There was a period of time within Japan's history where there were controlled by China. This led to the adoption of the Chinese writing system. After their controlled period ended Japan, unlike it's counterpart Korea, decided to keep the Chinese system and that's how Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji were born. Hiragana and Katakana are native to Japan while Kanji is straight from China. If you wish to read up more on the history on how Hiragana and Katakana were birthed I suggest you read sci.lang.japan's detailed passage.
Mnemonics are the trick to getting Kanji and understanding the history of the Kanji can also help in understanding them which will make it easier to remember and being able to replicate it in writing. Kanji itself is an entity with different rules and strict patterns, you can read more about this on Japan Foundation's website. Kanji tells a story and because of that mnemonics are the easiest way for a beginner to tackle Kanji while having fun.
According to Merriam-Webster, mnemonics are tactics, devices or ways that seek to boost your ability to remember something. Keeping this in mind there are various ways in which mnemonics can be applied to kanji according to the journal article from Atlantis Press. I will explain the two main ones; ideographs and pictographs.
As we see in the above illustration the kanji for above and below are perfect examples of ideographs. The arrows point to the areas of interest. Literally showing that there is a line below ［下（した）Below/Under］ which symbolizes under and the line above［上（うえ）On/Above］ which symbolizes above.
As it relates to pictographs Kanjis that represent nature easily fall into this category. Marugoto illustrates this on their website so you can better see and understand, however, I'll insert a photo to aid in bringing my point across.
From the actual image, from the left, moving toward the right, we see how these ancient characters came about. If you look on the third transition, those are the old characters before they were modernized to what we know them as today.
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References
How did katakana and hiragana originate? (2022). Sljfaq.org. https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/originofkana.html
Kanji: Radicals - Japan Foundation, Sydney. (2021, July 28). Japan Foundation, Sydney. https://jpf.org.au/classroom-resources/resources/kanji-radicals/#:~:text=Forms%20of%20Kanji,combinations%20of%20meaning%20and%20sound).
Linna, M., & Rasiban. (n.d.). Understanding The Basic of Kanji’s Meaning through Mnemonic Method Learning. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/25874119.pdf
Marugoto-Online.jp. https://www.marugoto-online.jp/a1/support/all/intro_kanji/
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2023, February 24). Merriam-Webster.com. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mnemonic
-All images and GIFS were created by me with aid of Canva-
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I'll be very honest, like alot of ppl I fear Kanji cause it's really hard. But i guess like every other thing in life mindset plays a big role in how i learn and perceive things. So now im going to try and see kanji in a new light and maybe by doing that I'll be able to learn it easier and have more fun.
ReplyDeleteIve never used mnemonics before but I do have a fav kanji and that would be Fish (魚）if you have a bright imagination like myself youd see that it kinda looks like a fish!
ReplyDeleteKanji is truly a pain especially since we have to know hundreds of them. Mnemonics seems like the way to go cause I truly need to find a good way to memorize all these Kanji. I don't necessarily have a favorite Kanji but I can mention one that ties in with the topic. 川, it looks exactly like a river and that's the only reason why I remember it
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