Kanji 101: How Kanji Actually Work

When you're in Japan, you'll see kanji,

kanji, kanji, kanji everywhere and you

feel like so intimidated to start

learning kanji or you just overwhelmed.

But in this video, we're going to go

over how the kanji works so you'll feel

less intimidated and also you'll find

the patterns of learning kanji. So let's

just dive into it. So what is kanji used

for? In Japan, we have three different

writing systems, right? Hiragana,

katakana, and ki. Do you know why we

have three and how are they used? Well,

let's say that we only have hiragana.

And look at this sentence. Oh, it's so

hard to read. Where is the word? Where

is the function words like particles?

You can't tell because unlike English,

we don't have space in between words.

So, it makes it actually super difficult

to read only with one type of writing

system. So, we do this. Now, this is

read as

>> [laughter]

>> Do you get that? When we see this, it

kind of looks like emoji. So the kanji

works like emoji. You can kind of glance

at it and get the meaning right away.

And this actually means garden. Na is to

and counter for birds. Nia is roosters

and is there is. So there there are two

roosters in the garden. So how Japanese

see it is something like this.

It's like emoji. So it's like garden two

wings and the rooster and eer. So let me

go back to the three writing systems and

how each one is used. The first one

hiragana is used for basically grammar

and also word endings and simple words.

And katakana is for foreign law words

and also ontopia like pika pika or kira.

You know pika pika is not just Pikachu.

And kanji is like a meaning at a glance.

It has both meaning and sounds. Hiragana

and katakana only have sounds, but kanji

has meaning. So, it's easier to skim

read. And a lot of Japanese learners and

also Japanese people actually say that

they prefer kanji because it makes it

easier to read. And also, a lot of

people like kanji over katakana. So, if

you've learned katakana already, you've

already done the hard part. So, good

job. Now that you know why Japanese has

three different writing system, there's

one very important thing to remember. To

be able to read and write Japanese

sentences, you do not need to know all

of the kanji. You know, Japanese people

take 9 years to learn all of the kanjis

that are actually needed to live in

Japan. When we don't know some of the

kanjis, what we use is just hiragana. So

if you don't know a word, don't be

afraid to just write it down in

hiragana. And even as an adult when we

forget how to write it, we write it in

hiragana. I always emphasize and

emphasize it to my students, but build

vocabulary first. Don't worry about

learning the kanji or knowing the kanji

first to write a sentence. Build

vocabulary first. Like in English, you

can't spell a word that you don't know.

Like for example, let's make up a word.

Maybe lighter, you know, maybe nobody

knows, right? Can you spell it? Probably

not. And do you know the meaning? You

don't know. I don't know either because

I just made it up. Just like that. You

have to know the vocabulary and the

meaning of it first to write kanji. So

the most efficient way of learning

Japanese is to learn the grammar, how to

speak, build vocabulary and also how to

write all at the same time. So yeah,

let's finally get into kanji. What are

kanji made of? Well, kanjis are

basically a pictogram. That's where it

started. It came from how it looks. So

for example this kanji is yama which

means mountain because do you see the

resemblance from this picture or this

kanji? Do you know the meaning of it?

This is actually coming from a tree

picture. Do you see the resemblance key?

And what about this one? This is a

person. There are two ways to think

about it. The first one is a person

walking. So it's the leg part. Or the

second one which I like is someone is

about to fall

and then the other person is like oh I

got you I support you because people

can't live by oneself people support

each other right so so that's the

beginning of kanji and eventually it

became a symbol or it became like a

puzzle if it's not a pictogram it might

be something that you can't really

visualize like for example u above or up

you can't really visualize the picture

when that happens

has this line, right? This is the

standard line and then something comes

above. So that's why it has the line on

top. Another example is down or under.

There's this standard line again and

there's this stroke going down because

it's under. And then here comes the

puzzle one. The puzzle one is the fun

one. Let's bring up these two kanji

again. Kito, person and tree. And we put

these together. And now a person is by

the tree resting. So this kanji means to

rest. Oh, now you're seeing the pattern

like a puzzle. And the last one is

radical plus sound. Now before we get

into that, what is a radical? A radical

is a hint of meaning or category. For

example, if it has a person radical,

it's something related to humans. Or if

it has a hand radical, it has something

to do with hands or hand movements. Or

if it has the water radical, it had

something to do with water. Here's an

example. This is sun kanji and sun

radical. And if it goes with the blue,

which controls the sound, it means

sunny. H. Now let's put water radical

plus blue. This means clean. Because

when water is blue, that's clean water.

Or if [clears throat] it goes with a

word radical and blue that means to

request.

And then lastly when it has a heart

radical with blue that means feeling

like you know feeling blue. So these

radicals give a hint of meaning. So

that's how radicals work. Now see the

patterns. I was showing the radicals on

the left side but it doesn't just appear

on the left side. It can be on the

right. It can be on the top. It can be

at the bottom and also it can go around

it. It depends on the radical and the

kanji itself. Now if you've learned

kanji or if you know more about kanji

you might think ah that's not the reason

why we think kanji is difficult. It's

because kanji has multiple readings.

Mhm. So kanji has a meaning and sounds

multiple readings for single kanji. And

there are two types of readings. One is

oyomi which is Chinese reading and the

other one is kyomi which is Japanese

reading. So kunyomi why do we have to

well oyomi Chinese reading is how

Chinese pronunciation sounded to

Japanese ears back then and the kunyomi

the Japanese reading is the original

Japanese words. To explain why we have

two different types of reading we have

to go back in history. Japanese people

found kanji, Chinese characters in

China. And Japanese people thought,

"What a beautiful writing. Can we use

that?" Because back then, Japanese had

our own spoken language, but we didn't

have the writing system. So, we wanted

to use something to write, but we

couldn't invent it. Beautiful kanji next

door. So, can we use it? That time,

Japanese people learned that each

character has a meaning and sound. So,

this is what happened. Whoa, what a

beautiful writing. What is that? Oh,

this is

H. What does that mean?

But well, it means mountain. Oh,

mountain. Mountain is sun. Okay. Okay,

we're going to use that.

But wait, we already have a word that

means mountain, which is yama.

You know what? We're going to use them

both. So that is the beginning of a

nightmare.

>> I say nightmare because I personally

didn't like learning kanji growing up.

>> So I see your struggle. So that's why I