Many people see the Japanese as extremely hardworking and who can blame them for that impression with so many Japanese working ridiculous overtime hours. While the amount of work being done and the efficiency of it is debatable, there is certainly a very strong sense of social responsibility. With that sense of responsibly comes a strong work ethic. At the very least, the Japanese work long hours and try to stay busy. Looking at the language may give us some insight into where this dedication to work comes from.

Ganbaru

When you start studying Japanese, it won’t be long before you run into some form of the word Ganbaru. Ganbaru in short means “to do your best”. You can say “Ganbarimasu” to tell someone (your boss for example) that you are going to do work really hard on something. When someone enters a company and gives a welcome speech they often end the speech by saying that they’ll do their best. When someone makes a mistake, they often assure that they will do their best from then on. At New Years parties, people often announce that they’ll do their best with something in the following year. It is common to hear students saying that they’ll do their best in everything from sports to grades to cleaning the hallway to having class meetings. While the meaning is not all that different from English, the variety of situations and frequency in which it is used is quickly noticeable. Since it is used so widely it can be thought of as a concept more than just a word.

“Ganbare” is how you would cheer someone on and say “Do your best!” It might be better to think of this as “Good luck!” if said before a sports event or performance. If your friend just broke up with his girlfriend and is having a hard time you might cheer him along the same way.

Ganbatte kudasai means “Please do your best”. Since this concept is so ingrained into the Japanese psyche, sometimes this is used in a dismissive way. Imagine you are working overtime every day despite having health problems. Your boss might say to you, “Ganbatte Kudasai”. While many people would translate this as “Please do your best” or “Please continue to work hard.”, I think it is fair to see this as a polite way of saying “Deal with it”.

Gaman

Another way to say “Deal with it” is “Gaman Shite”. Gaman most accurately translates to “to put up with” and is another word that is much more casually tossed around than it’s English counterpart. When you think about it, all most Japanese employees do is “gaman”. When your boss says “Jump!”, you say “How high?” with enthusiasm. People are not only supposed to work hard but also respect people with more experience then them. This often means holding in things that they want to say, not only with their boss but also with most of their coworkers. That can add up to a whole lot of “Gaman”. When your Japanese study starts to feel like too much, just give yourself a “Gaman shite kudasai!”.

Japanese is a case inflecting language. What exactly is “case inflection,” you might ask; case inflection refers to a system by which a language inflects nouns—using either morphological affixes, or particles—to designate them with grammatical roles within a sentence, the end result typically being sentences in which word order is generally loose. Interestingly enough, English—an Indo-European language of the West Germanic variety—was once case inflecting. Check out Beowulf in Old English, if you’re interested. In Japanese, this inflectional morphology is accomplished with the help of particles, little lexically-bound morphemes (semantic units unable to exist as free standing words that must be attached to an independent noun) that follow the nouns they modify, such as: は、が、で、に、を、と、etc.

The mastery of Japanese particles for a second-language learner of Japanese is admirable; particles can be nasty little suckers for the unprepared learner. Over the next several weeks, I will be writing short guides with the intent of helping learners differentiate between basic particles. This week, we tackle は.

Particle: は

は is perhaps the most commonly misused particle in the Japanese language; it is biffed by second language learners about as often as “the” is fumbled over by native Japanese speakers. は, a topic marking particle, marks a word for contextual significance. In English, the topic of a sentence typically appears at the beginning of the sentence and is grammatically identical to its subject. Thus, in a sentence like “My legs hurt,” the noun phrase “my legs” is both the topic of conversation, as well as the grammatical subject of the sentence. Japanese, however, does make a very clear distinction between the topic and the subject. Take for example: 「私は足が痛いです」(My legs hurt). This sentence marks 「私」as its topic; the listener should, first and foremost, be concerned with how the rest of the sentence relates to the topic, which is myself. 「足」is marked by the subject marking particle, 「が」, which communicates to a listener that meaning of the sentence now revolves around either: what my leg is doing, or what is happening to my leg. To put it simple, 「私は足が痛いです。」is a sentence about a leg hurting that concerns the speaker. “A leg hurts, and this fact is significant to me.”

