Sensei's Pages - Winter 2005

Kanji learning can be very interesting for some students but painful for others. Japanese people learn kanji by writing them many times until their mind (and fingers!) remember them, which is quite similar to how children learn English spelling. In the next two issues we will look at kanji and how to teach them. In this issue we focus on the early stages of teaching kanji. By incorporating different learning styles and creating an enjoyable learning experience, kanji learning can be more effective.

1. Creating a kanji learning environment

You can teach some kanji before students master hiragana and katakana. Display kanji charts or posters containing kanji on the walls to expose students to kanji whenever possible, so that they will become aware of kanji figures and may notice them when they encounter them outside the classroom.

2. Noticing kanji around you

It is possible to find Japanese writing including kanji on Australian products. I have recently found Japanese writing on Australian products such as T-shirts, tissue boxes, flyers, tattoos, a necklace etc. It can be fun for students to search for Australian products which have Japanese writing on them and to bring them to class to discuss points such as the following:

Are they Japanese or Chinese? (They could be both!)
What is the purpose of using Japanese writing?
What does the writing mean?
How do you feel about Japanese writing on Australian products?

3. Using realia

Realia are powerful resources for connecting students with a living language. Show students realia such as manga, Japanese advertisements or menus which have hiragana, katakana and kanji and ask students to indicate which script it is by circling letters in three different colours. You may ask students to think about why Japanese has three different writing systems.

The ancient Japanese language developed without a form of written expression and was first written down in kanji which were introduced from China more than 1500 years ago. Kanji developed from pictures, and there are many kanji that still look like the thing they represent. You may ask students to guess what these kanji mean:

However, Chinese was a different language to Japanese, so in order to write their own language, the Japanese used certain kanji to represent sounds, and simplified them into two different scripts (katakana and hiragana). Over time a hybrid written language developed incorporating kanji used semantically and kana used phonetically. Modern Japanese is written with a combination of kanji and hiragana, while katakana is used to write words of foreign origin such as 'フラットメイト' (flatmate), or foreign names. Theoretically, all Japanese could be written in kana, but in practice this would hamper communication due to the large number of words pronounced alike but different in meaning.

It is important to point out the advantages of having kanji in modern written Japanese. 1,945 kanji, known as Joyo Kanji, have been officially chosen for everyday use and these are taught at school.

The advantages are:

1. It is easier to remember or guess the meaning of a word as kanji has a meaning (whereas kana does not).

Eg.

2. It is easier to distinguish words with the same pronunciation but different meanings.

Eg.

3. It is easier to read a sentence with kanji than without kanji, as kanji have meaning but hiragana does not.

Eg.

4. You can save writing space by using kanji, so more information can be written in a limited space.

Kanji can be divided into four main groups according to how they are formed.

象形文字(しょうけい　もじ) (pictographs): kanji formed from a picture, eg.

指示文字(しじもじ) (sign characters): kanji for positions and numbers which cannot be represented as a shape are

formed by using lines and dots, eg.

会意文字(かいいもじ) (combined meanings): kanji formed by two or more components to express a new meaning, eg.

形声文字(けいせいもじ) (combined meaning and sound): kanji formed by two or more components, one representing the sound and another representing the meaning. The component which expresses the meaning of the kanji is called a 部首(ぶしゅ) (radical). We will deal with these kanji in the next issue.

Task: Match the kanji to the picture:

Correct stroke order is essential to the formation of kanji characters.

General principle 1: Write from left to right

General principle 2: Write from top to bottom

Rule 1: When two strokes cross, write the horizontal stroke first.

Rule 2: When there is a stroke in the centre and also on the sides, write the central stroke first.

Rule 3: When there is a figure in a square, the stroke which closes the square is written last.

Rule 4: When a stroke passes through a square or some lines, write that stroke last.

Rule 5: When a stroke passes through the whole central figure horizontally, write that stroke last.

Task: Give the stroke number of the stroke which is indicated with an arrow.

Answer: 1.(3) 2.(3) 3.(8)

1. Some kanji may look complicated, but they can be divided into simpler components. For example,「語」looks quite complicated, but it is easier to remember if you break it up into 言 , 五 and 口. You may like to create tasks such as the ones below:

2. Grouping in categories

Task 1: Students put kanji into topic groups. They may use kanji cards or you may give them a chart such as the one below to fill in.
Example:

Task 2: Choose a topic and design a T-shirt or make kanji wrapping paper with kanji from a kanji group.

3. Kanji dominoes

Prepare sets of cards showing kanji and their readings as shown below. Make at least 20 cards, and make sure not to put a kanji and its reading on the same card. Groups of students receive a set of cards, and matching the kanji with its reading, they keep connecting them until the last word connects to the first word. Example cards:

4. Kanji maze

Make a grid like the one below. Students find their way to the exit by moving only to a kanji which has the same stroke number. Example maze:

Reference:

漢字(かんじ)がたのしくなる本(ほん)182 (太郎次郎社(たろうじろうしゃ) 1989)
Basic Kanji Book 1 (Bonjinsha 1989)

This section written by Himiko Negishi-Wood