" in Chinese, "deguchi" in Japanese), but they might not recognize what an "Exit" is. (Not everyone knows English, you know?)
A simple Chinese sentence: 我的弟弟去年買了一頭牛。
Even without any knowledge of Chinese, a Japanese speaker will somehow know that the sentence has to do with "I", "younger brother", "last year", "buy", "a cow".
Japanese translation: 私の弟は去年牛を一頭買った。
"My younger brother bought a cow last year."
See the similarities between the Chinese and the Japanese sentences?
This is why I think it's a shame that Korea virtually abandoned the use of hanja. If they had continued to write Korean in hanja-hangul mixed script, then it would have made communication a lot easier among the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Koreans today.
Here's a segment from the preamble of the Korean constitution:
Hangul only: 유구한 역사와 전통에 빛나는 우리 대한 국민은...
Hanja + Hangul: 悠久한 歷史와 傳統에 빛나는 우리 大韓國民은...
Japanese translation: 悠久の歴史と伝統に輝く我が大韓国民は...
Chinese translation: 擁有悠久歷史和光輝傳統的大韓國民...
English: We, the people of Korea, proud of a resplendent history and traditions dating from time immemorial...
Very interesting, don't you think?
1. Once you start writing sentences, hiragana is no longer readable.
This is only because their are no spaces. Why not just make spaces? (Follows on to below Q)
2. Kanji gives meaning to words.
Yes this is true, but only because there are so many different words that sound identical, which is brought about by there being so few sounds you can make with the Japanese language.
3. It looks nicer when you write in kanji.
Yes, Kanji can be beautiful. But many people think it can look cluttered and messy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
4. Kanji is easier to read.
Kanji would be easy to read, if you learnt, mastered, and read many times the particular Kanji you were reading at that time. But then again that's true of anything you learn, master and look at a lot.
5. Kanji Takes up less space.
This is a common misconception that I don't agree with at all. Complex Kanji can be very difficult to read, even for native speakers, when it is written in small font. Kanji written on A4 paper is generally as small as it can be, whilst Latin alphabets can go several fonts smaller whilst still being readable. Yes, Japanese is typically shorter than English in practice, but that's only because the Latin font isn't as small as what it could be.
6. It could be worse.
Well yeah I guess it could be. But then again it could be a lot easier too.
Don't get me wrong, Japanese as it stands today couldn't get by without Kanji. What I'm saying is that no language is perfect, and there are many inefficiencies with Japanese, in particular its reliance on Kanji, just like any other language.