Kanji Lesson

Happy?



Have fun like them!!


Recently some of my friends asked me how to learn Kanji characters in Japanese.
So I thought back on what I did to learn them when I was a kid. I am sorry but I have to say that I (and most of other Japanese people) just practiced Kanji characters again and again in school. I had a lot of homework to write Kanji characters and often took the exams.

The Japanese students must master 2,136 Kanji characters at the level of high school graduation. It means, we spend 12 years to master all of them.
These are articles about Kanji characters I posted before:
*Let's Learn Kanji Characters!
*A Misunderstanding


It would be more easier to learn them if you could find some characteristics of Kanji characters. Here's an example:
汁 soup
汗 sweat
河 river
泡 bubble
泳 to swim
海 the sea
浴 to bath

Can you find the something these characters have in common? Look closer at the left side of each characters. All of them have 氵 on its left. And, you might have already noticed, those characters' meanings have relation to "water". Right, this part of Kanji (氵) is kinda like a keyword of "water".


Now try to guess what's the meaning of this keyword (扌) of these Kanji characters.
Hint: A body part!!
打 to hit
投 to throw
技 skill
指 fingers
拾 to pick up

Answer: This (扌) is a keyword of "hands". Did you get it?：）

If you've just started to learn Kanji characters, these website would help you a lot!!
>How to Learn 2,000 Kanji in 3 Months
(Fluent in 3 Months)
>Basic Kanji - The First to Learning Kanji
(CosCom)


*Japanese Word of the Day*
あれ？どうやって書くんだっけ？
/are? douyatte kaku-n dakke?/
Eh? I forgot how to write it?

*あれ？/are/ ん？/n/ え？/e/ (･_･？)

*どうやって /douyatte/ how to

*書く /write/ to write

*～だっけ？ /-n dakke/ is it...?
= ～だったっけ？ /dattakke/
It implies that he's not sure about it, or forgot about it. Or he's asking himself.


ex) 犬（いぬ）にチョコレートあげても良（い）いんだったっけ？
I'm not sure if I can give some chocolates to dogs...?

ex) ごめん、名前（なまえ）なんだったっけ？
Sorry, what was your name?


I often forget how to write Kanji when I have to write by hand because I usually use a keyboard and the computer automatically choose Kanji for me. ：（