Kanji Logic
One thing I noticed again when reading news during the end of the year was regarding the "Kanji of the Year".
Every year, the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society chooses one kanji to represent the events of the year through a national pool in Japan. As I've only watched the kanjis from 2005 (when I first came to Japan), I was a little surprised with 2007' kanji:
偽
The reading is にせ (nise), and it means deception.
After 2005' 愛 (love) and 2006' 命 (life), I was thinking that only kanjis with good meanings made it to the list. Guess I was wrong, since other years have elected kanjis from 金 (gold) and 虎 (tiger) to 災 (disaster) and 震 (quake). Also, the latter was the first "Kanji of the Year" ever, in 1995. So it's something quite recent.
Why "deception" for 2007? According to Wikipedia: "A series of food production/mislabeling scandals in which products that had expired were relabeled and sold. Problems over political funds and faulty pension records. Intellectual Property Infringement Controversy of Shijingshan Amusement Park, Beijing, China." This Japan Times editorial shows other reasons, some probably not the reason why Japanese voted for that kanji, but they're showing some "deception", nevertheless.
Thinking about it, that's probably a good kanji of the year for Brazil as well... Or is "deception" too light of a meaning?
And since we're talking about kanji, I'll show some interesting examples of "kanji logic".
When we start learning kanji, most people usually start with simple and self-explanatory kanji. For example, it's easy to understand why 一 means "one" and 三 means "three"; or that 山 is a mountain (see the peak of the moutain in the middle) and 川 is a river (the margins and the water flowing).
Later, you begin relating kanjis not only to what they look like, but associating its parts to other kanji.
木 is the kanji for "tree", and it's possible to imagine that as a drawing of a tree. If you put two of them together you have 林, which means "woods". With three you have a "forest", 森.
毎 is a kanji used as "every" in cases like "every day" (毎日) or "every time (that)" (毎回). If you add the "water radical" (三水偏) to it, it becomes 海, which means "sea". That association is harder to imagine.
Other combinations simply blow one's mind off. One example I saw on Gaijin Smash was 藍. As that post goes, there's a "plate" (皿), the "herb radical" above (草冠), "retainer" (臣) and some other thing that blog says it's a "two", but I couldn't see how... or if it really is. Anyway, what's the meaning you get after putting all of it together? "Indigo"...
There are also combinations of kanjis not to form another kanji, but to form a word composed of two or more kanjis. For example, put 今 (now) and 日 (day) together and you'll have 今日, which means "today".
Some kanjis also reflect part of the Japanese/Chinese ancient philosophy and life. the kanji for "bridge" (橋) has the radical for tree (木偏), since at that time bridges were made of wood. and a kanji meaning tall, high for trees (never seen it in use, though) - 喬.
But maybe where the way of thinking of that time (although I admit that sexual discrimination exists even today. And in Japan it looks stronger than in Brazil...) is most obvious is in the kanjis with the "woman" kanji (女) as part of it. Some examples shown by makimaedinha were:
woman (女) + old (古) = mother-in-law (姑)
woman (女) + house (家) = bride (嫁)
But the one I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it was:
woman (女) + woman (女) + woman (女) = noisy (姦しい - kashimashii)
It's also interesting to see some proverbs related to that. This website shows that in Japanese there's the saying 「三人寄れば文珠の知恵」 (San nin yoreba monju no chie; "three people together have the wisdom of a Buddha"). But there's also the saying 「女三人寄れば姦しい」 (Onna san nin yoreba kashimashii; “where three women gather, there is a noisy clamor”)...
Check the website mentioned above for a quote from Kittredge Cherry's book "Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women" concerning the latter proverb.
Every year, the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society chooses one kanji to represent the events of the year through a national pool in Japan. As I've only watched the kanjis from 2005 (when I first came to Japan), I was a little surprised with 2007' kanji:
偽
The reading is にせ (nise), and it means deception.
After 2005' 愛 (love) and 2006' 命 (life), I was thinking that only kanjis with good meanings made it to the list. Guess I was wrong, since other years have elected kanjis from 金 (gold) and 虎 (tiger) to 災 (disaster) and 震 (quake). Also, the latter was the first "Kanji of the Year" ever, in 1995. So it's something quite recent.
Why "deception" for 2007? According to Wikipedia: "A series of food production/mislabeling scandals in which products that had expired were relabeled and sold. Problems over political funds and faulty pension records. Intellectual Property Infringement Controversy of Shijingshan Amusement Park, Beijing, China." This Japan Times editorial shows other reasons, some probably not the reason why Japanese voted for that kanji, but they're showing some "deception", nevertheless.
Thinking about it, that's probably a good kanji of the year for Brazil as well... Or is "deception" too light of a meaning?
And since we're talking about kanji, I'll show some interesting examples of "kanji logic".
When we start learning kanji, most people usually start with simple and self-explanatory kanji. For example, it's easy to understand why 一 means "one" and 三 means "three"; or that 山 is a mountain (see the peak of the moutain in the middle) and 川 is a river (the margins and the water flowing).
Later, you begin relating kanjis not only to what they look like, but associating its parts to other kanji.
木 is the kanji for "tree", and it's possible to imagine that as a drawing of a tree. If you put two of them together you have 林, which means "woods". With three you have a "forest", 森.
毎 is a kanji used as "every" in cases like "every day" (毎日) or "every time (that)" (毎回). If you add the "water radical" (三水偏) to it, it becomes 海, which means "sea". That association is harder to imagine.
Other combinations simply blow one's mind off. One example I saw on Gaijin Smash was 藍. As that post goes, there's a "plate" (皿), the "herb radical" above (草冠), "retainer" (臣) and some other thing that blog says it's a "two", but I couldn't see how... or if it really is. Anyway, what's the meaning you get after putting all of it together? "Indigo"...
There are also combinations of kanjis not to form another kanji, but to form a word composed of two or more kanjis. For example, put 今 (now) and 日 (day) together and you'll have 今日, which means "today".
Some kanjis also reflect part of the Japanese/Chinese ancient philosophy and life. the kanji for "bridge" (橋) has the radical for tree (木偏), since at that time bridges were made of wood. and a kanji meaning tall, high for trees (never seen it in use, though) - 喬.
But maybe where the way of thinking of that time (although I admit that sexual discrimination exists even today. And in Japan it looks stronger than in Brazil...) is most obvious is in the kanjis with the "woman" kanji (女) as part of it. Some examples shown by makimaedinha were:
woman (女) + old (古) = mother-in-law (姑)
woman (女) + house (家) = bride (嫁)
But the one I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it was:
woman (女) + woman (女) + woman (女) = noisy (姦しい - kashimashii)
It's also interesting to see some proverbs related to that. This website shows that in Japanese there's the saying 「三人寄れば文珠の知恵」 (San nin yoreba monju no chie; "three people together have the wisdom of a Buddha"). But there's also the saying 「女三人寄れば姦しい」 (Onna san nin yoreba kashimashii; “where three women gather, there is a noisy clamor”)...
Check the website mentioned above for a quote from Kittredge Cherry's book "Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women" concerning the latter proverb.
1 comment:
hehehe! legal...
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