What exactly are kanji?
Written Japanese is a mess. I love it.
There are three types of Japanese characters:
Then comes...
漢字 (KANJI)
Loved by those that master it, loathed by those that are learning it, and of absolutely no interest to just about anyone else.
Kanji tend to scare people. Some old-fashioned teachers and a lot of click-bait article writers love to play up the fact that an "impossible-to-learn" number of kanji exist.
Yes, tens of thousands of kanji exist. No, you do not need to learn that many.
Japanese high school students are required to learn about 2,200 kanji characters. Over the course of a person's life, they learn a fair deal more than that, as random characters do pop up here and there. Generally speaking, though, if you learn the 2,136 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ // general-use kanji) that have been listed by the government as required learning, you'll be fine reading most Japanese texts... from a kanji perspective.
But how are kanji used in Japanese words and sentences? Why does the language use these characters? Where do they come from?
Well, like I said earlier, it's a mess.
My homegirl Empress Suiko (the beauty depicted above) sent a bunch of her minions to China back around 600 A.D. Said minions brought back stuff with squiggly characters on it.
That's why the Chinese word for Chinese characters, 漢字 (hanzi), is the same as the Japanese word for Chinese characters, 漢字 (kanji).
Written characters must have seemed exciting because their usage spread over the following centuries.
The history is long and complicated. Luckily, I can summarize it:
I majored in English in college, so, while I might not have been qualified for any job on the planet when I graduated, my metaphor radar is finely tuned:
Did my metaphor suck?
Fine. I'll give a practical explanation...
💀 Hiragana and katakana represent sounds. They have no meaning on their own, like a letter of the alphabet in English.
💀 Kanji do represent meanings, and they also represent a variety of sounds.
💀 Kanji are not standalone words. They are written representations of parts of certain words.
💀 However, some words are made up of a single kanji, like 犬 (いぬ // dog) or 本 (ほん // book).
💀 Some words are made up of multiple kanji, like 番犬 (ばんけん // watch dog), 日本 (にほん // Japan), or 日本語 (にほんご // Japanese [language]).
💀 Some words are made up of a combination of kanji and other characters (usually hiragana), like 殺す (ころす // to kill) or 恥ずかしい (はずかしい // shy; embarrassed; ashamed).
💀 Some words have kanji but often get written in only hiragana or katakana, like 馬鹿 (ばか // idiot; fool), which often gets written in katakana (バカ), or 可愛い (かわいい // cute), which often gets written in hiragana (かわいい).
💀 Some words you'll pretty much never see written in kanji, like これ (this). This also tends to be the case for foreign loan words, which are typically written in katakana, such as テレビ (TV).
About Pronunciations
To reiterate, a given kanji will have one or more meanings, along with one or more pronunciations, all of which can vary depending on what word the kanji appears in.
For example, the character 直 means something like "directly" or "straightaway." That is the character's basic meaning.
Pronunciation of kanji is more complicated.
Remember how kanji was originally made for Chinese, not Japanese? Well, as a result, a lot of characters have to wear multiple hats — they show up in words derived from other languages (namely, Chinese) and words that originated in Japan.
Consequently, one character may be pronounced a number of different ways. These pronunciations are called "readings." They are divided into two categories: onyomi (readings derived from Chinese) and kunyomi (readings derived from Japanese).
In the case of 直, we have:
(Note: For kunyomi, the kanji is the part before the period. So, the verb for "to fix; to repair" is written as 直す (なおす), for example.)
Wait a second. Are you telling me I have to learn two or more different pronunciations in addition to the meaning of 2,136 characters?!?!?!
Kind of. But it sounds worse than it is. Honestly.
I'm a pretty mellow guy. I don't like confrontation. Also, as a human, I have this weird desire to want to be liked and accepted by other humans. So, I rarely say anything too controversial. This is an exception:
Studying onyomi and kunyomi readings is an obscene waste of time and no student of Japanese should worry about them.
Notice that I said "studying." I did not say "learning."
What I mean is, don't study this:
But we'll cover our many options for learning kanji later. Right now, let's just review the facts...
The Japanese Writing System:
There are three types of Japanese characters:
- Hiragana
- Katakana
- Kanji
- ひらがな (hiragana)
- カタカナ (katakana)
- 漢字 (kanji)
Then comes...
漢字 (KANJI)
Loved by those that master it, loathed by those that are learning it, and of absolutely no interest to just about anyone else.
Kanji tend to scare people. Some old-fashioned teachers and a lot of click-bait article writers love to play up the fact that an "impossible-to-learn" number of kanji exist.
Japanese is impossible to learn. There are over 50,000 different characters!It's really disappointing to see articles like this on major digital publications. We live in the age of information, and yet we're drowning in half-truths and skewed statistics. Aliens must be laughing at us.
Yes, tens of thousands of kanji exist. No, you do not need to learn that many.
Japanese high school students are required to learn about 2,200 kanji characters. Over the course of a person's life, they learn a fair deal more than that, as random characters do pop up here and there. Generally speaking, though, if you learn the 2,136 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ // general-use kanji) that have been listed by the government as required learning, you'll be fine reading most Japanese texts... from a kanji perspective.
But how are kanji used in Japanese words and sentences? Why does the language use these characters? Where do they come from?
Well, like I said earlier, it's a mess.
