Japanese Kanji Made Easy. Michael L. Kluemper
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Japanese Kanji Made Easy - Michael L. Kluemper страница 2
Rice and Tree
Fancy Tree
Bamboo
Grass
Rain
Seasons
CHAPTER 6
Cow and Pig
Horse and Sheep
Dog, Bear, and Fur
Bird and Fish
Shellfish
Bugs and Meat
CHAPTER 7
Sun
Time
Moon
Fire
Metal
Water
Soil, Earth
Mountain
Dotted Cliff
Stone
CHAPTER 8
King and Samurai
Arrow
Spirits
CHAPTER 9
Sword and Blade
Brush, Ax, Divining Rod
Bow
Arrow and Halberd
Field and Well
CHAPTER 10
Vehicles
Furniture
Gate
Roof
Enclosures
CHAPTER 11
Garments and String
Towel
Shape and Size
How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book.
1. You must have an internet connection.
2. Click the link below or copy paste the URL to your web browser.
http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/japanese-kanji-made-easy-downloadable-cd-content
For support email us at [email protected].
KANJI EXPLAINED
Introduction
This book is designed to offer the reader clues for remembering and making sense of kanji—the Japanese characters of Chinese origin. It contains many of my attempts to create stories on the spot for kanji after kanji on my classroom whiteboard. The drawings and brief descriptions I use may draw from historical meanings, or they may vary wildly from their roots, but they are designed to act as mnemonic devices to help my students memorize those kanji. Those drawings and stories are captured in this book.
To better understand kanji, it is helpful to know some history. Chinese characters are considered one of the oldest consistently used writing systems in the world. Though we know that the ancient Chinese have been using characters to write with for more than 3,000 years, these symbols were only codified into an orderly writing system by the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi after he came to power in 221 B.C. In the 5th century C.E., through religious and trade missions, this writing system arrived in Japan, along with other imports, such as Buddhism. As Buddhism became more popular and methods of dissemination were needed, the Japanese began to modify and adapt Chinese characters to develop their own written language.
The Japanese Writing System
Adapting Chinese characters to suit the Japanese language has resulted in a writing system that many consider difficult and cumbersome, yet it is rich in beauty and expressive possibilities. The three types of Japanese character each serve a specific purpose.
Kanji are characters that come from China and are used to express the key meanings of words. Each character usually has several different pronunciations, determined by context. While somewhat daunting in number and complexity, studying the kanji in the context of their original meanings or the mnemonic drawings found in this book can be fun and entertaining.
Hiragana are phonetic characters derived from kanji. For example, the hiragana character あ is a simplification of the Chinese character 安. Each hiragana has one sound and, unlike kanji, has no inherent meaning. Hiragana is used when there is no Chinese character for a Japanese word, and for verb endings and grammatical particles. It is possible to write Japanese using only hiragana. By doing so, however, much of the richness and poetry of kanji is lost.
Katakana, like hiragana, are phonetic characters derived from kanji, each having one sound. There are the same number of katakana characters as hiragana, and they replicate the hiragana sounds. But katakana is generally used to write words of foreign origin, onomatopoetic expressions, scientific or technical terms, and sometimes the names of Japanese companies.
Hiragana