Ateji, meaning "given characters" or "assigned characters," are kanji that have been arbitrarily "assigned" to a borrowed or native Japanese word with which they have no historical or etymological connection. Often the characters will be chosen with the intent of implying an etymology which is fanciful or false.
In modern Japanese, ateji (当て字, 宛字 or あてじ, pronounced [ate(d)ʑi]; "assigned characters") principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters.
In Japanese, ateji 当て字, "matching characters," are kanji 漢字 used to spell a word that wasn't originally written with those kanji, including words that even don't have kanji to begin with. They're called ateji because the reading of the kanji, or the meaning of the kanji, matches the word.
The term ateji refers to the kanji characters used. (jukujikun) refers to the use of a (typically native) Japanese word as the reading of a kanji word, without regard to the usual readings of those kanji.
Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. But unlike the Chinese language, Japanese cannot be written entirely in kanji. For grammatical endings and words without corresponding kanji, two additional, syllable-based scripts are being used, hiragana and katakana, each consisting of 46 syllables.
Although you don't strictly need to learn kanji to speak and understand Japanese, it will be a lot easier if you do. Plus if you want to live and work in Japan then knowing some kanji is pretty much required.
Kanji is considered by many the most difficult part of learning Japanese. If you are just visiting Japan for a short period of time, you may want to skip the time it would take to learn kanji. But, if you are really interested in learning Japanese, then it is very important that you take the time to learn the kanji.
たいと(taito) is the most difficult Japanese Kanji on the record with a total of 84 strokes. It is formed by combining 3 雲 (くもkumo) with 3 龍 (りゅうRyuu).
Yes. Traditional Japanese kanji is the same as traditional Chinese characters. However, simplified Japanese Kanji (shinjitai) and simplified Chinese characters can be written differently and have different translation.
Kanji provides a means of representing complex and abstract concepts in a concise and easily understandable way. Many Japanese words have multiple meanings depending on the context, meaning kanji is necessary to clarify and differentiate between these meanings in a way unseen in phonetic scripts.
It is mostly tradition that keeps them writing Kanji, also the fact that once you learn it, it is somewhat faster to write than any phonemic alphabet.
Is it possible to write Japanese without kanji? Yes, you can write Japanese using only katakana and/or hiragana, or even only using the alphabet, but reading and understanding what you have written would be very difficult. Japanese has too many homonyms.
Kanji can be divided into four main groups according to how they are formed: 象 しょう 形 けい 文 も 字 じ (pictographs), 指 し 示 じ 文 も 字 じ (sign characters), 会 かい 意 い 文 も 字 じ (kanji with combinations of meanings), and 形 けい 成 せい 文 も 字 じ (kanji with combinations of meaning and sound).
Good to know: There are usually two or more ways of reading any one kanji – these are categorised as onyomi (Chinese origin) and kunyomi (Japanese origin) readings.
憎 means 'hate'
Kanji are classified as Jōyō (常用, common use), Jinmeiyō (人名用, used in names), or Hyōgaiji (表外字, 'outside the chart').
笑 (wara) is the equivalent of 'lol' in Japanese.
The character 笑 means 'laugh', which is a short form of the verb 笑う / わらう 'to laugh'. The character for wara 笑 (also pronounced emi) is sometimes put in brackets like this (笑) which is read as kakko wara.
Not very well, I would say. The languages are quite different in grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and practically every other respect. Being able to recognize several hundred or even a couple of thousand kanji will not get you very far when it comes to making sense of whole passages.
Chinese speakers can read Kanji to a certain extent, but understanding spoken Japanese requires additional effort. While the shared writing system between the two languages may provide an advantage, Chinese speakers still need to learn the grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation of Japanese to achieve fluency.
They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of hiragana and katakana. The characters have Japanese pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound.
Among the easiest kanji to remember are those that resemble the words they represent. These range from basic characters composed of a few lines like 木 (tree) and 山 (mountain) to more complex ones like 鳥 (bird).
To learn the essential kanji that makes up most Japanese words it takes up to 3 years by most standards but Actual Fluency calculates that 'if you learn 25 kanji a day, and have no prior experience with Japanese, you should be able to read kanji within three months'.
To be considered fluent in Japanese, people often say that you need to learn around 2000 kanji. There are, for example, 2136 government-mandated joyo kanji that Japanese people are expected to know. Similarly, the N1 level of the JLPT exam wants you to know 2000 kanji.
How Long Does it Take to Learn Japanese on Average? With consistent studying and speaking, for about 30 minutes to an hour a day, you could speak at a conversational level in Japanese in about 3 months.