My homegirl Empress Suiko (the beauty depicted above) sent a bunch of her minions to China back around 600 A.D. Said minions brought back stuff with squiggly characters on it.
That's why the Chinese word for Chinese characters, 漢字 (hanzi), is the same as the Japanese word for Chinese characters, 漢字 (kanji).
Written characters must have seemed exciting because their usage spread over the following centuries.
The history is long and complicated. Luckily, I can summarize it:
|
Imagine a big bearded woman. She finds the cutest one-piece of all time at Forever 21, and she absolutely MUST have it. It's six sizes too small, but she squeezes her bulging body into it anyway. |
I majored in English in college, so, while I might not have been qualified for any job on the planet when I graduated, my metaphor radar is finely tuned:
- Bearded Lady = The Japanese language
- The one-piece = Kanji
- Left glove = Hiragana
- Right glove = Katakana
- Your street: A symbol of the protagonist's journey through life
- Forever 21: The endless cycle of desire that prevents all people from attaining enlightenment
Did my metaphor suck?
Fine. I'll give a practical explanation...
💀 Hiragana and katakana represent sounds. They have no meaning on their own, like a letter of the alphabet in English.
💀 Kanji do represent meanings, and they also represent a variety of sounds.
💀 Kanji are not standalone words. They are written representations of parts of certain words.
💀 However, some words are made up of a single kanji, like 犬 (いぬ // dog) or 本 (ほん // book).
💀 Some words are made up of multiple kanji, like 番犬 (ばんけん // watch dog), 日本 (にほん // Japan), or 日本語 (にほんご // Japanese [language]).
💀 Some words are made up of a combination of kanji and other characters (usually hiragana), like 殺す (ころす // to kill) or 恥ずかしい (はずかしい // shy; embarrassed; ashamed).
💀 Some words have kanji but often get written in only hiragana or katakana, like 馬鹿 (ばか // idiot; fool), which often gets written in katakana (バカ), or 可愛い (かわいい // cute), which often gets written in hiragana (かわいい).
💀 Some words you'll pretty much never see written in kanji, like これ (this). This also tends to be the case for foreign loan words, which are typically written in katakana, such as テレビ (TV).
About Pronunciations
To reiterate, a given kanji will have one or more meanings, along with one or more pronunciations, all of which can vary depending on what word the kanji appears in.
For example, the character 直 means something like "directly" or "straightaway." That is the character's basic meaning.
|
Warning! If you're viewing this on a phone, and the kanji above is displayed like this: |
Pronunciation of kanji is more complicated.
Remember how kanji was originally made for Chinese, not Japanese? Well, as a result, a lot of characters have to wear multiple hats — they show up in words derived from other languages (namely, Chinese) and words that originated in Japan.
Consequently, one character may be pronounced a number of different ways. These pronunciations are called "readings." They are divided into two categories: onyomi (readings derived from Chinese) and kunyomi (readings derived from Japanese).
In the case of 直, we have:
| Onyomi | ちょく |
| Kunyomi | なお.す, なお.る |
(Note: For kunyomi, the kanji is the part before the period. So, the verb for "to fix; to repair" is written as 直す (なおす), for example.)
Wait a second. Are you telling me I have to learn two or more different pronunciations in addition to the meaning of 2,136 characters?!?!?!
Kind of. But it sounds worse than it is. Honestly.
I'm a pretty mellow guy. I don't like confrontation. Also, as a human, I have this weird desire to want to be liked and accepted by other humans. So, I rarely say anything too controversial. This is an exception:
Studying onyomi and kunyomi readings is an obscene waste of time and no student of Japanese should worry about them.
Notice that I said "studying." I did not say "learning."
What I mean is, don't study this:
- 直 means "directly" or "straightaway."
- Its onyomi is ちょく, and it's kunyomi is なお.す, なお. る.
- 直 means "directly" or "straightaway."
- It is used in words like 直接 (ちょくせつ // directly; in person; firsthand) and 直す (なおす // to fix; to repair).
But we'll cover our many options for learning kanji later. Right now, let's just review the facts...
The Japanese Writing System:
- Has three types of characters: hiragana, katakana, and kanji.
- Hiragana and katakana represent sounds, but kanji represents both (1) meaning and (2) sounds.
- There are only about 46 hiragana characters used today. Same for katakana. These are referred to collectively as "kana."
- The kanji are derived from Chinese characters.
- There are tens of thousands of kanji in existence, but only a couple thousand need to be learned to be literate.
- The Japanese government has officially listed 2,136 kanji that one must learn to be considered fully literate. These are called 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ // general-use kanji).
- Kanji are not words. They are parts of words.
- A Japanese word, when written, might consist of (A) just one kanji character, (B) multiple kanji characters, (C) one or more kanji and some hiragana or katakana, or (D) no kanji, just hiragana or katakana.
- A kanji's pronunciation is known as its reading.
- There are two types of readings: (1) onyomi, which are derived from Chinese words, and (2) kunyomi, which are original Japanese pronunciations.
- There is no set number of onyomi and kunyomi readings for all kanji. Sometimes there is one of each. Sometimes there are multiples of each. Sometimes there are only one type of reading.
- For some kanji, the onyomi reading(s) are rare. For others, the kunyomi reading(s) are rare. In some cases, both are common.
- Some words have kanji but are often written without them, such as 直ぐ (すぐ // immediately) commonly being written as すぐ.
- Learning vocabulary is the most effective way to learn kanji readings.
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