hey all,
Japanese is both very cool, and very frustrating to study. Perhaps one of the more frustrating things is the large number of homophones. 紙，神，髪，are all pronounced the same: kami, but they mean paper, god, and hair respectively. There are several other kanji/words that can also be pronounced that way.
One of the cool things is sometimes the kanji make sense. All kanji are made from 214 radicals, which are smaller pieces that have meanings themselves, but usually appear as part of a larger character. 親, for instance is composed of three radicals: 立、木、and 見: stand, tree, and see. The kanji means parent, or intimate, so you can create a story about a parent standing on a tree looking for a lost child. A lot of the time, they don't make any sense at all. 後 means after, and is composed of the radicals step, slight, and follow; while 家 means house, and is the radical for roof above the radical for pig. 書 means write, and has the radicals for pig's head, one, and sun/day in it.
I'm now at around 170 kanji that I can read, sometimes write, and sometimes pronounce. I think one of the really arbitrary things that annoyes me about kanji is the pronounciation. I can deal with kanji having a meaning that doesn't make sense give their radicals, and I can deal with 食 sometimes being ta and sometimes being shoku (the pronounciation changes depending on which other kanji it appears with, but its pronounciation is predictable from this other kanji), but I can't deal with 長野 being pronounced as Nagano sometimes and as Chono other times. There are a massive number of pairs like this: the same kanji pair having different pronounciations (and also slightly different meanings: 一日 (one day) could be tsuitachi, ichinichi, or ikka, depending on the meaning you want.)
As I think I've mentioned before, the literate Japanese person can read about over 1000 kanji. The newpapers limit themselves to around 500 kanji. In addition to the Japanese Language Proficiency test, there is also the Kanji Aptitude Test, which tests the native Japanese person's kanji ability. Supposedly, only 1% of Japanese people can pass the test's highest level, which seems to indicate that the Japanese people know what a burdensome writing system they have.
Part of this post was inspired by the fact that yesterday, I helped with a notebook check: the students copied a short dialogue from the textbook into their notebooks, and brought it up front for me to check. For me to mark that they had done well, I have to put a circle next to their name. Now, from experience teaching before, it helps and pays to know your students names, so I've been trying to learn to read the kanji in their names. This is complicated by the fact that Japan allowｓ an additional 200+ kanji (besides the official 1,945) that are only used in names. At any rate, I think I successfully read about 60-70% of their names. Needless to say, one of the cool things is seeing students smile because I can read their names.
Cheers,
