To those who don’t know, Kanji are Chinese characters used in Japanese language. They differ from hiragana and katakana as, firstly they are borrowed. So if you are of Chinese descent and are familiar with Chinese characters, learning Kanji will be much easier for you.  If, like me, you have had absolutely no exposure to Kanji before learning Japanese, you will need to work a little harder to be able to quickly recognise Kanji.

At present, Japan’s train system has easy to read English below each sign, and on most announcements. However, on ads, or in books, Kanji is used quite a bit, making it difficult to even know what to ask the meaning of. This is why learning Kanji and the associated readings is so important.

A really easy way to learn some Kanji is on the train. Each station will have its name in Kanji, with the hiragana and English following. Once you know how to pronounce it, look at the Kanji. Most will only have one or two hiragana sounds to itself, however, if there is a small hiragana character, there might be three.

For example, さくらしんまち, pronounced in English as ‘Sakura shin-machi’ is one train station. The kanji for this station is 桜新町, meaning, cherry blossom new town. Most foreigners will know Sakura is a cherry blossom, and be able to deduce that the first Kanji, 桜, corresponds with this. Following, we have 新, meaning new. This is pronounced as ‘shin’ in this case, but can also be said as ‘atara’ {新しい}. Finally, there is 町, a very common Kanji that means town or city. This kanji is read as ‘machi’.

When on the train, pick one station that you want to learn the Kanji for. After figuring out the reading, trace the patterns on your leg whilst looking at it. Be sure to use the correct stroke order, which can generally be figured out as left to right, top to bottom. Once you feel confident, when the screen cycles to hiragana or English, try retracing the Kanji, and then check when it appears again.

After practising this for a while, you will have quite a few Kanji under your belt. Make sure to look out for familiar Kanji when walking around in Japan, as recognition will be the most useful thing in aiding your learning.

Sometimes, Kanji will have furigana above it; this is small hiragana above the character, to tell you how to read it. Whilst knowing how to pronounce the Kanji is important, I believe that knowing the meaning helps a lot more. When looking at a food label, or an ad on TV, as long as you recognise the meaning, you should be good to go.

Sometimes, the kanji will look like its meaning, as below

Though difficult it is important to persevere. This has merely been the tip of the iceberg, and there will be more to come on Kanji in the future. Good luck!

-H