The Strengths of Kanji: Advantages for Japanese Learners and Native Speakers Compared to the Latin Alphabet
Kanji may be difficult, but it makes everyone’s Japanese journey easier
The title of this story is something I realized very early in my first contact with the Japanese language. First of all, for those unfamiliar, the Japanese writing system consists of three types of characters. Two of them, called hiragana and katakana, are quite simple: a single character (sometimes a string of characters) symbolizes one of the possible sounds in the language. As for the third type, kanji, they are derived, or should I say, imported from China, and have a meaning (or better, a ‘concept’, but that is something for another story), rather than a sound associated with it, and so, they have been assigned a ‘sound’ based on that meaning. What that means is that in Japanese you can write everything just using the other “alphabets”, hiragana and katakana, ignoring kanji completely. I would not suggest that for any serious learner though, as Japan, since ancient times, uses kanji for everything, and so knowing them is crucial to reading, and I should say, learn better too.
Now, you see, I’ve been said before that this type of writing system is archaic and obsolete, that easy to read alphabets, such as the latin one, should be the norm, and having to remember thousands of characters just to write or read a simple phrase is a waste of time. Of course, those who think like that probably have no knowledge whatsoever of Japanese, so I do understand why they feel that way. After all, it’s not completely untrue. Writing in Japanese is harder than writing ABCDE, but once you get used to that, it doesn’t necessarily take more time, and you can write using way less space.
Talking about that, that is the first strength I want to introduce:
Kanji allow for more information in less space
This one is quite obvious, actually. Just look at social media with character limits (you know, that one, although it has less limitations now, for the good and the bad) , where in English we used to just wish someone good night and no characters left. In Japanese, however, you can write your weekly schedule with the same character amount. A word I really like to exemplify that is “承る”. This word means…, well, if I put it simply, it is usually used in the context of receiving and accepting an order. It means something like “accepting”, or “listening” in a formal way. But what is important here is that that kanji alone is read as “うけたまわ”, “uketamawa” and the complete word is “うけたまわる”, “uketamawaru”, in ABCDE. That is roughly 5.5x more characters than just writing (or typing) 承る.
因みに (ちなみに, chinami ni — by the way), in everyday life I usually use this word in a very specific work situation. I rarely need to answer the phone, but sometimes there are calls by someone that has to tell us some information and the person in charge is not available, so I reply by saying “責任者は席を外しておりますが、よろしければわたくしが承ります。” (sekininsha wa seki o hazushiteorimasu ga, yoroshikereba watakushi ga uketamawarimasu). “The person in charge is not available at the moment, but if possible, I can receive/listen” (to the information). The use of kanji is what enables me to remember specific situations in which I use each and every word I know. And that brings us to the next point:
さっそく (sassoku), without further ado, the second and perhaps most important advantage of kanji is:
Kanji allow the assimilation of new words more easily
This is less obvious than the first point. Maybe because I studied kanji even before delving into the language itself (that was in 2009, I should write a story about that in the future), I felt this strength quite early in my studies (I don’t like to call it studies though, it’s more like… a “getting used” process). You see, the Japanese words present themselves mainly in one of these four kinds: hiragana, katakana, kanji only, and kanji + hiragana. The words that contain kanji are, of course, more difficult to read if you don’t know the kanji in question, especially considering you don’t even know the sound that word is supposed to have. But if you do know the word and how to read it, it is much easier to assimilate it and remember it again in the future.
An example is the word “人工” that means “artificial”. It is read as “じんこう” (jinkou), a combination of “人”, meaning “person”, and “工”, which has a concept related to “work, craftsmanship, engineering”. So, upon seeing this combination one promtly says “なるほど! (なるほど, naruhodo — Indeed!). It does make sense that this word means artificial”. And then, to remember this word for all eternity not only you have its sound as support: “I see, artificial in Japanese is ‘jinkou’”, but you also have their kanji and their unique concept attached to them: “and it is formed by joining 人, person and 工, engineering”. Now, if you compare that to a word that doesn’t have, or is rarely presented in its kanji form, being usually shown in hiragana form only, then remembering it is slightly a different process.
For instance, っくり (kkuri) ending adverbs, like びっくり、じっくり、しっくり (bikkuri, jikkuri, shikkuri), although similar, have completely different meanings. “Bikkuri” is usually used to say you were surprised by something, “jikkuri” is used to say you did something, usually thinking processes, very carefully. And “shikkuri” conveys the idea of something that fits, like an idea that just feels right. Now, with such different meanings, there is nothing there to support you in their understanding. That is why I believe one of the reasons Japanese people tend to have trouble learning English is because they have nothing to assist them when remembering new vocabulary.
“Imagination” in Japanese is “想像力” (そうぞうりょく — souzouryoku), a combination of 想 “thought”, 像 “image” and 力 “force”. In the word “imagination”, however, yes, it is true, it is related to “image”, which helps remember it. But how to remember what “image” means?, and so on. In the end, for learners whose native languages are completely different, extra effort is needed to internalize and memorize new vocabulary. Of course, for native speakers this advantage of having multiple support to remember a word is not that clear, being one’s mother tongue one just knows each word and that’s…basically it, so this strength is especially valid for those learning Japanese.
それでは (soredewa), and then, to the last strength:
Kanji allow for a more dynamic reading experience
“しゃっくり”、”躊躇う”. Which one looks easier to read? Actually both are similar regarding their ease of reading, and the difference between them lies in the fact that the latter requires you to be able to differentiate each kanji among other thousands, knowing the difference in stroke order, concept and reading. As for the former, well, you just need to be able to read hiragana. Still, I would say that once you know enough to be capable of differentiating the kanji, how to write them, their concept and the specific reading in each word, it doesn’t matter anymore if the word in question is presented as kanji or hiragana. To tell the truth, I believe the word in kanji is easier to identify and our brain does the favor of remembering how to read them immediately, faster than other words.
Therefore, considering that in less space you can fill up more information (the first strength, right?) that the brain processes as soon as it sees it, that simply means you can read more in less time. In fact, as Japanese is one of the fastest spoken languages in the world, it is only natural that reading it is as fast.
因みに (ちなみに, chinami ni — by the way), the vocabulary I mentioned at the beginning, “しゃっくり” is read as “shakkuri” and means “hiccup” (another kukri word to remember without the aid of kanji). “躊躇う” is read as “ためらう — tamerau” and means “to hesitate”. 躊 and 躇 are very unusual kanji, actually, used only in this word, but I guarantee that any Japanese adult is able to read it (they have a 99% literacy rate after all). As for writing it, I think only a more select group would be able to do that without checking, but if you are using pen and paper you can just write ためらう in hiragana and you are good. Without the う at the end of 躊躇う, the reading is changed to ちゅうちょ (chuucho), while keeping the same meaning.
As can be seen, this reading variation is when things get complicated in Japanese. I chose this specific word to show that while kanji has all these strengths, they will only be applicable after you already know them, a skill that needs effort and determination to be acquired .
Personally, I think kanji and all their variations are fascinating, and anyone who is serious about Japanese must study them from the very beginning. While it is often seen as a more advanced aspect of the language, it’s not a good idea to postpone their learning. As I showed, one can harvest the fruits of one’s labor faster by getting accustomed to kanji early on their Japanese journey.
Now, just a random photo of mine to finish:
