BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢN LÝ VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HẢI PHÒNG
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ISO 9001:2015
KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH-NHẬT
Sinh viên : KHUẤT VĂN HOÀNG
Giảng viên hướng dẫn : TH.S NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN
HẢI PHÒNG – 2019
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HAIPHONG MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY
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DIFFICULTIES OF LEARNING JAPANESE KANJI FACED
BY HPU FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS
GRADUATON PAPER
MAJOR: ENGLISH – JAPANESE
Student : KHUAT VAN HOANG
Supervisor : NGUYEN THI HUYEN, MA
HẢI PHÒNG – 2019
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢN LÝ VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HẢI PHÒNG
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NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP
Sinh viên: Khuất Văn Hoàng
Mã SV: 1512753042
Lớp: NA1901N
Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh-Nhật
Tên đề tài: Difficulties of learning Japanese Kanji faced by HPU first-
year English majors
NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI
1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp
( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ).
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2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán.
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3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp.
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CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP
Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất:
Họ và tên:…………………………………………………………………………………
Học hàm, học vị:………………………………………………………………………..
Cơ quan công tác:………………………………………………………………………
Nội dung hướng dẫn:………………………………………………………………….
Người hướng dẫn thứ hai:
Họ và tên:…………………………………………………………………………………
Học hàm, học vị:………………………………………………………………………..
Cơ quan công tác:………………………………………………………………………
Nội dung hướng dẫn:………………………………………………………………….
Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày … tháng ….. năm …..
Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày …. tháng ….. năm ……
Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN
Sinh viên
Người hướng dẫn
Hải Phòng, ngày …… tháng……..năm 20..
Hiệu trưởng
GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị
QC20-B18
CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM
Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc
PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN TỐT NGHIỆP
Họ và tên giảng viên: …………………………………………………………………………..
Đơn vị công tác:
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Họ và tên sinh viên:
…………………………………… Chuyên ngành: ………………
Nội dung hướng dẫn: …………………………………………………. ……………………….
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1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp
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2. Đánh giá chất lượng của đồ án/khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong
nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu…)
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3. Ý kiến của giảng viên hướng dẫn tốt nghiệp
Được bảo vệ
Không được bảo vệ
Điểm hướng dẫn
Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm ……
Giảng viên hướng dẫn
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)
QC20-B19
CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM
Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc
PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN
Họ và tên giảng viên: ………………………………………………………………………..
Đơn vị công tác:
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Họ và tên sinh viên:
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Đề tài tốt nghiệp:
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1. Phần nhận xét của giáo viên chấm phản biện
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2. Những mặt còn hạn chế
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3. Ý kiến của giảng viênchấm phản biện
Được bảo vệ
Không được bảo vệ
Điểm hướng dẫn
Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm ……
Giảng viên chấm phản biện
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tê
TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
PART I: INTRODUCTION
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1. Rationale
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2. Aim of the study ……………………………………………………………………………….. 2
3. Scope of the study …………………………………………………………………………….. 2
4. Method of the study
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5. Design of the study
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PART II: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………………………. 4
CHATER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
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1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………… 4
2. An overview of Japanese Kanji
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3. What is Kanji ? ………………………………………………………………………………… 5
4. Writing rules of Japanese Kanji ………………………………………………………….. 6
5. Total number of Japanese Kanji
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6. How to read Japanese Kanji words ……………………………………………………… 9
7. The benefits of Japanese Kanji …………………………………………………………… 11
8. Common problems faced by learners while learning Japanese Kanji ……… 13
9. Conclusion
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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY …………………………………………………………. 22
2.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………… 22
2.2 Population and sample ……………………………………………………………………. 22
2.3. Research methods
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2.4. Conclusion
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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……………………………………… 27
3.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………… 27
3.2. Difficulties in learning Japanese Kanji faced by first year English majors at
HPU ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27
3.3. Some solutions for HPU first year English majors to improve their learning
Japanese Kanji
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3.4. Conclusion
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PART III: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………… 57
1. Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………. 57
2. Limitations of the study……………………………………………………………………… 57
3. Suggestions for the further study ………………………………………………………… 58
REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………………………… 59
APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 60
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In the process of doing the graduation paper, I have received a lot of help,
assistance, guidance, encouragement and idea contribution from my teachers,
family and friends.
My great gratitude goes to my supervisor Nguyen Thi Huyen (M.A) for
her enthusiastic guidance, very helpful ideas and instructions for the preparation
and her corrections during the completion of this graduation paper.
