Japanese lesson: Have fun with Kanji
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Kanji is fascinating to learn - kanji wa omoshiroi | |
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Compound words What do you think Japanese people or leaners of Japanese do when they come across unfamiliar kanji? For example, kanji for hana(su)/speak. They look up at the radical- in this case it is on the lefthand side of the kanji. In this case, it is gomben, which means speaking. They, then, count the residual number of strokes, in this case, on the righthand side of the kanji. There are 6 residual strokes. The kanji hana(su)(which means speak) consists of the radical, gomben and another six-stroke-kanji shita (which means tongue). Each Kanji has at least one On/Chinese sound and at least one Kun/Japanese sound, in this case, WA,E,KA,KAI are the Chinese sounds and hanashi, hana-su the Japanese sound. You can make a lot of compound words using this kanji. Try these examples |
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People's names There are many homonyms in Japanese. Kanji are useful in differentiating homophones. This can apply for people's names. For example, Ken is a popular name for boys. There are many kanji for Ken: Ken for healthy, Ken for wise, Ken for modesty and so on. (KEN is also the ON pronunciation for the kanji for dog!, but people's names usually use the kun pronunciation). Japanese people feel odd if they are addressed by different kanji, even if the sound is the same. What kanji would you like to use for your name? See some examples
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If you want to learn Japanese by face-to-face
(in London) or online, please contact me. All levels are welcome. Email kimiko1230@hotmail.com | ||