This sentence can be contrasted with: 「私の足は痛いです。」, in which “my leg” becomes the topic of the sentence: “It hurts, and this fact is significant for my leg.” This sentence carries the nuance that it is less concerned with the implication that my wounded leg has on me (as in the first sentence), and more concerned with the implication that my wound has for my leg itself.

As a topic marking particle, は can be used alongside, or in place of other particles, as detailed below:

で：屋内ではタバコを吸っていけないことになっています。
“(According to the rules) you can not smoke inside.”
This sentence pairs はwithで to draw attention to 屋内 as a significant detail. It is completely fine to smoke outside, but inside smoking will not be tolerated.

あなたのおかげではこの関係が良くいってるよ。
“It’s because of you (and not anybody else) that this relationship is going well.”

を：空手をするんだけど、合気道はしない。
“I do karate, but I do not do aikido (as opposed to other martial arts that I practice).”
This sentence replaces を with は to illustrate that aikido is a significant detail, one that stands in contrast to any other form of martial arts. If a native speaker were to hear the second clause of this sentence in isolation, they would get the impression that the speaker of the sentence is, in fact, a martial artist that practices forms other than aikido. This is in contrast to: 「合気道をしない。」, which simply states that the speaker does not do aikido (and may or may not practice other forms).

に：日本には行ったことがない。
“I have never been to Japan (but I’ve totally been to other countries).”
This sentence augments にwith は to draw contrast between the country of Japan and other countries of the world. It is clear from context that the speaker is an (at least somewhat) experienced traveler. Compare with: 「日本に行ったことがない。」, “I have never been to Japan (and may or may not have ever been anywhere else).”

と：「Sadness」とは、「悲しい」の名詞形、「悲しみ」という意味である。
““Sadness,” a nominalized form of “kanashii,” means “kanashimi” (in Japanese).”

とは is a common particle construction typically used when providing the definition of a word or phrase, or otherwise clarifying a statement.

The above uses of は all share one thing in common; they all draw contrast to or away from a topical point of conversation. But は has some further uses.

In a compound sentence—a sentence with more than one major clause— は functions to mark the noun serving as the most important argument in the sentence:

彼が作ってくれた料理をちょっと食ってみたんだけど、私は全然好きではなかった。
“I tried eating a little bit of the food he made us, but I didn’t like it at all.”

彼, being the less important of the subjects deployed throughout the two clauses is marked by the subject marking particleが (which we will discuss more next week); however, 私, being the main focus of the sentence, takes は as its particle; this happens because, at its heart, this sentence ultimately boils down to mean: 「全然好きではなかった」, “(I) didn’t like (it).” It is a sentence about my reaction—anything else appearing in the sentence is auxiliary information, and for this reason,, は is used.

は can also be used with ～て　inflected verbs:

ガムを噛んではならない。
“You can’t chew gum. (But you can keep it in your pocket, or save a stick for later.)”

足を踏んじゃってはごめん。
“I’m sorry for stepping on your foot. (But not for tapping it to get your attention earlier).”

また今度同じ所に行ってはどう。
“How about we go to the same place again next time (instead of staying at home)?”

Hopefully I cleared up some fog on Japanese particles. Part 2 of this series coming soon!

A relative clause is a construction of language that refers to an adjective phrase containing an inflected verb. In English, this often involves usage of the words “that” or “which,” and modifies the tail end of a noun as a multilexical, post-position adjective phrase. For example: the man who ate my chicken is a real jerk; the car I bought last week already needs to be serviced; the lunch you packed me was delicious; the little bit of skin attached to my hangnail is stopping me from removing it. All English relative clauses are subjunctive (dependent upon a main clause).

