comprehension questions that follow them. Learning to read, after all, is one of the main purposes for studying the kanji characters.
In the back of the book you will find answers to the reading comprehension questions. The table of contents also lists all of the kanji characters, grouped by common theme, for easy reference.
Two Ways to Pronounce Kanji Characters
Kanji characters often have multiple meanings and pronunciations, because the Japanese language has changed considerably in the past 1,500 years. Students often express anxiety over having to learn more than one meaning and pronunciation for kanji characters, but on the other hand, this also means there are one half or fewer kanji characters to learn than would otherwise be the case.
There are two basic ways that kanji characters can be read: the on-yomi or Chinese pronunciation, and the kun-yomi or Japanese pronunciation. Before the Japanese began to borrow Chinese characters, there was no written language of Japan. By the 6th century, Chinese characters were widely used in Japan. They became known as kanji, “kan” meaning the Han Dynasty, and “ji” meaning characters. The Japanese used kanji characters to represent Japanese words and ideas, but also adopted many Chinese words and their pronunciation (or their best approximation of them). Today, although the meanings of many kanji characters are mutually understood by Japanese and Chinese people, the pronunciations are somewhat different.
As you encounter each kanji notice the different meanings and pronunciations that it may have. For instance, in the example on page 4 the kanji 食 (food, eat) would include た(べる) and ショク. But rather than learning these pronunciations in isolation, they are presented in meaningful vocabulary items. Not all kanji have both Japanese and Chinese pronunciations, and sometimes they have additional special pronunciations. This is a challenging part of learning Japanese kanji, but if you try to learn the example vocabulary it will make this task less challenging.
This book teaches the most useful 3 to 6 vocabulary associated with each character, or about 1,000 vocabulary items in total. The words with the kun-yomi or Japanese pronunciation are introduced first in most cases. Students are often familiar with these words and only need to learn the kanji. The words with on-yomi or Chinese pronunciations tend to be more advanced, and they are presented second.
How to Write Kanji Characters
There are few better ways to learn kanji characters than by simply writing them by hand over and over. Using the correct type of line makes your characters look accurate and authentic. There are five basic types of lines: stops, abbreviated stops, sweeps, stop-sweeps, and checks.
1. Stop: This is a line that comes to a stop before the writing tool is removed from the page. Stops come in varying lengths and directions, and some even change direction midway.
2. Abbreviated Stop: This line is shorter than a regular stop, and sometimes looks like a dot.
3. Sweep: This is a line that tapers off as the writing tool is gradually removed from the paper.
4. Stop sweep: This line stops midway, changes direction, and then tapers off like a sweep. This leaves the end of the line a bit thicker than the rest of it.
5. Check: This line is made by removing the writing tool from the paper, as it changes direction, leaving a hook-shaped mark on the end of the line.
Kanji Stroke Order
Not only do students need to use the correct types of lines, they also need to write them in the correct order. Using correct stroke order makes your kanji look natural, particularly when writing them quickly. Experienced Japanese writers can tell when a kanji has been written out of order.
In this book the correct stroke order is provided with each new kanji character. Note these stroke order sections carefully. Like hiragana and katakana, kanji are usually written from left to right and from top to bottom. There are several general rules for writing kanji:
• Kanji are written from left to right. [川 is a useful example; see p. 40.]
• Kanji are written from top to bottom. [三, 言; see pp. 12 and 122.]
• When horizontal and vertical lines cross, the horizontal line goes first, and then the vertical line. [十, 未; see pp. 18 and 274.]
• When there is a left-middle-right arrangement and the middle is the longest, it is written first. [小, 水; see pp. 62 and 32.]
• When outside lines surround a character, the outside lines are written first. [月; see p. 30.]
• When the center of a kanji is surrounded by a box, the center is written before the bottom line. [日, 田, 国; see pp. 30, 38 and 218.]
• Lines that cover the outside, but not the top, are written last. [近; see p. 84.]
Some kanji do not follow these general rules, so pay careful attention to the stroke order sequence of each kanji as it is introduced. Using correct stroke order may seem awkward or unnatural at first, but it makes a big difference in the way the kanji look to Japanese people. With practice you will soon be producing natural looking kanji characters without having to think about stroke order at all.
The writing practice boxes in this book are on the small side, which can be helpful to some learners in keeping their strokes’ lengths and relative positions more precise and consistent. But if you find that the larger writing spaces available in the lessons’ Practice sections work better for you, remember that you should feel free to practice your writing on separate sheets of paper. It’s impossible to practice your character writing too much!
Focus on Meaning
As you learn Japanese kanji characters you will be developing skills that are shared among over 1.5 billion people, including Japanese, Chinese, and others. One reason that alphabet-based writing systems have not replaced these characters is because of several advantages they have. One such advantage is a focus on meaning. In English, for example, readers can pronounce most words, but occasionally need to look up the meaning in a dictionary. In Japanese, on the other hand, readers occasionally come across characters they cannot pronounce, but they understand the meaning, so they do not need to stop reading to look it up.
The aim of this book is to help you master the most important kanji for beginners, particularly to be able to read more and more materials in Japanese. You will naturally be able to
