Friday, June 27, 2008

Kanji

Someone recently asked me how many Kanji I could read after living here for four years. Given that you need to know 1,945 characters (mandated by the government and taught in schools) to be able to read newspapers and most literature in Japan - I am assuredly illiterate.

Additionally Kanji have both a Japanese pronounciation called Kun and a Chinese pronounciation called On or Hon, because Kanji came from China. With a few exceptions, I only know the Japanese reading.

What I do know are usually pictographs, symbols and a few ideographs. I know very few phono-ideographs, which are what makes up about 80% of Kanji (they're the hardest to learn).

Here's the wiki entry on Kanji.


Honestly, I really can't read. So a better question would be how many Kanji can I recognize?

In no particular order (and I know I am forgetting some, I'll add them when/if I remember). If I wasn't lazy, I would put the Kanji in, too, but that involves a lot of cutting and pasting.

Oil
Camelia (Tsubaki) I learned these two together because I use camelia oil as a hair treatment.

School

Man
Woman
Noisy (made up of three little versions of the kanji for woman. Ha ha ha)
Child

Dog
Bird
Horse (that comes from learning it to avoid eating horse meat, a popular dish here)
Fish

Sun
Moon
Sky
Rain
Wind

North
South
East
West

Fire
Water
Electricity
Danger
Disaster
Thunder
Lightening
Earthquake
Rain

Wheel (included in the characters for car, bike and train)


Thing/Things
Goods (like in Dry Goods)
Laundry

Fat
Carbohydrate
Calories
Fiber
(all of these are actually a series of Kanji)

Red
Black
White
Grey
Purple
Green/Blue

Bamboo

Raw or Draft (nama, used as in Nama Biru - draft beer)
Alcohol
Rice
Vegetable(s)

Shop/Store/Vendor

Hour
Minute
Day
Month
Year

Most numbers
Yen
Discount

Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall

Entrance
Exit
Stop

Enlightenment
Samurai

Tea

Helmet

Silk
Cotton
Wool (same kanji as "Hair")
Gold
Silver

River
Spring
Mountain
Tree
Forest

Over
Under
Field
Village
City

Gate
Corner

Flower
Book (one of the few I know both Japanese and Chinese readings)
Stone/Rock
Feather/Wing

Person
Love
Spirit
Old

Heaven

Power
Inside/Deep
Dream
Light
Medicine/Drug
Big (also know Japanese and Chinese reading for this one)
Inside

Umbrella
Road/Way
Book also used as Origin - Japanese and Chinese reading)

No comments: