Days of the week
Category Archives: Kanji
Sir, Madam, Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ma’am 様 さま Politeness
さま is the formal address for another person. It is much more formal than さん and therefore always used on envelops. In some families it is used rather formally for father and mother おとうさま and おかあさま.
When one refers to members of the Imperial family, or when listening to TV commentary, a reporter would refer to Imperial Family members as へいか Majesty, or ひでんか Imperial Highness, or さま meaning Ma’am or Sir.
On an envelop one would always use さま to show respect.
Thank you very much indeed – you must have worked so hard…
Way Road Path Street 道 みち とう どう
If you want to remember this kanji, think of an important man (head, samurai) running up the road.
A very good way to demonstrate the usage of kanji in Japanese is to have a closer look at the NCEA Level II kanji 道, which means way, road, path and street and can be pronounced in three different ways: みち or とう or どう.
Students will ask “How do you know which one it is?” The answer is really: “You don’t”; “You have to remember”. Practice makes perfect. Don’t forget if you live in Japan you are surrounded by kanji, so you would see how they related to your real world.
Here are a few examples. We also added some extra kanji that are required for NCEA Level II, so they should now make more sense:
Road Day
Languages of the world
Let’s have another look at kanji
Let’s have another look at kanji.
It seems to fascinate most people about Japanese. On other pages there is more explanation about origin and significance, about pronunciation and about usage. This page is more about lay-out of individual kanji. It may come as a surprise, but there is a pattern in all these kanji. Here are the main patterns without bothering you with complicated words that show native usage, (i.e. ‘hen‘ and ‘tsukuri‘ etc.)
This kanji means gold and it is therefore associated with Gold Day, our Friday. Maybe Friday was pay-day (joke). It is one compact picture, which fits into one square.
Not so difficult to recognise the similarities with the shape of stacked gold bars. The empire must have been rich.
The following kanji, to learn, is broken up into two boxes: an upper smaller and a lower larger one. The upper one shows the divine gifts on the roof.(skull?) Let’s settle for school building, while the lower one is the child.
These two boxes signify one large square, of course.
The following one is quite unusual in that it is divided into three sections. In effect it is iku, to go, split by ‘dotted katakana ho‘, which signifies precious “something you are going for?” Difficult to say. One would need to look in an etymological kanji dictionary. Anyway, the three-way split is unusual.
These three boxes signify one large square, of course.
The next one means ‘sea’. It is broken up into three sections. There is mother, roof and water. ‘Roof’ and ‘mother’ together signify “each”, or ‘every”. Chauvinistic times hadn’t been invented yet, so being ‘under the roof’ happened to all good mothers.(No comment) That combined with water meant all the water = sea.
These three boxes signify one large square, of course.
This kanji also consists of three sections, but laid out slightly differently. It means “what?”: nani?
These nine squares signify one large square, of course.
Let’s have a look at a couple of kanji a little closer. To wait consists of three sections, each with a distinct meaning. These sub-elements can be found in other kanji as subsections too. In any case, let’s look at ‘matsu‘.
These three boxes signify one large square, of course.
On the left hand side is the person waiting. It is irrelevant, if it is a man or a woman. That doesn’t matter. The right hand side is more interesting. ‘Earth’ and ‘inch’.
Earth and inch is the sundial, the symbol of time keeping, which was done by the priests in the temple. So the right hand side means temple. The combination ‘person’ and ‘temple’ means ‘samurai’ – a person of integrity, associated with the temple. Nice thought： 侍. One could also see that the samurai under the roof would be waiting.
The last kanji on this page is language. It consists of four separate parts.
These two boxes signify one large square, of course.
It needs to be remembered when writing kanji, that most people don’t think about the origin of the kanji – they just use them.
We do not think about the origin of our letters either. No-one thinks that the letter D comes from the Egyptian river Nile. That would be ridiculous. Of course, the letter D does come from the river Nile (through the Greek word “delta” for River Nile Delta), but some PhD-person figured that one out. All ‘normal’ people just use the letter to write words. So it is with kanji. People use them and no-one really thinks about them.
When students want to learn Japanese writing, they need some help as they are not surrounded by these pictographs.
Our pictures are merely our simplified explanations, or easy ways to remember. Once you remember them, you don’t need to think about them anymore. Good luck!
More information on kanji
Advertising signs かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
かんばん kanban
Level 1 Kanji Flashcards
If you print these pages on a laser colour printer and back the correct pages you have flash cards for your first 55 kanji. Most printers will allow 120 thickness cardboard to print. Alternatively, take it to a photocopy place in town and they’ll do it for you.
You can use the blank ones for your own kanji choices.
Origin of kana in Chinese kanji
The information on this page is based on the correct historical data. Modern hiragana and katakana have been derived from the kanji shown. Our other page shows how hiragana and katakana can be more easy remembered and it is only partially based on factual knowledge. That page’s purpose is to help students who have no knowledge of kanji memorise the new kana scripts. If you want to memorise hiragana/katakana, then here is the link to that page:
Good luck!
Here is the factual knowledge page:
Writing practice しゅうじ 習字
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
writing practice しゅうじ 習字 shūji
たいへんよくできました
taihen yoku dekimashita
very well done
Lami Japan 
You must be logged in to post a comment.