As a native speaker of English, one hardly requires a lesson in the construction and deployment of such utterances; however, in Japanese, relative clauses don’t line up with their English counterparts in terms of their grammatical form. Japanese relative clauses are simple enough to get the hang of, however, providing a student is given adequate instruction.

In Japanese, relative clauses are placed prior to the onset of the nouns they modify; they are grammatically identical to Japanese adjectives in terms of word order. Being that Japanese clauses require only a verb to be considered independent, Japanese relative clauses are distinct from English clauses in that every one of them is an independent clause. For example, taking into consideration the meaning of the relative clauses as independent utterances, observe the following sentences and their respective relative clauses:

昨夜作ってくれた飯は本当に美味しかった。
“The food you cooked for me yesterday was really good.”
「昨夜作ってくれた」 (“[you] cooked [it] for me yesterday.”)

行ったことがあるところだから、今度そこへ連れてもらえない。
“It’s a place you’ve been before, so would you mind taking me along this time?”
「行ったことがある」(“[you] have been [there].”)

一昨日観ていたあのテレビ番組は何と言うか知ってるだろう。
“Do you perhaps know the name of that show we were watching two days back?”
「一昨日観ていた」(“[we] were watching [it] two days ago.”

As you can see by now, using a relative clause in Japanese basically involves using an entire sentence—ending as per usual in an inflected verb—as an adjective. The verb in this “sentence” is able to take any temporal inflection; it can also take a passive inflection or a causative inflection.

One might ask, when is it proper to use past tense and when is it proper to use the Japanese non-past? Much like in a free standing sentence, the past/non-past distinction in Japanese is less concerned with the specifics of relative time, and more concerned with completion or non-completion; that is to say, Japanese past/non-past tenses are really better described as perfective/imperfective aspect markers; this is especially true when they exist in a relative clause:

日本に行く時、贈り物をいっぱい買っておきました。
“When I went to Japan (before I departed on my flight), I purchased many gifts (that I could present to my friends in Japan).
日本に行った時、贈り物をいっぱい買っておきました。
“When I went to Japan (after I had landed in Japan), I purchased many gifts (that I could bring home to my friends in my home country.”

This distinction is very subtle: the only difference being the use of the non-past tense in the relative clause of the first sentence, and the past tense in the relative clause of the latter sentence; however, the meaning between these two sentences is very different indeed. This is possible because of the imperfective/perfective nuance of the respective tenses. In the initial sentence, the non-past tense is used because it suggests that I had not yet (completed) my arrival in Japan, so the sentence as a whole is interpreted as having occurred somewhere in my home country; in the second sentence, the past tense of the verb in the relative clause suggests that the clause itself has been completed—i.e. I have arrived in Japan—thus, the entire sentence is understood as referring to an action that took place somewhere in Japan. This distinction is important to any relative clause in Japanese.

There is absolutely no need to think that the title may be speaking of some theory or metaphysics. Because, it is just speaking of the grammar of Japanese language! Any student who gets a chance to learn the Japanese language would have known at least two verbs that indicate the ‘movement’ - ‘iku’(行く) and ‘kuru’(来る), which mean ‘to go’ and ‘to come’ respectively. These verbs are so common in any language, that even a child can use them correctly to express the intention. But when an alien thinks of an idea in his / her mother tongue and tries to express that in Japanese language, there is always a scope for mistakes that throw up confusions, often filled with fun!

Direction of Movement

The ‘direction of movement’ has a vital role to play in using the verbs ‘iku’ and ‘kuru’. With any form of the verb ‘iku’, which indicates the action of ‘going’, the direction involved usually is ‘from here to there’. But the determining the direction is not so simple because it depends on the person involved in the movement as well as the position of the speaker. Further, these directions get complex with the position indicators – ‘soko’(そこ= there), ‘koko’(ここ=here) and ‘asoko’(あそこ=that place) , which all beginners would come across while they learn Japanese. When the speaker is not the person moving, it is easier to use ‘iku’ and ‘kuru’ forms, as in “kare ga koko kara soko ni ikimasu” (He goes there from here). But if the speaker moves, the position and the direction matter a lot. In such a case, the sentence is not a mere translation of the original thought. This becomes clearer when students make a note of the difference in the meanings of ‘iku’ in sentences like “ashita kareno gakkou ni ikimasu” (Tomorrow, I am going to his school) and “ashita anatano gakkou ni ikimasu” (Tomorrow, I am coming to your school).

Typically, the use of places connected with First and Second persons (‘speaker’ and ‘listener’), can change the meaning of ‘iku’ from ‘go’ to ‘come’! Here is an interesting conversation between two Japanese neighbors –

“Ryou-kun, ashita eiga wo mini ikimashou ka?” (Ryo, shall we go to a movie tomorrow?)
“ashita nara, Kana-chan mo kuru to itte ita.” (If tomorrow, then Kana too wanted to come.)
“ashita Kana-chan wa koko ni kuru no?” (Will Kana come here tomorrow?)
“iie, jitensha de eigakan ni iku rashii” (No, she seems to go to the cinema hall by bicycle)
“ja, boku mo jitensha de soko e ikimasu. Ryou-kun mo jitensha de ikimasuka?”
(OK, I too go there by bicycle. Ryou, will you too come by bicycle?)
“un, boku mo isshoni jitensha de ikimasu” (Yes, I will also come with you by bicycle.)

So, if you are ‘coming’ with me, then actually you must be ‘going’ in Japanese style. And if you learn Japanese well, your instantaneous answer for the ringing door bell will be “ikimasu” (I am going), even if means “I am coming”!

You should by now know that Japan is composed of four main islands, Honshu (本州), Shikoku (四国), Kyushu (九州), and Hokkaido (北海道), as well as countless thousands of other smaller ones. The kanji for island (島) can be read as shima/jima (しま/じま) or tou (とう), but care should be taken not to confuse it with the kanji for bird (鳥 – consider the ‘feathers’ beneath this symbol as a useful way to distinguish them). As with any kanji, a good way to establish a solid base for remembering and using it is to remember its uses in combination with other kanji, such as in the words for ‘peninsula’ (hantou, はんとう, 半島; kanji for half and island), ‘archipelago’ (rettou, れっとう, 列島; line and island), ‘islander’ (toumin, とうみん, 島民; island and people), ‘treasure island’ (takarajima, たからじま, 宝島), and ‘island nation’ (i.e. Japan, shimaguni, しまぐに, 島国; island and country).

Dogashima Islands, Izu, Japan

Diversity of Islands

Japan’s volcanic history has produced the majority of these islands, although not all of them. Artificial islands form the bases for airports in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Fukuoka, and Nagoya, as well as the popular tourist destinations of Odaiba (お台場) in Tokyo and Rokko Island (六甲アイランド) in Kobe.

In fact, Japanese islands exhibit incredible diversity: They include an island devoted to art (Naoshima 直島), an ex-island whose shima status was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1914 (Sakurajima, 桜島), an island still acting as a leper colony Ooshima, 大島), an ancient-forested island and World Heritage Site with thousand-year-old cedars Yakushima, 屋久島), a subtropical island with a population of less than ten (Aragusukujima, 新城島), and an island used for banishing Japanese from the mainland for a millennium (Sado, 佐渡島).

Even within the jurisdiction of Tokyo, besides the islands in Tokyo Bay linked by road and train links, there are the Izu Islands (伊豆諸島), many of which are great options for a weekend trip, and the subtropical Ogasawara Islands (小笠原群島), a 24-hour ferry ride away. Additionally, some of the islands around Japan are the source of tensions with neighboring countries as disputed territories, such as Takeshima (竹島; with South Korea), the Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島; with China and Taiwan), and the now Russian-controlled Kuril Islands.