Secondly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc
Lien (MA), the Dean of Foreign Language Department and all the teachers at
Haiphong Management and Technology University for the precious and useful
lessons in my study process that helped me a lot during graduation time.
It would be a mistake if I didn’t mention the first year English majors at
Haiphong Management and Technology University who took part in my survey
questionnaire enthusiastically. Thanks to their participation, I had data survey,
analysis and gave the appropriate solutions.
Last but not least, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family,
my friends who always, encourage and inspirit me to complete this graduation
paper.
Haiphong, October, 2019
Student
Khuat Van Hoang
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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In recent years, attractive jobs from Japanese investors have made
Japanese hotter than ever. It gradually became more popular than before.
Therefore, the demand for learning Japanese is increasing. Nowadays, you can
easily learn this language in the Japanese language centers or even in the high
schools and universities. In learning Japanese language, you will get greater job
opportunities . At Hai Phong Private University, I was able to learn Japanese
language. For each first-year English major student like me, learning Japanese is
something really interesting. But in parallel with that, it is not impossible to
mention the difficulties that first year English major students are encountering
when learning Kanji – one of the three Japanese writing systems and the most
difficult one. It seems to be challenging for every student. The difficulties in
learning Japanese Kanji come as soon as they start studying it: from words
shape, number of words, its meaning,… There are too many strange things that
the students have never learnt before. It is completely different from our familiar
Latin alphabet. Japanese Kanji is hieroglyphs that influenced by China. In fact,
there are many factors affecting the learners. Consequently, it is very difficult
for them to master the Japanese Kanji.
After studying at Foreign Language Department, Haiphong Private
University for four years, I realize that the first-year students of English major
still have many problems. In the hope of finding out the difficulties that they can
easily get in learning Japanese Kanji for the first time, a study entitled:
“Difficulties of learning Japanese Kanji faced by HPU first-year English
majors,” has been conducted because of all above mentioned reasons.
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2. Aims of the study
The general aim of this study is to identify the major causes of
difficulties in learning Japanese Kanji in first-year English majors at Haiphong
Private University. In addition, the study is expected to give some solutions for
them to deal with their problems. To achieve these purposes, the study will
focus on the following goals:
To find out the most common difficulties in learning Japanese
Kanji faced by the HPU first-year English majors
To identify the causes of the problems of learning Japanese Kanji
faced by the HPU first-year English majors
To find out and give some solutions to minimize the difficulties and
improve efficiency in learning Japanese Kanji
3. Scopes of the study
The study is about difficulties in learning Japanese Kanji for first-year
English major students at HPU. Because of the limitations of time and knowledge,
the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the whole issue of
problems. It mainly focuses on the causes of difficulties in learning Japanese
Kanji and some suggested solutions to help students become good and effective
learners. The subject of the study mainly aimed at first-year English majors at
HPU.
4. Methods of the study
The study was carried out on the basis of quantitative research methods
in which questionnaire was chosen as the main tool. Questionnaires were
designed as a means to make the researcher’s evaluation more objective. The
questionnaires were given to the first-year students at HPU with the hope to
find out the causes of difficulties in learning billingual experienced by them
and some suggested solutions to their difficulties.
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Analyzing statistics from the survey questionnaire on learning activities
was conducted with the cooperation of first-year English major students at
HPU. All comments, remarks recommendation assumptions, and conclusion
provided in the study were based on the data analysis.
5. Design of the study
The study includes three main parts, as follows:
Part 1: Introduction: includes the rationale of the study. It also includes
the aims of the study and the scope of the study. The methods of the study is
also presented. Finally is the design of the study.
Part 2: Development
The first chapter are the definitions regarding Japanese Kanji, the rules of
learning Japanese Kanji in writing and reading, the importance and also is the
mistakes which students faced when learning Japanese Kanji.
The next chapter is about attitude to Japanese Kanji which contains the
survey questions, design and research methods.
The finally chapter focuses on data analysis collected by the first year
English majors at Haiphong Private University about difficulties and solutions
in learning Japanese Kanji. From the result of that, the major of difficulties in
learning Japanese Kanji are found and suggest some good solutions to solve
these problems for the first year English majors at Haiphong Private University.
Part 3: Conclusion: in this part, including summary, some limitations and
suggestions for further research are stated.
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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1. Introduction
In this chapter, I want to show all the most overview of Japanese Kanji in
terms of definitions, number of Kanji words, rules of writing and reading in
Japanese Kanji. In addition, there are benefits from Kanji , as well as the
problems that learners encounter while learning Japanese Kanji.
