INTRODUCTION
Are you an enthusiast of the language and culture of Japan? Learning Japanese is one of the most exciting languages to undertake. You may be only a beginner, or perhaps you’re a novice already having made some steps learning Japanese.
This article will explain in-depth how Kanji originated and how it is used in the current Japanese society. This article will also explain the benefits of learning and using Kanji.
Craving to know what Kanji is?
Learning new things can be daunting at first. But once you understand the history and background behind the language, learning can be much more fun and exciting.
Kanji is one of the three writing scripts composing Japanese. The two other writing scripts consist of Katakana and Hiragana, of which both are phonetic. Phonetic means that any character represents only one syllable and will be pronounced exactly how it is.
In general, Kanji can be loosely defined as a set of symbols in one character that represent a single word, or a part of a given word or an idea.
To summarize, Kanji are logograms originally taken from Chinese symbols and modified to fit in the Japanese writing system. Kanji will always go side-by-side with Hiragana and Katakana. The writings are identical to the Chinese Traditional writing system because the characters are identical.
Where is the exact origin of Kanji? Is it Japanese or Chinese?
The origin of Kanji cannot be exactly traced. Even where exactly it was first written remains a mystery, but many agree that it may have originated from China.
Some unproved sources claim that the first forms of Kanji existed in 4500 B.C. while the oldest Kanji like modern Kanji appeared in 1600 B.C. The Kanji that we use today has been modified. The original Kanji represented ideas through a picture form and were called pictograms.
China adopted the use of Kanji for centuries before it resurfaced in Japan. Even after reaching Japan in 57 A.D, Kanji was not put into practice until the 5th century A.D. By this period, Japan had no written language. Later, the Japanese began modifying the Chinese characters in line with Japanese grammar. This resulted in Katakana and Hiragana.
You may be thinking about how many Kanji are in existence. Unfortunately, Kanji has undergone many modifications throughout history, and thus has no exact number. However, the exact number is estimated to be about 50000 to 85000. This should not alarm you, because you will only need to know about 2136 Kanjis, which are considered normal for the today’s society. Once you learn the essential 2136 Kanji, you will be considered to be a native and be able to communicate fluently.
Why using Kanji remains important in Japanese society
Many people always find Kanji difficult to learn. For instance, you may have learned Katakana and Hiragana. You may not be fond of learning Kanji, but there are many advantages in learning to read and use Kanji.
✔ Kanji exhibits a form of beautiful calligraphy
Have you ever tried writing in Kanji? Do you notice how beautiful it appears? Kanji is indeed an art form.
It is common to find Japanese parents instructing their children to practice their writing because others can easily recognize nice handwriting. You will love writing in Kanji.
✔ Kanji improves reading speed
Do you know that once learning Kanji, your reading speed of Japanese will increase dramatically? Once you dedicate yourself in learning Kanji, you can understand the meanings of key words in a sentence, which typically is written in Kanji, and hence improve your speed reading ability.
You can easily infer the meaning of a sentence after capturing a few key Kanjis in the sentence, instead of having to read the full sentence from start to end.
✔ Kanji minimizes space
Forget the alphabet. Kanji is very much different from English and European languages in terms of written space. A Japanese essay will typically take half the space of a English essay.
Even when compared with Hiragana, Kanji still takes up less space. This is because two or more characters will always be reduced to a single Kanji character. This makes Kanji very useful and efficient.
✔ Sentences in Hiragana are difficult to read
Do you know that Japanese has no spacing between words? This makes writings in Japanese consisting of only Hiragana very difficult to read.
Think about a long sentence with nothing separating the words. You will have a hard time thinking about where one word starts and ends. Kanji splits the characters and makes them easy to read.
✔ Kanji are easy to read
This can also be related with English. In English, you just take the words and work with them. In Japanese, Kanji will always have a meaning to each character. Considering existing Japanese writings, Hiragana will be more difficult to interpret its meaning.
Kanji can be readily interpreted, since each Kanji always represents a distinct and unique meaning. You can notice this by writing something similar in both Kanji and Hiragana.