Japanese Kanji & Kana

Hi Guys,

I have a question about Japanese Kanji & Kana. I would like to know how these two scripts are combined; more specifically is it worth my while to learn hiragana and katakana word combinations or the way a word is written in kanji
for example (n) doll/puppet/figure/ in Japanese can be written as 人形 in kanji or [にんぎょう] hiragana or to escape/to run away/ can be written as 逃げる in kanji or [にげる] /(v1).

What should I do or what should I learn in order to be able to read and write Japanese is my question? I find this concept really confusing, if someone could clear this up for me I would really appreciate it!

If you want to be able to read Japanese newspapers, magazines etc. then you need to learn the kanji. You also need to know the readings of the kanji, so that is where the hiragana reading is useful.

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the world of one of the most difficult language.

The rule of use Kanji is whenever you can use Kanji, use them. It is said that there are about 15000 kanji's but if you know roughly 2000 (called 常用漢字;jooyoo kanji), it would be almost perfect. Actually, if you know about 1000 (called 教育漢字）which all elementary students should learn, it would be enough for daily life as foreigner.

As posted, most of the books / newspapers use 2000 level, you can not read them unless you know. In writing, if you use all hiragana, it look a little childish / unsophisticated but since you are not a Japanese, your effort to learn Japanese would be very much appreciated and nobody will complain it. Don't worry.

I suggest learning both, kana then kanji.

If it's worth it depends on how much you really care to learn the language. If you're even slightly serious about it...you need to know the Japanese writing systems (IMO anyway).

For kanji memorization, I recommend the book "Remembering the Kanji" or using a similar technique. People say it's one of the hardest languages...but if you don't go down the hardest path just because many others have, I don't think it's so bad.

Well, I guess a foreign person to Japan does not need to master all the 1945 常用漢字 characters with their listed readings, unless he / she hopes to be a bilingual or aims at post like diplomat. I don't know how it's hard to learn Kanji for people brought up without Kanji (I'm a Japanese), but here I try my best to reply.

人 means person, and 形 means shape. It may be your help if you learn what a basic Kanji character means. Suppose you don't know what a word 伝達 means; if you learn that 伝 means 'to convey' you can guess what this word means; if you also learn that 達 means 'to reach' maybe you can tell what this word means. Then you check it in your dictionary. I think this way of enriching Kanji knowledge is helpful especially as to words composed of Kanji characters, such as 人形 and 伝達.

Many of 教育漢字 characters have two types of Kanji reading: on and kun. Generally speaking, on is of Chinese origin, and kun is of Japanese origin.
逃 - On: [toh] as in 逃走 [tohsoh]; Kun: [nigeru], [nigasu], [nogareru], [nogasu]. In cases where several characters have a kun in common for one Japanese word, it may be useful to group their meanings. For example, six characters (計, 測, 量, 図, 謀, 諮) have a kun [hakaru] in common, but their meanings are roughly grouped into three: to measure (計, 測, 量), to scheme (図, 謀), to consult (諮).

Combination of Kanji and Kana in writing words could be a headache to Kanji learners. As to some characters with variety of readings, such as 逃 and 生, the combination could be an important matter. Except for such characters, I guess it's better for a foreign person to put priority on meanings and readings.

--For your information--

There exists a regulation on the combination; some grammatical tips are needed to understand it. It doesn't apply to works such as novels published in books. Here I roughly explain its rules as to adjectives and verbs.

Maybe it's better to know exceptions first. Some exceptions from 明らむ to 巧みだ are listed on the reference page: http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/k19730618001/k1...

Adjectives
- Each adjective whose end-form is "...shii": the part "..." is written in Kanji. e.g. 美しい [utsukushii], 楽しかっ-た[tanoshikat-ta].
- Other adjectives: the stem (i.e. part which doesn't change by forms) is written in Kanji. e.g. 快い [kokoroyoi], 快かっ-た [kokoroyokat-ta].

Verbs
- a. Each verb whose end-form needs two letters in Kana: the first letter is written in Kanji. e.g. 見る [miru], 得-ない [e-nai], 得る [eru / uru], 来-た [ki-ta], 来る [kuru].
- b. Each verb whose end-form is "...suru": the part "..." is written in Kanji. e.g. 安心し-た [anshinshi-ta], 理解する [rikaisuru].
- c. Each verb whose six forms end with vowel a, i, u, u, e, e in this order: the stem is written in Kanji. e.g. 見逃さ-ない [minogasa-nai], 見逃し-ます [minogashi-masu], 見逃す [minogasu], 見逃す 時 [minogasu toki], 見逃せ-ば [minogase-ba], 見逃せ [minogase].
- d. Each of other verbs whose end-form ends with iru or a consonant & iru: the part before the ending is written in Kanji. e.g. 悔いる [kuiru], 恥じ-た [haji-ta].
- e. Each of other verbs whose end-form ends with eru or a consonant & eru: the part before the ending is written in Kanji. e.g. 負ける [makeru], 認め-た [mitome-ta].
- f. Regardless of b. through e., if a verb Y's stem includes a noun X / a verb X / an adjective X's stem, then the combination in Y depends on X. e.g. 春めく [harumeku], 生まれる [umareru] (stem 生ま includes v.生む [umu]), 逃がす [nigasu] (stem 逃が includes v.逃げる [nigeru]), 悲しむ [kanashimu] (stem 悲し is also stem of adj.悲しい [kanashii]).

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What should I do or what should I learn in order to be able to read and write Japanese is my question? I find this concept really confusing, if someone could clear this up for me I would really appreciate it!

Omotenashi's posts are quite detailed, if not a little imtimidating ;), but I think his general message is that you don't need to learn them all right away.

I would say that you should learn as much kanji as you comfortably can. The written language utilizes it extensively and if you wish to be literate you will need to learn them. Simply put, you cannot be literate in Japanese without learning kanji (although technically this isn't true if all you aim to read are children's books).