Japanese language has long been regarded as one of the most
difficult languages in the world (Miller, 1971). It is perhaps not surprising;
therefore, that sixteenth century Portuguese missionaries regarded Japanese as a
language invented by the devil. On average, the Japanese language takes
three times longer to learn than a European language, and even native
Japanese speakers argue that their language is difficult, not only for
foreigners but for Japanese native speakers as well (Kindaichi, 1978). The
difficulty of learning Japanese is believed to be largely due to the
complexity of its written language, especially that part of the writing system
known as the “Kanji” (Bourke, 1996; Gamage, 2003).
2. An overview of Japanese Kanji
Kanji (literally, “Han characters”) were borrowed from China in ancient
times. What makes them different from alphabetic writings is that sometimes
they have a phonetic value, sometimes they depict an image. Adopting Kanji
was not a simple process for the Japanese. Being invented for a completely
different language, Kanji arrived to Japan with their own meanings and
pronunciation, so a lot of work needed to be done in order to adjust them for
Japanese language. Nowadays, a single Kanji can be read in many different
ways. Japanese people make a distinction between on’yomi (literally “sound
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reading”, from Chinese) and kun’yomi (literally “meaning reading”, native
Japanese). A good example for this can be the character 生, which is read as sei,
shō, nama, ki, o-u, i-kiru, i-kasu, i-keru, u-mu, u-mareru, ha-eru, and ha-yasu.
The very same character can be read in 8 different ways! In Japanese there are
about 2000 common Kanji. No wonder that children spend so many years in
school learning how to read!
3. What is Japanese Kanji?
For those students who started to get familiarized with the Japanese
language, also heard about three common alphabets in which many Kanji scripts
were considered to be the most troublesome and challenging to remember.
Many people wondered that, “is it compulsory to learn Kanji? Can I use only
soft and hard letters without Kanji?” Or “It would be nice if Japanese language
only has soft and hard letters without reading Kanji”. But why do we have to
learn Kanji alphabet.
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Chinese characters were introduced to Japan around the 5th and 6th
centuries A.D. Ancient Japanese had no writing, so when Chinese characters
were introduced to Japan, they used Chinese characters to write their voices.
During that time, the Japanese writing system used entirely in Chinese (Kanji).
Since the writing system based on Kanji is quite complex, it has created new
alphabets of Hiragana and Katakana based on Kanji images to simplify writing.
Initially, Kanji was written based on natural scenes, but gradually transformed
into more generalized images. After many adjustments, Japanese has 3 alphabets
like now: Hiragana – Katakana and Kanji.
Learning two tables of hard and soft letters is quite simple because it is
like Latin letters, that is, a finite number – only a few dozen characters. And
from the single characters put together, we have a meaningful word or phrase.
But the third alphabet – Kanji is different, the number of words is thousands to
tens of thousands of words, and each word contains its own, independent
meaning. Therefore, it can be said that each Kanji has the power to express in
hundreds of hard and soft letters combined, because each Kanji word itself
contains rich nuances and expressions. Moreover, it showcases the superior
ability of Kanji that contains a difference between hard and soft letters and
makes it an indispensable part of Japanese. Thus, it can be said that Kanji is the
original word of Japanese so it plays a very important role. Ultimately, if you
want to learn Japanese well, you must memorize this form of alphabet
extensively.
4. Writing rules of Japanese Kanji:
When you start writing Kanji, you will probably think that you can write
as much as you like as long as the overview of the word shape does not look
wrong with the original word, but adhering to the stroke order when writing
Kanji is a very important thing. Furthermore, in learning Kanji alphabet, the
writing order consists of two contents: one is the direction of the pen stroke.
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For example: horizontal strokes must go from left to right, vertical strokes
go from top to bottom. Then, the second one is the preceding order while
writing the handwriting or the order of the pen strokes. These two factors, when
combined, will ensure that Chinese characters are written in the correct order.
The main purpose of writing the letter in the correct order is to write and
put the pen in handedness and conform to the configuration principle of Chinese
characters, making the pen hand gesture to write quickly, making the writing out
steady, stable.
Although there are many Japanese learners who can write Kanji correctly
without having to follow the handwriting, instead of writing according to their
own hands. However, for those who are starting to learn Japanese, and to be able
to write beautiful Chinese characters, but more importantly, to write enough
strokes without lacking of definition and to become aware and immersed with
Chinese characters quickly. It is very relevant to comply with the rules of pen
stroke order.