Summary

The island mentality (しまぐにこんじょう, 島国根性) is an important part of being Japanese, and any visit to the country, anytime between spring and fall, should include a boat trip away from the mainland. There are many more Japans to be explored beyond the four main islands.

Learning Japanese can be a lot of fun for kids. There are some fun words to pronounce, new things to describe and experience, and a unique skill to share with friends. It is also a great language for kids to learn because of the simplicity of the grammar at beginning levels, large number of loan words from English which will give English speaking kids an instant vocabulary to draw on, and how easy it can be to pronounce with just a little practice.

Japanese Vocabulary for Kids

A good place to start when teaching kids Japanese is to elicit some of the Japanese words they already know and show them the correct pronunciation. Words like “ninja” and “sushi” don’t require much practice at all. Words like “tofu” and “futon” only need the softer hu/fu sound of Japanese and a little look at how the vowels are pronounced. On the other hand, words like “karate” and “karaoke” are pronounced differently from the English.

After that, kids will be much relieved to hear that there are a lot of words from English that can be used in Japanese with a little change in the pronunciation. A lot of these words are foods, and it can be easy to start with them. Teaching kids to stretch out some of the Japanese vowels can be a lot of fun.

Kids enjoy nonsense words, and getting kids to say “hamburger” as hambaagaa—can be fun. There are lots of words from English and it can be a lot of fun for kids to learn the new pronunciations for them. It is important also to let kids know that not all English words will be understood in Japanese even when spoken with Japanese pronunciation. Also, not all foreign loan words come from English. Another fun group of words to cover with students are those that come from languages other than English such as “pan” for bread and “zubon” for pants. “Zubon” actually makes for a good lesson because while that word refers to pants such as long pants worn every day, “jiinzu” can be used to refer to jeans. The Japanese loan word “pantsu” however generally refers to underwear.

Another fun type of vocabulary for kids to learn are words that describe things that are not as common outside of Japan. These words tend to need a phrase in English to describe them, though a picture could be worth a thousand descriptive words in teaching it to kids. There are a myriad of food words – from sushi (sushi) to anko (sweet red bean paste) to takenoko (edible bamboo shoots), as well as animals, household words, and more.

The last type of word I would focus on for kids are adjectives. These are words that will help kids say what they want to say, increase their fluency, and allow them to explore the language and new vocabulary even further. Basic adjectives including ookii (big), chiisai (small), different colors, and flavors can also be a lot of fun to learn. You can use this picture if you would like the kids to locate some colors while providing a lesson on Japanese masks

