Earlier this week, in this N2 lesson, I talked a bit about the rather difficult term 自覚症状 (じかくしょうじょう // [subjective] symptoms [of an illness]). I wrote:

When I first looked up 自覚症状 (じかくしょうじょう) in a dictionary it said "subjective symptoms"... which made no sense to me. Looking at Japanese dictionary entries and Wikipedia entries, though, I learned that this is referring to "symptoms which a patient is aware of." Makes sense, I guess, since 自覚 (じかく) means "self-awareness" or "self-consciousness." For example, if you feel like your arm is numb and it turns out to be because you're having a heart attack, the arm numbness was a 自覚症状. A symptom that you were unaware of but that your doctor discovered would be a 他覚症状 (たかくしょうじょう), an "objective symptom..." but you're unlikely to ever hear someone say 他覚症状, so you should only worry about memorizing 自覚症状.

When writing that sentence in bold, I realized something: We've never looked at the words for the five senses in Japanese.

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The Five Senses

The word for "sense" in Japanese is 感覚 (かんかく). This can refer to senses like smell and hearing.

感覚（かんかく // sense; feeling）

五感の中で一番好きな感覚は何ですか？
ごかん　の　なか　で　いちばん　すきな　かんかく　は　なん　です　か？
Of the five (human) senses, which is your favorite sense?
Literally: “five senses + の + inside + で + number one + liked + sense + は + what + ですか?”
Note: Don't you think this question is a bit more fun than asking someone their favorite color?

As you can see in the above sentence, Japanese also has a word for "the five senses," which is 五感 (ごかん).

五感（ごかん // the five senses）
(五 [five] + 感覚 [sense] = 五感 [five senses])

五感の中で一番好きな感覚は何ですか？
ごかん　の　なか　で　いちばん　すきな　かんかく　は　なん　です　か？
Of the five (human) senses, which is your favorite sense?
Literally: “five senses + の + inside + で + number one + liked + sense + は + what + ですか?”

While we're at it, I should mention that the word 感覚 can also be used to refer to feeling in general:

寒くて指の感覚がない。
さむくて　ゆび　の　かんかく　が　ない。
It’s so cold that I can’t feel my fingers [that there's no feeling in my fingers].
Literally: “cold (and) + finger + の + feeling + が + there isn’t / don’t have.”

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Kanji Stuff

感覚 (かんかく) is made up of the kanji 感, which shows up in the word 感じ (かんじ // feeling), and the kanji 覚, which you may have already seen in the very common verb 覚える (おぼえる // to memorize; to learn; to remember).

For example, if you ever went to one of those places where the fish eat the dead skin off your feet, you could say:

変な感じ。
へんな　かんじ。
It feels weird.
Literally: “strange + feeling.”

Some of my new Korean family members did this while we were in Thailand for my and Rei's wedding earlier this summer:

I did not participate. ^^

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We'll look at some examples with 覚える (おぼえる) in just a bit, too. First, though, I want to talk about this kanji:

覚

I like this kanji because it was very easy for me to remember.

The Heisig keyword for it is "memorize," which is also occasionally the meaning of the kanji.

That top part of the kanji (the one that appears in kanji like 学 [study] and 栄 [flourish], also) is "schoolhouse."

The bottom part is 見 (see), which is used in the extremely common verb 見る (みる // to see; to watch).

So...

覚
You memorize what you see in a schoolhouse.

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Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, 覚える (おぼえる) can mean "to memorize," "to remember," or "to learn":

今日は漢字を30個覚えた。
きょう　は　かんじ　を　さんじゅっ　こ　おぼえた。
I memorized 30 kanji today.
Literally: “today + は + kanji + を + 30 items + memorized.”

俺のこと覚えてる？
おれ　の　こと　おぼえてる？
Do you remember me?
Literally: “I + の + thing + remember (=are remembering)?”

そんな言葉どこで覚えたの？
そんな　ことば　どこ　で　おぼえた　の？
Where did you learn that word?
Literally: “that kind of + word + where + で + learned + の?”

If you're worried about mixing up the meanings, don't. They'll be easy to distinguish as your Japanese improves.

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Now, moving on to the point of this lesson, let's take a look at the five senses!

視覚（しかく // sense of sight）

聴覚（ちょうかく // sense of hearing）

触覚（しょっかく // sense of touch）

味覚（みかく // sense of taste）

嗅覚（きゅうかく // sense of smell）

See why I spent so much time talking about the kanji 覚？

As always, here are example sentences...

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魚の視覚を研究しています。
さかな　の　しかく　を　けんきゅう　しています。
I’m studying the eyesight of fish.
Literally: “fish + の + eyesight + を + research + am doing.”

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聴覚のない生き物はいますか？
ちょうかく　の　ない　いきもの　は　いますか？
Are there any animals [creatures] that can’t hear anything [that don't have the sense of hearing]?
Literally: “(sense of) hearing + の + don’t have / there isn’t + living thing / creature + は + there is + か?”

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触覚のメカニズムはとても複雑です。
しょっかく　の　メカニズム　は　とても　ふくざつ　です。
The body’s sense of touch is very complicated.
Literally: “sense of touch + の + mechanics + は + very + complicated + です.”
Note: I was tempted to write “The somatosensory system is very complicated.” But I didn't want to use such a technical term. And "The mechanics of the sense of touch are very complicated" seemed like over-translating to me.

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お酒をやめて、味覚が変わりました。
おさけ　を　やめて、　みかく　が　かわりました。
After I quit drinking (alcohol), my sense of taste changed.
Literally: “alcohol + を + quit (and), + sense of taste + が + changed.”

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犬の嗅覚は鋭い。
いぬ　の　きゅうかく　は　するどい。
Dogs have a good sense of smell.
Literally: “dog + の + sense of smell + は + sharp.”

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I don't know why, but I rather enjoyed learning these words back in the day.

I hope that you did, too!