漢字 (かんじ )は友 (とも )だちHow to learn kanji

in senior Japanese class

I’ll explain below;1. Make friend with kanji2. Kanji was born as pictures3. Combining pictures4. Japanese meet Kanji- おんよみ5. Read as Japanese― くんよみ6. Making new words- じゅくご7. How to learn new kanji

1. Make friend with kanjiIs kanji easy for you? Or kanji scares you? If

you don’t like kanji, then kanji won’t like you. If you run away from kanji, kanji chase you and catch you, just like dog.

So, instead of avoiding it, let’s make friend with kanji.

 How do you make friend? Of course, you get to

know each other. It’s the same with kanji. Let’s get to know what kanji is all about.

2. Kanji was born as picturesAs you all learned in Year 9, basic kanji was

born from pictures. Some kanji was born from a drawing of the

object

　→　 →　 から　山という字ができました。

Some kanji came from drawing the concepts or ideas.

は （うえ）です。

If you want to know more go;http://bekkoame.ne.jp/ro/akira.h/kanji/orhttp://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/itomoko/kodomo/naritati2/naritati05.htm

So first of all you should learn these basic kanji with the original pictures, then you instantly know the meaning of the kanji.

3. Combining kanjiThe next step!

Some kanji are born by combining a few simple kanji. With this case understanding the original pictures of each parts will lead you to understand the meaning of that kanji.

木ｘ２＝林木ｘ３＝森日＋月＝明　（あかるい）日＋寺＝時

Some kanji was made from using the same kanji for the same sound with some additional part to support the meaning.

　「シ＋青」 = 清 (pure water) 　「日＋青」＝晴 (Blue sky) 「米＋青」精 (Clean rice) 　

青 represents the sound “ セイ” and the part in the left represents the meaning.

( シ＝水 ) 　So most cases if the group of kanji that use the

same main part have the same sound in Chinese.

Eg. 時、持、待、 (Ji)

4. Japanese meet Chinese- おんよみUp to this the story was in China or Chinese Language. Now

Chinese characters were imported to Japan and meet Japanese Language. The things will complicate from now one.

But don’t worry, if you know the history here then you’ll become super かんじはかせ

(Dr. Kanji)Kanji came to Japan at the beginning of 5th Century. At the beginning the Japanese people used the kanji with

their sound and fit into Japanese sentences.Eg. 安＝アン　宇＝ウ　加＝カ　 etc.But this takes long time to write each sentence. That’s why

hiragana was born.安＝あ 宇＝う 加＝かThis way of reading is now called 音読み（おんよみ） meaning

“Sound reading”.

5. Reading as Japanese- くんよみUnlike Vietnamese or Korean, Chinese

characters did not disappear here. Instead, Japanese people started to use kanji with their own meaning, as well as the sound.

They decided to read each kanji in 2 ways. One=stick with the sound in Chinese as they did at the beginning, but then read with the Japanese word which had the same meaning.

Eg.木＝モク き　日＝ニチ ひ月＝ゲツ／ガツ つき火＝カ ひ水＝スイ みず金＝キン かね土＝ド つち

This way of reading is called 訓読み（くんよみ）　 Whenever you learn kanji, you need to learn these 2 ways of readings. The くんよみcame from the old Japanese words that were used for the communication in people’s daily lives. Most of these words are original Japanese words which are called 和語（わご）Normally these words are combination of no more than 4 hiragana characters.

For verbs and adjectives you need to add some hiragana when you read kanji in くんよみ

行きます生まれました小さい大きいThese hiragana are called おくりがな　

6. Making new words- じゅくごThe amazing thing is-Japanese people didn’t stop

there! As well as introducing Japanese way of reading Kanji, they started to create new words by combining 2 or more kanji together. The same as English language borrowing words from Latin, or Te Reo maori started to use words from English, Japanese compensated the words for the ideas and objects which didn’t existed in their language with the kanji.

These new words are called かんご (Chinese words) as some of them come from Chinese Language. But some are created by Japanese.

Eg. 電車　（ Electric vehicles ） 家族（ House-Tribe ） 学校（ learning institute ）

These words are called じゅくご . In Senior Japanese majority of the vocab you learn are these words. By seeing and learning the meaning of each kanji you will learn each vocab better.

7. How to learn new kanjiFrom now on every time you learn new kanji

you need to learn the story behind it, how it was created. You should draw some pictures when you take note for this. Then you write the basic meaning of that kanji. You also need to take note for the 2 ways of reading, おんよみ and くんよみ . Lastly you should write some examples （れい） of words that use that kanji. I’ll give you both the words from わご　 and

じゅくご / かんご