Radicals: The Key to Learning Kanji

Hello everyone,

Alright, so a change of plans, it seems as though most people recommend learning the radicals first which will make learning the Kanji easier and I'm inclined to agree with them. Also, some radicals are Kanji in and of themselves so I'll be learning some Kanji at the same time!

So the plan is to learn every radical first, there's 214 (or so). Then start going through the Kanji. I'm hoping everyone is right and that this helps me learn Kanji more easily! I'm going to try and do at least 10 characters a day, preferably more, but 10 will be the minimum. So far, I basically I have the first 10 radicals down.

Nokanmuri!

Natsuyasumi (Summer Holidays) Kanji challenge! 1100 MINIMUM Kanji in 3 and a half months.

こんにち　は　みなさん、

夏休み　に　わたし　は　漢字　を　勉強　したい！

Hello everyone,

I'm going to be studying a lot of Kanji on the summer holidays!
I want to try and at least get through all the Kanji presented in 'The Key to Kanji' book which we have as a part of our course. There's 1100 in total, so far we should have learnt about 150 or so Kanji at Uni so far but, like many of my classmates, I probably only recognised about 10, if that, before today. I have about 3 and a half months before semester starts and want to make the most of my time.

Today I made a point of learning the Kanji for numbers 1-10 (I know, it's terrible I don't know this already after two semesters), 100, 1000, 10000. Making sure I am at least familiar with their stroke orders, normal sound in Japanese and their meanings. I'm trying to become familiar with each Kanji's kun and on readings as well as their radicals. I've heard knowing the radicals helps with learning any Kanji that use them. Obviosuly it's good to know everything about them but, the main thing I'm trying to achieve is to have good foundation of Kanji knowledge. Alright, alright, I'll go back and make sure I know all that. Fine.

Anyways, if anyone would like to join me in learning Kanji, and just Japanese in general, you're welcome to! If you would like to exchange comments in Japanese or even have a competition to see how fast we can learn a certain number of Kanji just let me know. It'll be motivating to know other people I interact with are out there doing this and knowing their's competition.

Here's the table I've made up so far, I'm planning to organise the Kanji I learn into groupings which I'll have printed out into a folder which will be useful for classes etc.

The numbers next to the radicals indicate the 'Kanxi' number.

一	音読み	イチ、　イツ
	訓読み	ひと（つ）　(X Things)
	部首	一　（１）

二	音読み	ニ
	訓読み	ふた（つ） 　(X Things)
	部首	二　（７）

三	音読み	サン
	訓読み	み、みつ、　みっつ　(X Things)
	部首	一　（１）

四	音読み	シ
	訓読み	よん、　よ、　よつ　(X Things)
	部首	囗 （３１）

五	音読み	ゴ、
	訓読み	いつ　(X Things)
	部首	二　（７）

六	音読み	ロク、　ロツ
	訓読み	むつ　(X Things)
	部首	八（１２）

七	音読み	シチ
	訓読み	なな、　ななつ　(X Things)
	部首	一　（１）

八	音読み	ハチ、　ハツ
	訓読み	やつ　(X Things)
	部首	八 （１２）

九	音読み	キュウ、　ク
	訓読み	ここの、　ここのつ　(X Things)
	部首	一　(乙, ⺄, 乚) （５）

十	音読み	ジュウ、　ジュツ
	訓読み	とお
	部首	十　（２４）

百	音読み	ヒャク、　ピャク、　ビャク
	訓読み
	部首	白　（１０６）

千	音読み	セン、　ゼン
	訓読み	ち
	部首	十　（２４）

万	音読み	マン、　パン
	訓読み	よろず
	部首	一　（１）

Semester 2 Week 4 Part B

Introduction

Konnichiwa Minasan,
Today we'll learn our next set of Kanji and also look at how to use a useful word 'kara'. First lets get the Kanji done and dusted.