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In addition, it can be said that the Kanji alphabet plays an extremely
significant role in Japanese alphabet, is a tool to help you keep abreast with the
Japanese language more easily.
5. Total number of Japanese Kanji
There is no definite number of Kanji characters, just as there is none of
Chinese characters generally. The Dai Kan-Wa Jiten, which is considered to be
comprehensive in Japan, contains about 50,000 characters. The Zhonghua Zihai,
published in 1994 in China, contains about 85,000 characters, but the majority
of them are not in common use in any country, and many are obscure variants or
archaic forms.
Approximately 2,000 to 3,000 characters are commonly used in Japan, a
few thousand more find occasional use, and a total of 13,108 characters can be
encoded in various Japanese Industrial Standards for Kanji. In fact, the number
of Japanese Kanji compared to the number of Chinese characters that Chinese
learners must learn is much less. 2136 Kanji are accepted for official use in
publishing, and 1945 Kanji is the total number of words required by the
Japanese Ministry of Education to be taught in schools. But for us – those who
are not used to using hieroglyphs as the official language, 1945 Kanji is still
quite a large number.
Considering that the sheer number of Kanji presents difficulties for
native Japanese speakers, it is no surprise that mastering Kanji is a complex
and daunting task for learners from alphabet-based languages.
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6. How to read Japanese
Kanji words
Because of the way they have
been adopted into Japanese, a
single Kanji may be used to write
one or more different words—or,
in some cases, morphemes—and
thus the same character may be
pronounced in different ways.
From the reader’s point of view of,
Kanji are said to have one or more
different
“readings”.
Although
more than one reading may
become activated in the brain,
deciding
which
reading
is
Borrowing typology of Han characters
Meaning Pronunciation
a) semantic on L1
L1
b) semantic kun L1
L2
c) phonetic on
—
L1
d) phonetic kun —
L2
*With L1 representing the language
borrowed
from
(Chinese)
and
L2
representing the
borrowing language
(Japanese).
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appropriate depends on recognizing which word it represents, which can usually
be determined from context, intended meaning, whether the character occurs as
part of a compound word or an independent word, and sometimes location
within the sentence. For example, 今日 is usually read kyō, meaning “today”,
but in formal writing is instead read konnichi, meaning “nowadays”; this is
understood from context. Nevertheless, some cases are ambiguous and require a
furigana gloss, which are also used simply for difficult readings or to specify a
non-standard reading.
Kanji readings are categorized as either on’yomi (literally “sound reading”,
from Chinese) or kun’yomi (literally “meaning reading”, native Japanese), and
most characters have at least two readings, at least one of each. However, some
characters have only a single reading, such as kiku (菊, “chrysanthemum”, an
on-reading) or iwashi (鰯, “sardine”, a kun-reading); kun-only are common for
Japanese-coined Kanji (kokuji). Some common Kanji have ten or more possible
readings; the most complex common example is 生, which is read as sei, shō,
nama, ki, o-u, i-kiru, i-kasu, i-keru, u-mu, u-mareru, ha-eru, and ha-yasu,
totaling 8 basic readings (first 2 are on, rest are kun), or 12 if related verbs are
counted as distinct; see okurigana: 生 for details.
Most often, a character will be used for both sound and meaning, and it is
simply a matter of choosing the correct reading based on which word it
represents. In other cases, a character is used only for sound (ateji). In this case,
pronunciation is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning
(broadly a form of ateji, narrowly jukujikun). Therefore, only the full
compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are also special
cases where the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or
traditional reading.
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The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree in Chinese
varieties, where there are literary and colloquial readings of Chinese
characters—borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed
readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between
Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are
not related). They thus form doublets and are generally similar, analogous to
different on’yomi, reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into
Japanese.
7. The benefits of Japanese Kanji
7.1.Easy reading a Japanese’s sentence .
For example, I’ll write two identical sentences. One with hiragana only,
and one normally: kyou, sushi wo tabe ni ikimasu ka(Are you going to eat sushi
today?)
今日、 寿司を 食べに 行きますか?
きょう、すしをたべにいきますか?
Do you notice the difference? The second sentence is very difficult to
read. There is nothing separating the words from each other. In Japanese, there
are no spaces between words, so Kanji helps break words apart, making it easy
to read. As I’m sure you can imagine, long sentences would get even more
difficult to read, and when you don’t know where one word begins and another
one ends, reading errors can occur. You could be thinking that one word is
another by combining the back end of one word to the front end of
another…then where would you be?
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7.2. Kanji gives meaning to words.