Japanese Vocabulary Activities

A few activities for kids to practice Japanese words:
• The first way you can have a lot of fun with English loan words is by getting kids to guess what you are saying when you say them. There are obvious ones such as “resutoran” (restaurant) that the students might get quickly, but less obvious ones such as “kyabetsu” (cabbage), or “gareeji” (garage) that can require some guess work.
• Play the game known as “telephone” or “grapevine”. The students line up, and the first student receives a foreign loan word. They whisper it quietly to each other down the line until the last student in line has to guess the word and say it in Japanese pronunciation as well. If everyone does a good job of pronouncing it, everyone wins!
• There is a great game that came from an old Japanese quiz show called “Majikaru Zuno Pawa“(Magical Brain Power) in Japan for practicing vocabulary and quick thinking. The game can be slowed down to fit students of any level, or even allow students to work from a predetermined list of words. The game is called “Magical Banana” and the players start with a word and then have to take turns naming a related word without breaking the rhythm (which can be maintained by clapping or snapping one’s fingers). Players who say repeated words or words that are not really related to the previous one are out.
Here is an example:
fuyu (winter) – yuki (snow) – koori (ice) – mizu (water) – skyuba (scuba) – tanoshii (fun)
In the above example, the last person who said “tanoshii” would be out because it’s an opinion and not directly related. When playing with kids though, it could be best to just make sure that they are saying actual Japanese words and keep them coming. For beginning levels, you may even want to forget about having them say related words and just be satisfied if they can get a long string of Japanese words based on a general topic or theme.
• Another game inspired by the game show is “Majikaru Cheenji” (Magical Change). In this game, a word is used to start off the game and the last syllable of that word has to be used as the first syllable of the next word. Anyone ending a word with “n” is out because so few real words begin with the sound.
Here is an example:
banana (banana) – nashi (pear) – shinkansen (shinkansen / bullet train)…
In this case, the person who said “shinkansen” is out for ending with the “n” sound.
Here is another example:
nashi (pear) – shiitake (shiitake mushroom) – keeki (cake) – kimono (kimono) – …
.. and it can go on like that for a while.
• In the age of the internet, pictures abound and kids can easily find a visual to go along with words they are learning. Using pictures for kids to quiz each other on Japanese words can be a lot of fun. This is especially useful when working with some of the words that kids may not see too much outside of Japan such as “kotatsu” (a small, low table with a heating unit built into it), or “tatami” (tatami, or the woven straw mat used as flooring in many Japanese homes).
• Another great game for language learners to play is something like the popular game “taboo”, only for learners of a second language, there do not really need to be any taboo words established. They can look at pictures of different things and use words to describe them for their teammates to make guesses at.
• A related way to practice vocabulary is a foreign language game of 20 questions, done in small groups to keep the kids using Japanese
• An activity for very small kids is to have a lot of different useful images spread around the room and ask them to touch them when they match the word you said. If you say “Touch something blue,” for example, or “Aoi mono wo sawatte,” kids will dash around the room to find something blue to touch. Students can take turns saying what they should touch and practicing their Japanese speaking as well.

Using Japanese Words for Kids

The next step in mastering some of the Japanese vocabulary words kids are learning are to give them some simple sentences and letting them express themselves. One suggestion might be to teach them how to say the like (–ga suki desu) or don’t like (–ga suki janai) something.

Letting them quiz each other using pictures or drawings, and asking “Kore wa nan desuka?” to ask “What is this?”, and to answer saying “It is a Japanese radish,” using the proper pattern “Daikon desu,” can also be a great way to make activities more student-centered.

Simple sentences in Japanese are a great way for kids to get used to using and pronouncing Japanese and helping them increase their active vocabularies as well.

Conclusion and Helping Kids Learn Japanese

For kids interested in animation, manga, ninjas, samurais, martial arts, Japanese food, or other aspects of Japan, learning Japanese can be a great experience. When teaching a foreign language, it’s important to try and give kids a chance to be tactile or physical and actually handle real things from Japan and move around while learning, as well as to provide lots of opportunities for the students themselves to say the words, use them, and interact with each other. Using pictures, videos, rhythm, music, listening, speaking, and movement can be a great way to keep things interesting.

Kanji are characters, derived from Chinese, and adapted into written Japanese. They can be the greatest enemy of people learning Japanese for the first time, but the greatest friend to those who stick with the language. Students of all levels of Japanese can appreciate the beauty, function, and communicative power these characters carry. Many of them show a deeper meaning when broken into their parts, as evidenced by one of the characters for listen:

This particular kanji is often used to talk about “really listening”, as opposed to the common character for listening. “聞”. While the common way to write the “ki” part of “kiku” or “listen” has the character for “ear” (耳) incorporated, the more complicated and nuanced version of “ki” contains not only 耳, but also “eye” (目), and “heart” (心) as well. In two kanji characters that have the same pronunciation and basic meaning, one can be infused with a deeper meaning that would never be conveyed with only the phonetic hiragana or katakana renderings.

Learning kanji can take time, especially if you want to become proficient at handwriting them, not to mention the time it takes to master Japanese calligraphy (Shudo). It is however worth it when you can sit down with a newspaper or novel and breeze through it thanks to the power of a written language that can deliver deep meaning in a glance.

