None of the Proverbs "Slow and steady wins the race" , "Where there is a will, there is a way" and the like , worked for me in mastering the 2000 and odd 'Kanji' characters that comprise the basic Japanese script and is a must for anyone who wants to read a Japanese newspaper or for that matter any Japanese document. Every time I attempted learning these characters, I would intially start with great determination, but would soon get bogged down by their sheer number. Now, let me explain.

The Japanese writing system consists of 3 kinds of characters- called Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are characters representing sounds, where Hiragana script is used for Japanese words and Katakana for representing words of foreign origin. These two types of characters are fewer in number and also relatively simple in appearance. Now, Kanji characters are different in that they express not only sounds, but also meanings. Kanji were introduced from china nearly 2000 years ago.

There are 4 types of Kanji
1. The Pictograph
These are characters that represent a picture of some physical object and are usually quite simple. eg. tree , mountain , eye .
2. The Symbol
These are characters expressing abstract concepts, but they too are quite simple. eg. rotation .
3. The Ideograph
A combination of two or more pictographs or symbols and simple I should say. eg. Mountain path combines the character for up , down and of course mountain .
4. The Phonetic-Ideograph
The largest of the categories and also very confusing. eg. Pour has a character for water and a phonetic element which expresses the sound of a word meaning 'Continuous' . Thus, continuous (flow of) water; a reference to pouring.

Kanji can also be categorised based on the number of strokes used to write them. There are kanji with 1, 2, 3 strokes (The easy ones) to more complex ones with 10,11 ,12 upto even 20 strokes. Now I am sure you can imagine how complicated it can get. To learn Kanji, one needs to develop a lot of patience and perseverence. For a beginner like me, the head will surely start rolling after memorizing a few kanji, but slowly after one gets the hang of it, things might seem to get a little easier. The worst part in any case , is that any given Kanji has more than one reading. The Chinese reading is called the "ON" reading and the Japanese reading is the 'KUN' reading. The typical kanji has two to three 'ON' readings and two to three 'KUN' readings.

With great difficulty I have managed to memorize about 300 Kanji, just to be able to survive in this country. Since the Kanji characters represent meanings of the words, I manage to get an overall idea as to the nature of the documents or notices I receive in Japanese. Eg. I know the Kanji for 'Water'and also 'bill'. So, I do understand whether a particular document is the water bill or whether it is a notice stating that the water supply for my apartment is going to be suspended for an hour for the monthly maintenace. But beyond that I swear I don't grasp anything. Sometimes I need to rush to a Japanese friend to translate some letters for me.

I have been living in Japan for more than 6 years and I have no hopes that my Kanji skills are going to improve even if I stay here for a few more years. You may call me a 'Pessimist' but I cannot help feeling that I am an 'educated illiterate' when it comes to reading Japanese. "Don't feel that way" my Japanese friends tell me, " Even we look up the Kanji book, for characters that are complicated and for those that we haven't written in a long time". Now, thats some consolation, if you may call it so.!!!

Back to my Page "About Japan"

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page