The Easiest Explanation Of Kanji Characters

A bunch of times I tried to find a decent explanation for kanji characters online, but failed. All we usually get is that these are Chinese pictographs, they have a bunch of different readings and are made by combining certain radicals.

But you know what? That's far from actually understanding kanji. If Japanese language is entirely new to you, you can't get the proper impression by reading definitions of things about it. Imagine a kid asking his dad what is light, and him replying "It's electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye". Not the father of the year, definitely.

So, in this article, I will try my best to explain kanji characters in an entirely new way. I will introduce the concept of pictographs having different readings and meanings depending on their position in the word by using analogy something you're already very familiar with, and that's basic maths.

The Sexist Japanese Words

When you don't know what a character means, the general rule is to break it down. Once you see what it's made of, you might be able to figure out what it means even if it's your first time seeing the particular kanji character.

I'm not sure which meaning is scarier...
Probably the fact both of them are written the same.

But the words you'll learn in this article will without a doubt keep you wondering.

NICO Touches The Walls - Diver

NICO Touches The Walls never fails to surprise us with an awesome song! Premiered as eight opening of Naruto Shippuuden, Diver tells the story of ups and downs in a life and shines a new ray of hope for those who they lost it all. I found this song extremely catchy, so might pick up a few words from it easier.

Naruto Shippuden - Opening 08

I've decided that it's gonna be a good idea to take a look at the whole chorus. Since things know to get out of control and become way to long, I've tried not to go into huge digressions.

息をしたくて　ここは苦しくて

闇を見上げるだけの夜は

もがく減圧症のダイバー

生きているんだって　確かめたくて

深い海底を目指してもう一度　呼吸をしよう

I hope you'll find it useful!

SID - Rain

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, and that was the opening in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime series.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - Opening 05

I decided to analyze the first chorus, consisting of four (shorter) lines. They're pulled from the full-size version, so if you might not be familiar with the last part of the fourth line if you've only heard the song as an opening sequence.

雨はいつか病むのでしょうか

ずいぶん長い間冷たい

雨はどうして僕を選ぶの

逃げ場のない僕を選ぶの

After that, we'll take a look at a few more words that are presented in this song, be sure to check them our as well.

Different Groups Of Verbs In Japanese

Verbs are important part of any language since they give us a lot of information about a sentence. Imagine trying to state anything without using verbs!

This article on its own might not be very useful, since it only deals with classifying verbs, but it's very important gateway to any kind of conjugation you'd like to preform on a verb. For example, to say "I want to eat", you have to turn 「食べる」taberu to 「食べたい」tabetai, to say "I didn't speak", you have to turn 「話す」hanasu to 「話さなかった」hanasanakatta, to say "I don't want to die", you have to turn 「死ぬ」shinu to 「死にたくない」shinitakunai.

The way the verb changes depends on a group it belongs to, and you can learn more about them and the way they affect conjugation by reading this article.