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Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 13, 2013 16:47:43 GMT
I thought I'd start a thread for those who, like me, are taking on the vast journey of studying Kanji. Here would be a good place to post cool or interesting kanji you like, ones that are commonly confused or look similar, or any question you have about kanji. I'm going to start off with my favorite word in Japanese which is kanji, which is 一生懸命 (いっしょうけんめい)(isshoukenmei). It means 'to the best of ones ability, or putting forth a lot of effort, or 'with all one's might' or 'rigorously/dilligently'. For example 一生懸命勉強しています(いっしょうけんめい べんきょう しています)"isshoukenmei benkyou shite imasu" means "I am studying as hard as I can/ I am studying very diligently". Let's break down the kanji. 一生 (isshou) means "one life" or "throughout ones life". 懸命 (kenmei) is defined by jisho.org as one of three things: "eagerness", "earnestness" or "risking one's life". So in this phrase basically it describes the degree at which someone is trying their best. So putting it together, 一生懸命 means "with all one's might" as in the meaning of 'to never stop trying all one's life as much as they can'. So it is often put with verbs that talk about working, such as 頑張ります(がんばります/ganbarimasu)- to try one's best, 働きます(はたらきます/hatarakimasu)- to work, 勉強します(べんきょうします/benkyou shimasu) to study, etcetera. That's my favorite kanji. It's rather complicated I know, but the ones in this thread don't necessarily have to be. So as a recap, you can post here - Your favorite kanji and the meaning
- Questions or confusion you have about a kanji
- Two kanji that look similar that you would like to point out, hey these are easily confused, here's the difference
- A new kanji that you learned that you just think is cool
With the kanji you post, it would be nice if you would include both readings (onyomi and kunyomi) and if it isn't used as a word by itself, then a word or two it is used in. Include how it is said/spelled (readings) in hiragana (or romaji if you do that, but kana is preferred by many people). If you use the 'write the onyomi in katakana, kunyomi in hiragana' system, that's fine too but not necessary. Just include the readings in kana. 一緒に漢字を覚えて、頑張りましょう! Let's do our best and memorize kanji together!
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漢字 Kanji
Oct 13, 2013 18:06:55 GMT
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Post by Bokusenou on Oct 13, 2013 18:06:55 GMT
Great idea for a thread Abby!
Weirdly enough, one of my favorite kanji words is kind of the opposite of 一生懸命.^^ 中途半端(ちゅうとはんぱ) means "sloppily [done]" or "half-assed [job]" as well as "unfinished". 中途 means halfway, and 半端 means unfinished or fragment. It's used in stuff like 中途半端な仕事 a lot.
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Orbit Ennui 未
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Post by Orbit Ennui 未 on Oct 15, 2013 17:11:52 GMT
未 ,as I've been informed, "is used for something that has not yet happened."
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Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 15, 2013 19:48:43 GMT
Yes, that's commonly said "mada" or "imada" which means "still" or "yet"
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Post by Jade on Oct 15, 2013 21:15:20 GMT
末 can also be used for the end of something, for example: 月末
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Post by MidoriAbby on Oct 21, 2013 22:43:34 GMT
Ah, thank you for the clarification, Jade. Recently I remembered my other favorite word, 木漏れ日(こもれび/komorebi) which means "the sunlight that filters through the trees". I love this word so much because it says in one word what it takes 7 words to express in English, and that is pretty dang awesome. So I was looking at the kanji, so I thought I would break it down. 木 is the kanji for 'tree' and is usually read as き/もく ("ki" or "moku"), however another one of the readings is "ko", which is used in that word.
漏れ (もれ- more) comes from the stem of verb 漏れる (moreru) which means to leak, to leak through, to shine through, or to filter out. so the 木漏れ (ko-more) part of the word comes from the fact that the sunlight (the last part of the word, 日) is filtering through the trees or shining out through the trees.
日 (usually read 'hi' or 'nichi') is read 'bi' in this case. Often times when two or more words are combined in Japanese the pronunciation will change a bit. For example common changes are "h" sounds to "b" sounds, "k" sounds to "g" sounds, "t" sounds to "d" sounds, etc. For example "origami" is a combination of the words "orimasu" (to fold) and "kami" (paper). But instead of ori-kami it is "origami". The k sound changed to a g. Just like this, in this word the word 'hi' (day/light) changed to a 'bi' sound.