Painting the story in very broad strokes, Kanji came from China. It was brought back, along with Buddhism and some other things, and incorporated into the culture at a time when China was cool. It is not only modern Japan that incorporates and adapts parts of foreign culture. Japan has been doing that for a very long time.

Exactly when, how, and by whom these funny little characters came to be the primary influence on Japanese writing is still subject to scholarly debate. The name of the characters themselves “Kanji” are the Japanized pronunciation of the Chinese word for the characters, “hanzi”. Both are rendered with the same characters shown here “漢字”, meaning the Han letters. Han, of course, refers to China’s Han Dynasty.

In the Nara Period, a Japanese poetry was collected into a book called the Man’yoshu. Here, the predecessor to modern hiragana and katakana was found in a style of writing called man’yogana.

Kanji was originally used, accompanied with notations allowing for Japanese speakers to better read and understand the Chinese, as well as to reconcile it with the Japanese spoken language already in use. Over time, the Japanese written language continued to distinguish itself from Chinese as new Kanji only in use in Japan were created, and as the pronunciations and meanings of the characters began to diverge from the original Chinese. Also, natural changes to the language, as well as official simplifications in both countries have led to a further divergence.

The natural development of Kanji and its adaptation from original Chinese characters led to the inconsistencies in Japanese writing as well as extraneous characters with the same pronunciation and meaning as others. In order to make the language more accessible to non-native speakers the official list of characters was brought down to a total of 1,850 characters, although slightly more are used commonly in names, place names, and technical and scientific terms among others. These are known as the Toyo Kanji.

In 1981, the list was expanded into what is known as the “Joyo Kanji” or “Regular-use Kanji”. Although there have been minor changes and additions to the list, the current number is 2,136. This includes the 1,006 basic educational characters that elementary school students in Japan are expected to learn between first grade and sixth grade. The last major revision of the Joyo was done in 2010.

In addition to these regular-use characters are characters that are used exclusively in personal and place names. These are called the Jinmeiyo Kanji. This list is frequently updated, in part to allow for trends in how children are named, and currently sits at just over 980.

Aside from China and Japan, these characters have found their way into other languages as well, most notably Korean. While not as commonly used as in Japanese, Korean “Hanja”, like Kanji, is a form of the Chinese “hanzi” that grew and developed outside of China. Hanja are most commonly found in academic writing, names, and place names, and are not as widely used in Hangul as Kanji are in Japanese.

Although Vietnamese has been strongly influenced by Chinese vocabulary and language, the modern writing system is not directly based on Chinese, unlike Japanese and, to a lesser extent, Korean.

You would be hard-pressed to enter a classroom full of students hoping to learn Japanese and not find at least a few who think that Japan, it’s language, people, culture, and visitors would all be better off without kanji. Even Japan’s Ministry of Education has considered such a move, however briefly. Kanji is however one of the things that makes Japan unique. Word plays and jokes can be made using Japanese homophones that have different Kanji renderings, nuances can be added without affecting the rhythm of a written passage by the use of one character over another. This is evident in such terms as 聞く and 聴く, or “deau” (to meet) being rendered in the normal way as 出会う and a more romantic or important way as 出逢う.

Kanji is definitely here to stay and something anyone who studies the language and culture of Japan will come to truly appreciate for its beauty, and efficiency as a communicative tool.

Japanese has three writing systems which are combined and used everyday: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Kanji was brought from China around 5th century A.D., and at that time only men were allowed to learn and use it because men had a higher status than women. They said it was too hard to learn for women with their intelligence level, and women were allowed to use only Hiragana. Yes, Kanji is hard and there are many characters to learn, but if you learn them step by step, learning is doable for anyone. Also, knowing Kanji helps you read faster because each one letter has meanings!

In this article, I would like to introduce you to 10 basic Kanji characters that you will encounter in your daily life in Japan.

