皆さん, こんにちは! Minasan, konnichiwa! Hello everyone! 🌸
For me, being here in Japan means not only getting to know a new environment and culture but also dealing with a new language. The first thing you notice is the writing because it differs fundamentally from ours. Today I want to tell you how it works. 😉
As the difference between the Japanese and Chinese script cannot be recognized for many, I will explain it briefly: While in Chinese only one script is used, in Japanese three different script systems are used. Two of them are pretty easy and quick to learn. These are the two syllables scripts Hiragana and Katakana, each consisting of only 46 characters.
Hiragana characters are used for words that, for example, do not have a kanji or whose kanji is usually not used.
Katakana characters, on the other hand, are used, among other things, for foreign terms or names. For example, my name (Kira) is written like this: キ ラ. 🙈
These two kana have evolved over the years by simplifying kanji characters. Kanji form the 3rd font and these characters are much more complicated because there are many of them. Here are a few examples how they can look like:
Human: 人 (hito)
Mouth: 口 (kuchi)
Dog: 犬 (inu)
Moon: 月 (tsuki)
House: 家 (ie)
The Kanji were imported from China to Japan in the 4th to 5th centuries, as Japan had no own characters until then. However, the spelling and pronunciation of the kanji in both countries often differ. While there is only one possible pronunciation per character in China, a kanji in Japan can have different pronunciations. Most of them have an Onyomi and a Kunyomi pronunciation. The Onyomi pronunciation is based on the Chinese pronunciation of the Kanji, while the Kunyomi pronunciation is derived from the Japanese reading. Here's an example:
You have seen the kanji for people and mouth above. The two become:
Human + Mouth = Population
人 + 口 = 人口
Hito + Kuchi = Jinkō
While the Kunyomi reading is used for the single Kanji, the Onyomi reading of both Kanji is used for the compound word.
But sometimes you don't have to know exactly how to pronounce a kanji to understand it. Since Kanji are symbols of meaning, it is possible to understand compound Kanji words, even if you do not know their reading. If I know the meaning of the individual Kanji character, I can rhyme and guess what the compound could mean.
Nevertheless: To learn kanji is not easy and it takes a lot of time.
It is possible to avoid the kanji because these can also be written with hiragana or katakana syllables. However, if you learn Japanese, after a while you will find that a text is difficult to understand only with Kana. Japanese sentences are written without spaces and many words sound the same, so it can easily be misunderstood, for example here:
あめはおいしです。- Ame wa oishii desu. - Sweets/rain are/is delicious.
The word "Ame" can mean either rain (雨) or candy (飴).
So when I write: "飴はおいしいです", it is clear that I think that the sweets are delicious. 😉
By using Kanji, you can read and understand a text faster (provided, of course, that you know the used Kanji). However, knowing all Kanji is impossible, because there are many of them and even Japanese people do not know all Kanji or sometimes forget how they are written. About 2136 characters are used in everyday life. You can find out which those are in the Jōyō Kanji list.
I still don't know all 2136 Kanji, but I will keep learning. I hope you will stay tuned to my blog and if there is anything you would like to know: tell me. 😉
次回まで! Jikai made! See you next time! 💕
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