So again, putting these together, you get the meaning "sunlight that filters through the trees/shines through the trees"
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Post by Jembru on Oct 24, 2013 9:36:46 GMT
As both 一所懸命 and 中途半端 were mentioned and both are yojijukugo (which I love too actually ^^), I thought I'd share my own favourite yojijukugo words. It's hard to choose because they always sound so cool, but I guess the ones I like the most are possibly, erm... 危機一髪 (ききいっぱつ) This is said when something was a close shave, similar to the way we say '危なかった!' only, while we tend to use abunakatta as an exclamation after a near-miss, 危機一髪 is more often used as an adverb, often as the expression, 危機一髪のところで, (although also exists alone as 危機一髪で). I just like saying chiisai tsu. I also like the yojijukugo 右往左往 (うおうさおう) (total confusion, to be 'all over the place), because this is how I memorised the onyomi of right and left. ^^ I'm not sure if it counts as a yojijukugo, because it's usually written in kana, but if it does, I think my overall favourite would have to be 目茶苦茶(めちゃくちゃ)who wouldn't love saying that? This is the first yojijukugo (maybe) I ever came across, because it is in Japanese for Busy People iii and it was instant love! If we're just talking about kanji themselves, then my favourite is 驚. I told this story on the old forum, but as it's still true, I can repeat it here. You need to see it blown up to see, but I like it because the first time I saw it, I thought it looked like the knight from the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth. Do images work here? If so, it's this little guy; I honestly saw him, sitting on his, erm 'horse' when I saw this kanji, which was really surprising. So I looked up the meaning (22 freaking strokes later ^^), and was surprised to learn it was the kanji for 'odoroku' hontou ni odoroita ne! (笑) Editing to include a blown-up version of the kanji so people can see what I'm talking about. See, the little 攵 on the back is the terrier-knight, the rest is the old English sheep dog! No, just me? Oookay... 驚
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Post by Jembru on Nov 9, 2013 8:34:30 GMT
Sorry to double post, but I just needed to look up a word and when I saw the kanji, I genuinely gasped and called out to JP, 'this kanji is soo cool'.. I then said that I just HAD to hurry over to the forum and share it with you guys. So here it is...
The word I needed to look up was 'cocoon', which it turns it is mayu. The kanji.. how cool is this?
繭 The panel on the left shows ito, 'thread' and the right is mushi, 'insect'. I just love this kanji. It's a pity I'll like, never have to use it, but still...
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漢字 Kanji
Nov 9, 2013 20:07:34 GMT
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Post by Bokusenou on Nov 9, 2013 20:07:34 GMT
Jembru That kanji's so cool! It's too bad it's not used much in daily life...
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Post by Jembru on Nov 10, 2013 6:41:20 GMT
Yeah, I know I needed to look it up, but I think it could be a long time before I need to say this again. JP also pointed out that in the anime and games he plays, they usually say コクーン, so it's not only rare, but also has an alternative word. So unfair. Mind you I have the word 昆虫採集 in May's vocabulary on anki, and not even every Japanese person knows this word ^^ I guess kind of like how not all English speakers would know what philately is. A bit of a wasteful piece of vocabulary, but I was less, well, 'discerning' about what makes my list back then, and insects are kinda cool. lol
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Post by Bokusenou on Nov 10, 2013 21:45:03 GMT
Mind you I have the word 昆虫採集 in May's vocabulary on anki, and not even every Japanese person knows this word ^^ I guess kind of like how not all English speakers would know what philately is. A bit of a wasteful piece of vocabulary, but I was less, well, 'discerning' about what makes my list back then, and insects are kinda cool. lol Are you really sure about that? I haven't seen those words together before, but I've seen them separately, and can figure it out. That's the nice thing about kanji. Even if I haven't seen the word before I can usually figure out what it means. I'm reminded of this thing I read recently: A Japanese professor was at a conference with all these professors from Yale. He wrote the word "Pithecanthrope" on the blackboard and asked them if any of them knew what it meant. Then he wrote the word in Japanese "猿人". A word an elementary schooler could read and have some idea of what it meant. It didn't take me long to figure it out. Monkey person = person who is a monkey = caveman who is between monkey and human, evolution-wise. More examples he gave: hydrocephalus (水頭症) pyroclastic (火砕流) socialytic (lamp) (無影灯)(手術室で用いる影になる部分を作らない証明器具) heliotropism (向日性) anthropophagy (食人) ( Source if you're interested) It's similar to what it would be like if someone knew greek/latin root words. You get a rough idea of what it means, which is usually enough to figure it out. I love that I can read stuff like medical terminology and generally understand it without a dictionary. It's so usual that when I was in college, in gen-ed classes, and others which required a lot of memorization, I would often use just a single Japanese word on the back of my flashcards. I would be like Self-efficacy...huh? 自己効力感...oh, that's what it means.
