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--------------------------------------------- What is Kanji? --------------------------------------------- Kanji are ideographs which convey a specific meaning, word or idea. Here are 3 examples of how pictographs are gradually standardized into the kanji symbol used today. These are very simple examples but there are kanji symbol to represent all aspects of language including concepts, feelings and ideas. --------------------------------------------- What is the difference betwen Chinese kanji? --------------------------------------------- This is a question often asked by many people who are interested in Japanese symbols or characters especially with Kanji. As I said just before, Japanese kanji is not appropriate for a long sentence. So, Japanese kanji itself cannot sometimes express a sentece. On the other hand, with Chinese kanji, you can. This is a big difference between Japanese kanji and Chinese kanji. Style of Kanji Japanese people use is different to Chinese people use. I personally think that Japanese kanji is much easier writing than Chinese kanji. So, that's why Chinese people don't understand the sentence written in Japanese Kanji. But, originally, kanji is a writing system developed by Chinese in the 14th century which spread to the Korean penisula and from there to Japan. It's a fact.
--------------------------------------------- Kanji Compounds --------------------------------------------- Kanji compounds are basically words created from 2 or more kanji character. For example, I have created a sample kanij compounds of some country's name. 1. United States in Kanji 2. England in kanji As you can see these examples, Japanese symbols are created by 2 kanji characters, and each kanji character has got its own meaning even though kanij compounds have got the different meaning. Kanji for "United States" is written as: "Rice Country" This is the kanji compounds of America in Japanese words. Funny isn't it? So, if you write, 'Middle Rice' in Japanese kanji, it means Central America, and it is called "Chu Bei" in Japanese. Find out more information about How to avoid using Kanji Symbols Takanori Tomita, a Japanese translator who is specializing in Japanese symbols.
He lives in Tokyo, Japan.
This article is (c) Takanori Tomita 2006. Permission is given to reproduce this article in whole with the URLs correctly hyperlinked.
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