This sort of follows the same concept as English synonyms. In English,
you just take the context and work with it. In Japanese, Kanji helps give
meaning to words. Let’s take the example of the word “Kanji,” since that’s what
we’re working with. If you wrote Kanji in hiragana, it would be more difficult to
understand its meaning. If you wrote it in Kanji, you could tell the difference.
For example:
Kanji (かんじ) → 漢字: Chinese character→ 感じ: Feeling→ 幹事:
Secretary→ 監事: Inspector
…And the list goes on. There are many many more examples out there, but as
you can see, Kanji really helps to bring context to words.
7.3. It looks nicer when you write in Kanji.
Sure, this is just my own opinion, but I really think it’s true. Kanji can be
very beautiful. It has a soft spot in my heart, even if the rest of my heart hates it.
Japanese parents tell their kids they have to learn to write beautifully, otherwise
people will judge them on their handwriting. People must think I’m a slob that
makes a lot of mistakes…or a twelve year old.
7.4. Kanji is easier to read.
“What??” You say. “Impossible!” Okay, so it’s true. Having to learn how
to read Kanji sucks. In the long run, though, it makes you an incredibly fast
reader. I always wondered how my Japanese friends could read things so
quickly. One day it hit me. Since each Kanji has it’s own meaning, once you
know Kanji well, you can skim over things, basically one Kanji at a time, and
get the meaning of a sentence very quickly. You don’t have to read all the
hiragana (though I’m sure people do read it, otherwise it would be unnecessary).
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Instead, you can understand the meaning of something just by jumping from
Kanji to Kanji.
7.5. Kanji takes up less space.
You know those darn 10 page papers you have to write in English class?
Psshh, you could write a 7 page paper if you were writing it in Japanese,
especially if you were typing it. Typing in Japanese makes things so much
easier. Kanji takes up less space than just writing in hiragana. Often times, two
or three characters will be condensed into one Kanji. It’s so efficient.
8. Common problems faced by learners while learning Japanese Kanji
Many people believe that Kanji is one of the biggest obstacles, making
learners feel dismayed and give up early from the start of getting familiarized
with Japanese language. It can be said that this is one of the main reasons that
makes Kanji really difficult to learn. Despite the difficulty of Kanji
acquisition, Kanji are an indispensable part of learning Japanese as it is
essential for fluent reading and an essential element of the Japanese
writing system (Mori, 2003). Hiragana and katakana are usually easily
remembered by HPU students from alphabet based L1s probably because they
are phonemic in nature, less visually complex, and the number of characters is
much more manageable.
8.1. The spirit is easy to shake and underestimate itself
Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world. With
the Hiragana alphabet and the Katakana alphabet, you can learn very quickly.
But when you switch to Kanji, a much bigger challenge is placed in front of you.
Many people when learning Kanji, can not remember even after trying all the
ways, applying all the methods. Then you get bored and lose your trust,
underestimating yourself. This is a mistake that many of you encounter when
learning Kanji.
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Remember that everything has two sides: easy and hard, and Kanji as
well. The word “best” has only one stroke: “一” is very simple, but it also has
dozens of features in one word.
“The first step is always the hardest” Don’t be discouraged, it’s just
because you haven’t learned by the right way and haven’t tried your best. Let’s
try learning by Another method and trying to equal 200% of the time you will
see the difference immediately.
8.2. Stroke by stroke instead of radical combination
The human body consists of many parts that are extremely reasonably
mounted. Kanji is like our bodies because it also include many strokes that are
logically linked. Kanji radicals are like the Vietnamese alphabet that you have
learned at the primary school. To read and write it, the first thing that you have
to learn is the alphabet, you cannot write the word “Human” if you do not know
how this word written?
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If learning by this way, you only take 3 steps and can easily save
countless time. So, when learning Kanji, let’s think about which radicals it is
made of and make use of your imagination to remember better. If you only study
in the order of strokes, you will be like building a house without foundation or
learning to read Vietnamese without learning the alphabet.
8.3. Memorize instead of acquire
Gamage (2003) found that Japanese learners from alphabetic
backgrounds used repeated writing strategies to memorize Kanji words
more than learners from Chinese character backgrounds (See also Mori,
2003, p. 452). The main method encouraged for learning Kanji for native
Japanese in Japanese schools seems to be in the form of rote learning.
Considering then that even after 12 years of studying Kanji even Japanese
native speakers have difficulty with the Jouyou Kanji, you would think it
would be difficult to convince many foreign learners of Japanese to study