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漢字 Kanji
Nov 10, 2013 23:44:19 GMT
via mobile
Post by Jembru on Nov 10, 2013 23:44:19 GMT
Yeah, of course they'd understand if they HEARD or SAW the word, but not everyone would know this is the proper expression. How do I know this? See, it was actually the point of the dialogue it appeared in on Jpod. A stranger on the train had to jump in and give the speaker the word, because he was getting so frustrated trying to think of it.
I think I already said this, but I've used saishuu on it's own, in my journal videos, but I'm not sure it's as natural as other expressions outside of writing, so would avoid using it as a verb when speaking to native speakers. I guess I could sneak it into my next lang-8 post I. I have a few unfinished posts, that are basically an amalgamation of phrases I'm unsure about, so I can test the natives reaction! I really need to start posting. I have like, one post on there, and it really cleared up some of my confuddles! ^^
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Post by Bokusenou on Nov 11, 2013 0:01:39 GMT
Ah, Ok. I misunderstood. Yeah, the lang-8 idea sounds interesting!
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漢字 Kanji
Nov 11, 2013 1:30:22 GMT
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Post by Jembru on Nov 11, 2013 1:30:22 GMT
Yeah, I have a weird way of wording things when I write. It's not always clear what I'm trying to say.
This may be slightly off-topic, although it probably relates to the way the Japanese write. I've noticed the Japanese seem to have a smaller active vocabulary compared to passive vocabulary than even we English speakers (and I think I read somewhere that we use less than a third of our total vocabulary when we speak, although it can be considerably more when we write).
This is only from observation, I didn't read this or anything, but there are a few things that make me suspect this, not least of all their stricter distinction between written/formal styles, and conversational styles. Also though, when watching let's plays, where they haven't planned what to say (as they can't predict what will happen), I've noticed they sometimes stumble at recalling a word.. like the guy who was trying to remember 'sagyoudai' and 'kitoru', both are obvious words from the kanji, but rarely used in life outside of minecraft, so he had to work at remembering them. As an English speaker, I can't imagine forgetting the word, 'crafting bench', despite never needing one irl.
If I'm right, then it could explain why the people I've met through the conversation group, who I consider to have much better Japanese than mine, can chat fairly easily with the native members, rarely being unable to understand what their friend is saying, and yet complain that they can't watch movies or anime without subs. These media must surely use a wider range of vocabulary and obscure expressions, than the average person does in a conversation. It's an interesting theory at least. Maybe I need to start a linguistics thread where I can dump all my thoughts and theories like this! ^^
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漢字 Kanji
Nov 11, 2013 1:37:24 GMT
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Post by Jembru on Nov 11, 2013 1:37:24 GMT
Oh sorry to double post, but my phone won't let me edit posts. I forgot to say, feel free to steal my lang-8 idea. It takes me ages to compose something, but from my first try, it's worth it. You COULD use simple grammar and words and get fewer corrections, but why waste such a golden opportunity for correction? So what I do, is write in my usual basic sentences, the bones of my post. Then while I'm studying or reading the forum posts of other learners, and I see something that makes me wonder how it should be used, or if it's natural or whatever, I read my post and try to find a line I can reword with this confusing grammar. Then let the natives do the rest!
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