Due to the similarities in the way Chinese and Japanese are written, many individuals often inquire whether Chinese can understand Japanese writing systems or not. This is especially true for kanji characters which are known to have originated from China. But this is not true as Chinese don’t naturally understand kanji characters. Although such a person may be able to correctly identify a few kanji characters, they are bound to miss lots of them.
Since there are some similarities between the Japanese kanji and the Chinese hanzi, lots of people often ask whether learning kanji can aid the Chinese. Without mincing words, learning kanji can help with Chinese. This is because several kanji characters have similar meanings with some hanzi characters that look similar. As a result of this, if you know the kanjis, you can also know the equivalent hanzis with ease.
In addition, learning kanji will assist you to understand how radicals work. Radicals are the key elements used for creating each kanji character. It should be noted that radicals are also utilised for creating hanzi characters. Although the radicals of kanji and the Chinese language are not always the same, learning kanji will make it easier for you to understand Chinese radicals.
It is worthwhile to realise that the Japanese kanji and the Chinese hanzi have lots of differences. Many of the characters of these two writing systems differ in their nuances and pronunciations. However, learning kanji will undoubtedly give you a head start when you are learning Chinese. In fact, you will find it easier and faster to learn the Chinese language than people that only understand only western languages such as English, German, or French.
Can Chinese understand kanji?
During the development of hanzi (Chinese characters), Japanese people had not developed. Therefore, Japanese people learned from the Chinese people and, as such, adopted hanzi. Over time, traditional Chinese writing characters were modified by Japanese scholars to form kanji. However, there have been so many modifications in kanji characters. So, if a person knows the Chinese hanzi, they may not know much about Japanese kanji.
Also, because of the modifications, kanji and Chinese hanzi don’t contain the same characters. Although they may look alike or even have similar meanings in some cases, their pronunciations will be quite different.
Conclusively, Chinese cannot understand Japanese kanji unless they have spent some time mastering the Japanese writing system. However, the understanding of Chinese will make it easier for them to learn kanji.
Is kanji difficult to learn?
Kanji is basically a writing system that is used for the Japanese language. It is important to understand that kanji, hiragana, and katakana are the three essential writing scripts for Japanese. A kanji can be utilized to represent a word directly or sometimes changed by a hiragana symbol to create another word. Hence, any learner that wants to have a great knowledge of this language must never overlook the need to learn kanji.
You can learn Kanji slowly if you don’t get scared or find it hard. Since hiragana blends together in a mess, this is easier to read than hiragana. If you can infer the meaning of a Kanji sentence without even reading the text, it means you can read faster without even reading the full text.
These are the roots of Kanji, and there are about 214 radicals. Although not all 214 of the radicals are used in current Japanese Kanji, learning them will help you become familiar with the ones that are important. Every Kanji has one or more radicals, while some kanji themselves are radicals, and so, they work alone with their own meaning. Also, some radicals in their modified forms literally have no reasonable meaning and cannot be used alone unless with other radicals.
HOW TO LEARN KANJI FOR BEGINNERS
If you are just starting to learn the Japanese language, congratulations! Starting out may seem confusing and complex for you, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed, after all, almost all non-native Japanese language learners went through the same ordeal just like you since Japanese isn’t just a simple language to learn.
Memorizing Kanji isn’t the easiest thing to do when learning the Japanese language, but you can always get it done. Before moving on to Kanji, I believe that you must have learned and memorized the Japanese vocabulary as well as grammar because those are the basic foundation for Kanji and other aspects of the Japanese language. It’s a good thing that you are looking to learn and improve your Kanji. We’ll help you achieve as you read on.
How does Kanji work?
The Japanese language has three writing methods; Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. While katakana and hiragana covers for the Japanese syllabus, Kanji is a collection of symbols that represents words, have different meanings as well as pronunciations. There are about 50,000 to 85,000 kanji symbols out there, with about 2,136 of them commonly used on a daily basis.
Why should you learn Kanji?
Just because Kanji seems hard doesn’t mean you should abandon it completely. A lot of people have taken the high roads to learn it, seeking out the best way possible to keep them on track and motivated all through the learning period, which in the end paid off well. You can do it too. But if you are still wondering why you should learn Kanji, here are a few reasons.
- Kanji helps you to understand the context and give meaning to words. With it, you will be able to distinguish words that fit together and those that do not so that you don’t get mixed up or confused, trying to understand sentences.
- Being able to write Kanji correctly, joined with your Japanese language speaking and listening fluency will expose you to more opportunities than someone with just speaking and listening fluency.
- Once you can dedicate yourself to learning Kanji, it becomes relatively easy to read and understand sentences even without reading them in Hiragana.
- Finally, if you intend to move to Japan sometime, learning Kanji is a must for your day-to-day survival as most signs that will help you get around is written in Kanji.
Once you start to learn Kanji and you have memorized about 500 symbols, you will find that Kanji is an interesting and exciting part of the Japanese language, and learning it is quite easy.