Kanji

Kanji	English (plus other meanings)	Japanese Pronunciation
目	Eye	Me
口	Mouth, Opening	Kuchi
耳	Ear	Mimi
鼻	Nose	Hana
頭	Head, top, counter for large animal	Atama, Kashira
顔	Face	Kao
足	Foot, leg, to suffice, sufficient	Oshi (to suffice=Tarimasu)
体	Body,	Karada
背	Back, Height, Betrayal	Se
手	Hand, Person	Te
広	Spacious, Wide	Hiro(i)
静	Quiet, Serene	Shizu(ka)
低	Low, Short in Stature	Hiku(i)

Kara ’から’

We use Kara to state a reason, for example in the case of, I like Koalas because they are cute. Kara can be seen as 'because'

How To Use

The basic sentence structure comes down to...

1. 'Sentence' OR 'Noun' + Kara + 'Sentence' OR 'Noun'

Let's learn how to say 'I like Koalas because they are cute.' in Japanese.

Koala は kawaii desu kara suki desu.

Kawaii = Cute

Kara = 'because' 'the reason for' 'Therefore' etc (In this case it's probably more correct to see it as 'Therefore')

Suki = 'Like'

Basically it comes out in English as 'Koala is cute, therefore I like it.' But we would probably just say 'I like Koalas because they are cute.' as this sounds more casual.

END

I hope you all learnt something from this lesson, look out for the next one!

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Semester 2 Week 4 Part A

Konnichiwa Minasan!

Introduction

Today we'll be looking at 'な Adjectives' otherwise known as 'Adjectival Noun'.
な = Is Hiragana for the sound 'Na'

な Adjectives

How do we tell if it is a true or な adjective? True adjectives always end in ai, ii, ui, oi.
So if the adjective doesn't end with any of the above, it must be a な adjective.

How To Use

Okay so lets learn how to use な adjectives. Our example is going to be 'Beautiful Sea'
Beautiful = Kirei
Sea = Umi

We must add the な before the noun when using な Adjectives

So to say 'Beautiful Sea' we must say 'Kirei な Umi'

If the な  adjective does not come before a noun, for example, Kireide Ookii Umi = Beautiful and Big Sea.
Ookii = Big

Joining Two Adjectives

You may have noticed the 'de' at the end of 'kireide' in that sentence, this is because if there is a True Adjective OR a な adjective after a な adjective we must add de. This is how we use multiple adjectives in a sentence.

However, if the True Adjective came before the な Adjective, for example, 'Ookikute Kirei な Umi' we do not use 'De' instead we drop the last 'i' from Ookii and add 'kute' onto it making it 'Ookikute'. You'll also see that since Kirei is now the word before the noun it must have な placed afterwards.

Joining Three or More Adjectives

When using multiple adjectives in a sentence the rules for joining adjectives does not apply to the last adjective used. You can see this in the examples above. If there are three or more adjectives in a row for example. 'Karakute Kireide Ookii umi' = Salty, beautiful, big sea. Karai = Salty.
Notice that Ookii uses it's normal form as it is the last adjective and does not need to be Ookikute.

END

Well, that's it for today! I hope you learnt something new and it was easy enough to follow.
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Class Presentation Incoming!

Uh oh!

The first class presentation is coming up in 4 days and our tutor thought it would be 'fun' to combine two of the Japanese classes together for it! I still haven't finished the script, technically you could say I started. I just need to put the English sentences into Japanese! lol

Anyway, what we have to do is pick 2 kanji we think relates to 'The Sunshine Coast' and present them to the class, stating their radicals, why we picked them, stroke order etc.

Better get started! Wish me luck!

EDIT:

Oh! I should probably tell you the kanji I chose!

日 for sun. Considering it's importance as being used to in the countries name and the fact it has to relate to 'sun'shine coast, I thought it'd be a good choice. I just wonder how many other people have chosen it!

汐 = ushio which means tide. There's two different kanji for this but, I chose this one for Ushio from the anime Clannad because she's really cute! As her name is written using this kanji.

