In the previous two lessons, we have learned how to read and write Hiragana(ひらがな) and Katakana(カタカナ). In this lesson, we will learn the basics of kanji, so you understand how kanji is build, and some vocabulary.
Kanji(漢字)
Kanji, as you might know, are imported Chinese characters. They are one of the most difficult parts of learning Japanese. That’s a miss concept. They are not hard to learn. It just takes time.
The good thing about Kanji(漢字) is that it just replaces hiragana characters. In other words, you don't have to learn new pronunciations or syllables. The bad news is that there exist around 50,000 kanji characters.
The good thing about Kanji(漢字) is that it just replaces hiragana characters. In other words, you don't have to learn new pronunciations or syllables. The bad news is that there exist around 50,000 kanji characters.
Don't panic. You don't have to learn 50,000 kanji in order to read Japanese mangas, magazines, newspaper or books. Your are considered to be a good reader with 2,000 kanji. That might sound a lot but it’s actually not that much. Just remember “it takes time” to learn kanji. I will introduce you to kanji as the lessons progress.
The purpose of this lesson is of showing you how kanji are build and explain its characteristics so you get used to them.
Kanji(漢字) structure
Kanji is a form of writing words with less characters. As you have noticed, hiragana words can be very long. In most cases, kanji try to shorten words.
Kanji are also used to make reading faster and easier, even if you might not think so.
All kanji have two meanings: on’yomi and kun’yomi. On’yomi refers to the single reading also called Chinese reading. When you see a kanji alone then you use the on’yomi meaning(reading). Kun’yomi on the other hand refers to the attached reading, also called Japanese reading. If you see two kanji together, then you use the kun’yomi reading.
Depending on the characters there can be one to several on’yomi and kun’yomi meanings for a single kanji. To illustrate how kanji work and are structured I will provide an example.
As you can see in the image, the stand alone pronunciation is “hito(ひと)” and the attached pronunciation is “jin(じん) or “nin(にん)”. To show you how kanji behave I used it in an example.
example:
その 人は やさしい です = Sono hito wa(は) yasashii desu.
(That person is friendly)
三人が います = Sannin ga imasu
(There are three persons)
In the first example, the kanji for person(人) is read as “hito” because it stands alone. If you add hiragana to a kanji, then you pronounce the kanji as if it stays alone as well.
In the second example, the kanji for person(人) is read as “nin” because it is attached to the kanji for three(三). We have to use the attached reading for person(人) but we use the stand alone pronunciation for three(三) because person(人) is attached to three(三) but three(三) is not attached to anything.
Kanji(漢字) purpose
Returning to the purpose of kanji. As you have seen in the example the kanji is shorter then written out words in hiragana. It is also easier to read because whenever you see the kanji for person(人) you know that it means person. You can associate kanji with complete words instead of building a word with hiragana characters.
Now kanji don't always make a word shorter. There are words that would be shorter or easier to write in hiragana. But again, it is easier to recognize a word when it is represented by kanji.
Example:
行 = い
As you can see, it would be easier to write the hiragana for i(い) then the kanji(行).
Another purpose of kanji is that it helps organize writing. If you ever looked into a Japanese book or site, then you might have noticed that they don’t use spaces between words.
Example:
原子爆弾を起爆装置として用い、この核分裂反応で発生する放射線と超高温、超高圧を利用して、水素の同位体の重水素や三重水素（トリチウム）の核融合反応を誘発し莫大なエネルギーを放出させる
The above sentence is a sentence from a wikipedia article. As you can see, if it all were written in hiragana you might ask yourself where does one word start and end ?
With kanji you know that a word starts with a kanji and finishes either with a kanji or hiragana. This makes it easier to read words and sentences.
This should have explained to you what you need to know about Kanji(漢字). As the lessons progress, I will provide images with kanji just like the person(人) example so you can learn kanji gradually.
Vocabulary(ごい)
Now that you know what you need about Kanji(漢字) we will introduce some vocabulary. Below is a list with vocabularies.
"Hajimemashite" is used when you present yourself to someone or when you start a formal conversation.
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" is used at the end of a presentation.
Ohayou gozaimasu is used exclusively for the morning until 10am. From there on, you have to use konnichi wa. Konnichi wa means literally “this day is” or “as for this day”. You use this greeting only for the day. Konban wa is used from the evening onwards.
Pronunciation
When you see a “shi” followed by a “te” or a "ku" you simply pronounce it “shte” or "shku" not “shite” or "shiku". So “itashimashite” is pronounced “itashimashte”.
And this is it for today. You are now prepared to take upcoming grammar lessons. Our next lesson will be about verbs. You will be learning how to build verbs and their role in sentences.
And this is it for today. You are now prepared to take upcoming grammar lessons. Our next lesson will be about verbs. You will be learning how to build verbs and their role in sentences.