Tofugu Comments - Latest Comments in 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Kyle — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:26:05 -0000

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

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

helen22 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:56:48 -0000

Great blog! Thank you very much for this useful article and the comments.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Japanese Words — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:15:51 -0000

Great list. It's weird to think that kanji actually does make sentences easier to read. Who would have thought!

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Sammy J — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:43:43 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Hankjamtt — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:39:52 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

xexexe — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:04:19 -0000

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?

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

caughtredhanded — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:30:26 -0000

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..

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

koichi — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:05:19 -0000

Yes, I agree with Ikari ;)

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:11:01 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Craig — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:57:01 -0000

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!

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:13:15 -0000

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!

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

guest — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:36:25 -0000

please change the title to 6 Reasons Why Kanji *are* Necessary. Plurals use "are".

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

dshack — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:47:07 -0000

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

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

herinapotter — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:51:50 -0000

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

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:30:48 -0000

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

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:17:32 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:59:08 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:44:30 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:37:47 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

ikari7789 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:33:04 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

NintendoExpedition — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:19:54 -0000

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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Guest — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:38:09 -0000

Don't stop learning people. Just keep at it and you'll get it eventually.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

João Vitor — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:07:57 -0000

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!

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Vyre — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:46:56 -0000

ex#2
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.

Re: 6 Reasons Why Kanji is Necessary

Vyre — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:39:57 -0000

You know, Latin used to not have any spaces, or punctuation marks! Thank goodness they fixed it.
ex. VBITVVSSACCVSESSACCVSSVVSONMENSAESTIVLIVS

Ubi tuus saccus es? Saccus Suus on mensa est.

Where is your sack? His sack is on the table.