KANA/KANJI Lesson Two - Introducing Kanji!

[Starry Starry Fright]

Yes, it's time for the dreaded kanji to begin. Don't worry, it's not nearly as bad as it seems.

There are over 9000 kanji in total. That is not a Dragonball Z joke, I swear. Even native Japanese speakers learn Kanji slowly, so to begin, I will be teaching you the 80 or so kanji that Japanese first graders learn.

Kanji are borrowed from an old Chinese writing system, and many Chinese characters are very similar to Japanese Kanji. These symbols began as pictographs, and the modern-day characters still bear some resemblance to their original pictures.

We are going to begin with ten little kanji. Don't be afraid. These kanji represent the NUMBERS and correspond to JAPANESE Lesson Two..

The reason that I teach you the direct English meanings of the kanji, instead of the Japanese words, has to do with the way your brain learns languages. If you learn kanji this way, when you look at a character, your brain will think:

CHARACTER > MEANING

If I taught you the kanji as they relate to the Japanese word, the process would look like this:

CHARACTER > JAPANESE > MEANING

Slowing down the comprehension process. If you follow the vocab and the kanji, you will learn to read and write much faster.

Let the learning commence!

one - 一 - this is one line. One. Easy.

two - 二 - this is two lines. Two. Easy.

three -　三 - this is three lines. Three. Easy.

four - 四 - This is supposed to depict a human fist. Fists have four fingers, thus, four.

five -　五 - This character has five lines, and represents five.

six -　六 - this character depicts a hill or tall mound. It represents six because hills rise about the normal ground ground and six rises above the normal counting you can do on one hand.

seven - 七 - this character does not depict anything to do with seven and was assigned the meaning "seven" through some unknown mistake.

eight - 八 - this character depicts something being divided evenly in two. Eight divides evenly in two. Thus, it became eight.

nine - 九 - this originally looked like a fist clenching with one finger outstretched. If you clench both fists and leave one finger out, you have clenched nine fingers. Thus nine.

ten - 十 - this represents two arms crossed. Two arms have ten fingers and thus, this means ten.

Kanji is possibly the most interesting part of Japanese, and if you learn the origins of the characters, you will find that they are not difficult to remember.

For those of you who are serious about learning Japanese, I recommend that you practice writing out these kanji in order to truly master them.

If you're lost, confused or totally on top of things, reply to this post and tell me what's going on. I hope all of you will enjoy learning Kanji.  

[Il Bambino]

My favorite aspect of Japanese: The stories behind the kanji. Man oh man, they always amaze me!! Thanks so much for this lesson.  

[this little secret]

So interesting. I shall write this down to keep in memory.  

[Asano Wakana]

Arigatou gozaimasu! I'll write it down in my notepad.  

[x Falsi]

Hachi always reminds me of a mustache.  

[Nezume girl]

I'll write them down and practice them.  

[pixseouls]

I'm sooo glad they're based on Chinese characters!! xD  

[Magegirl Nino]

Oh! I remember being told that Japanese point at their noses instead of their chests. I didn't relate that to Kanji though~! Thank you for pointing that out. That makes sense!  

[Baksuetai_Tenshi]

They are hard to write in paint, but I do like Kanji.  

[Starry Starry Fright]

Baksuetai_Tenshi

They are hard to write in paint, but I do like Kanji.

If you use really thin paint, it's a little closer to Japanese ink. And when they do calligraphy, they keep their wrists perfectly still and put all the movement in the elbow. I always made a royal mess of traditional calligraphy in high school, but I'm slowly getting better. 3nodding  

[Baksuetai_Tenshi]

wow, thats sooo awsum! they use their elbows instead of their wrists huh... ill have to practice that  

[ORANGIE JUUSH]

Numbers, check :D I understand.
9000 seems such an unbelivablely large number though :o .
Particulary in comparison to our lowly 26 characters.

Allwell, 10 down.

 

[Nana Shinu Ai]

All i can say thank you for posting it i wrote it in notebook in marker to practices thanks  

[flightyPrick]

ORANGIE JUUSH

Numbers, check :D I understand.
9000 seems such an unbelivablely large number though :o .
Particulary in comparison to our lowly 26 characters.

Allwell, 10 down.

You know it's good to think of Kanji as the "big words" of Japanese. Like we have words like, giant. Which just means big. Kanji is just the big words. and used whenever possible and very commonly.  

[Nana Shinu Ai]

Wow. Thank Starry Sensei for posting them up. Sometimes i get confused on it. thanks.