Lesson 1 : Kanji

The word kanji is the Japanese version of the Chinese word hànzì, which means "Han
characters". Han refers to the Han Dynasty (206BC - 220AD) and is the name used by the
Chinese for themselves.

When the Japanese adopted Chinese characters to write the Japanese language they also
borrowed many Chinese words. Today about half the vocabulary of Japanese comes from
Chinese and Japanese kanji are use to represent both Sino-Japanese words and native Japanese
words with the same meaning.

oo/ookii/dai – big
The kanji 煮“to cook over a fire; simmer; boil”

For example, the native Japanese word for water is mizu while the Sino-Japanese word
is sui. Both are written with the same character. The former is known as the kun yomi (Japanese
reading) of the character while the latter is known as the on yomi (Chinese reading) of the
character.

Another example: the native Japanese word for horse is uma while the Sino-Japanese words are ba and ma.

The general rule is that when a kanji appears on its own, it is given the kun yomi, but when
two or more kanji appear together, they are given the on yomi. There are, of course, many
exceptions to this rule. For example it is sometimes difficult to work out how to pronounce
people's names because some of the kanji used for names have non-standard pronunciations .
Some kanji have multiple on yomi and kun yomi (the first three readings are on yomi, the last
three are kun yomi):

In Mandarin Chinese this character is pronounced 'xíng' or 'háng'.

Kanji has two kind of pronunciations which called Onyomi (音読み) and Kunyomi (訓読み).
The first one came from china with the Kanji character and the second one was made in Japan.
After all, Kanji has multiple pronunciations and it makes more difficult to master for learners.
Multiple on yomi are often a result of borrowing words over a period of many centuries, during
which Chinese pronunciation changed, and also borrowing words from different varieties of
Chinese.
Kanji are mainly used to describe names and nouns. When used in verbs and adjectives they
mostly are written in combination with hiragana. Most sentences include kanji as well as
hiragana. Japanese dictionaries list around 10,000 kanji. The Japanese government limited the
kanji used in official publications to the 1945 touyou kanji with about 4000 readings. The
Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is based on these 1945 touyou kanji. A Japanese with
average education knows around 3000 kanji and it is estimated that around 4000 kanji are used
in Japanese literature.
80 Japanese Kanji for Kanji beginner
 右 左 上 下 一
みぎ ひだり うえ した ひと(つ)
ウ サ ジョウ ゲ イチ
right left up down one
二 三 四 五 六
ふた(つ) み(つ) よ(つ) いつ(つ) む(つ)
ニ サン シ ゴ ロク
two three four five six
七 八 九 十 雨
なな や ここの とお あめ
シチ ハチ ク ジュウ ウ
seven eight nine ten rain

音 火 花 空 犬
おと ひ はな そら いぬ
オン カ カ クウ ケン
sound fire flower sky dog
口 耳 男 女 子
くち みみ おとこ おんな こ
コウ ジ ダン ジョ シ
mouth ear man woman child
大 中 小 赤 青
おお(き) なか ちい(さ) あか あお
ダイ チュウ ショウ セキ セイ
big middle small red blue

草 木 林 森 村
くさ き はやし もり むら
ソウ モク リン シン ソン
grass tree woods forest village
山 出 入 学 字
やま で い(り) まな(び) あざ
サン シュツ ニュウ ガク ジ
mountain out in learn character

校 文 本 目 手