Oh look! You just learned some new kanji! :P

Semester 2 Week 3 Part B

Konnichiwa Minasan!

Read for this week's second lesson?

This lesson we will have a look at a new set of Kanji!

Kanji
*Marks the words and pronounciations that only apply when you use that particular pronounciation of the Kanji

Kanji	English (plus other meanings)	Japanese Pronounciation
安	Cheap (Peaceful, secure)	Yasu(i)
高	Expensive (High, Tall)	Taka(i)
長	Long (Chief, Principal)	Naga(i)
大	Big (Large, Great, Grand)	Oo(kii)
小	Small	Chi(sai)
細	Thin (Detail) *Fine	Hoso(i) *Komakai
太	Thick (Fat, Peaceful)	Futo(i)
軽	Light *Light, Easy	Karu(i) *Karoyaka
重	Heavy (Layer)	Omo(i)
赤	Red	Aka(i)
青	Blue	Ao(i)
白	White	Shiro(i)
黒	Black	Kuro(i)
黄	Yellow	Ki
色	Colour (Amarous)	Iro

Useful/Interesting Words

Han = Half Past

Jyugyou = Class

Fudan = Usually, Ordinary day

Kara = From

Made = To

Neko = Cat

Koneko = Kitten (the Ko makes it 'small')

Colours

There are 4 main colours, they are Red, Blue, White and Black

Saying 'I like colour car'.

'Colour' Karuma が Suki Desu

NOTE: If we do not use one of the 4 main colours, we must had の

Example: 'Colour' の Karuma が Suki Desu

Let's break down the sentence.

の = Particle, possessive meaning. In this case, the car possesses 'colour'

Karuma = Car

が = Particle, it marks the object of a like/dislike sentence

Suki = Like

Desu = Is/am/are/was etc. It ends the sentence.

END

That's all for today and the week! Lookout for the next lesson! We'll be going through how to use 'な' adjectives, how to give a reason for something etc.

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Semester 2 Week 3 Part A

Hello everyone,

Welcome to week 3. This lesson we're going to talk about adjectives.

Japanese has two types of adjectives.
1. True Adjective
2. Adjectival Noun (sometimes called Na な Adjectives)

True Adjectives

First we're going to look at True Adjectives

True Adjectives finish with Ai, ii, ui, oi

Changing True Adjectives to Present, Past, Negative, Affirmative

'i' = い	Present	Past
Affirmative	Remains the same.	Drop the last 'i'. Add 'Katta'
Negative	Drop the last 'i'. Add 'Kunai'	Drop the last 'i'. Add 'Kunakatta'

NOTE: いい (ii) = Good in English. いい is irregular. Do not follow the rules set in the above table.

'Good' = いい	Present	Past
Affirmative	いい Remains the same.	いい Becomes 'Yokatta'
Negative	いい Becomes 'Yokuna'	いい Becomes 'Yokunakatta'

Remember: Add 'desu' onto True Adjective sentences to be polite. It does not matter if True Adjective is past or present tense, just leave Desu.

Example sentence using True Adjective - 'Yasashii' which means Easy
Japanese: Nihongo wa yasashikunai desu
English: Japanese language is not easy.

Let's break it down...
1. Nihongo = Japanese (language)
2. wa = particle marking topic of sentence
3. Yasashikunai = 'Present Negative' (Is Not) form of Yasashi. Yasashi = Easy
4. Desu = 'is'

I'll leave you all with some True Adjectives.
Muzukashii = Difficult
Omoshiroi = Interesting/Funny
Tanoshii = Fun
Tsumaranai = Boring
Ookii = Big
Chisai = Small
Sukunanai = Few, little
Ooi = Many, a large number of

END

Remember when you're looking up Japanese adjectives you can tell if it's a True Adjective by seeing if it ends in Ai, ii, ui, oi. Adjectival Nouns otherwise called な Adjectives do not have these endings. We'll learn the rules on how to use Adjectival Nouns and how to join both True and な adjectives together.

I hope you all found this lesson enjoyable!

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