1. Big and Small – [大 and 小]

You often see these on food menus and at toilets as well. If you go to a fancier restroom with TOTO (or equivalent brand) Washlet toilet, nowadays they don’t even have a handle bar to flush, but instead you will see two buttons for 大 and 小 on the top of a little screen for controling the Washlet. 大 on toilets represents “number 2” and 小 is for “number 1”. This is just a difference of the amount of water used when flushed. If you had only “number 1”, you can push the button of 小 so that you can save water for the environment. Some toilets are automatic, so when you are finished, it automatically flushes. These two Kanji are only used for more modern sit-down toilets so this doesn’t apply to men’s stand-up urinals.

For food sizes, especially for drinks, these are also used. For example, beer sizes are written 大 or 小 for bottle beer or draughts, and many times they have the medium size with the Kanji 中. Draught beer is called 生ビール (nama biiru) or more commonly called just 生 (nama). When you want to order a big draught beer, you can say 大生(dai-nama), or for medium size 生中 (nama-chuu). This is a very casual and local way of ordering beer in Japanese. As for food, espeacially at fast food restaurants, these size Kanji are not used normally but they use S, M, or L (for small, medium, and large) instead. For example, when you order small fries at Mc.Donald’s, you can order saying “ポテトのS (poteto no esu)” or “ポテト のSサイズ (poteto no esu saizu)”.

2. Man and Woman – [男 and 女]

You see these Kanji for onsen/public bath or sometimes at restrooms as well. You don’t want to get confused by which one to enter, otherwise you will receive a weird glance from other people!

The 男 kanji is made of two different characters. The top one is 田 and this means rice field. The bottom one is 力 and this means power. As you probably know, the main diet of the Japanese is rice, and rice cultivation started long time ago back to sometime in the mid-Jomon period (Jomon period is from 145 B.C. to 10 B.C.) The people who worked at the rice field were mainly guys, since it was physically demending labor. This is how the kanji 男 was created. For 女, here is a story about ninja. Mostly ninja are male, because they have to be phisically fit for their spying duties, and sometimes they had to fight against samurai soldiers. However, there were some female ninja also. They were called くの一(kunoichi), since the Kanji for woman 女 can be broken down with three strokes of 1) Hiragana “ku” く, 2) Katakana “no” ノ and 3) Kanji “ichi” 一.

I hope that these stories will help you remembering these gender characters, but don’t worry too much. Usually there are color coordination for male and female – blue/black and red/pink. At onsen facilities, usually the entrance is covered with “noren” curtains, and they are usually in those colors for each gender!

3. Enter and Exit – [入and 出]

Most of the time, the same doors are used for entrance and exit, but sometimes, there are designated doors only for entrance or exit purposes. For example, public buses and street cars can have separate doors for entrance and exit, because one side has a payment system. When to pay is depending on the bus/tram companies. Usually, if the line is for the flat rates, you pay as you enter. If not, you pay when you exit because the price would vary depending on how far you go. The kanji meaning “to enter” and “to exit” are 入and 出, and for entrance and exit, they add 口 after them. 口 literally means “mouth” but in this case it means like “gate”. So entrance is written as 入口 (iri-guchi) and the exit is 出口 (de-guchi).

By the way, 入 Kanji is very similar to 人Kanji for “person”. It’s almost same and hard to see the difference especially in the computer fonts, but here is the tips to see the difference. The Kanji for enter is with the longer right stroke and it’s over the shorter left stroke. The person Kanji is with the longer left stroke and it’s over the shoter right stroke. These two Kanji are a little bit confusing, but this small difference makes totally different meanings, so watch out!

4. East, West, North, and South – [東西北南]

You usually can find these Kanji at train stations. Once again, the month or gate Kanji in this context is 口, so you see the conbination of these direction Kanji with 口 after them. For example, the JR Shinjuku station in Tokyo has 8 exits/entrances. Two biggest exits are 東口 (higashi-guchi) and 西口 (nishi-guchi). JR Shinjuku station also has Central-East, Central-West, South, New-South, South-East, and Southern-Terrace exits. This massive station is one of the most confusing station with so many exits (especially because it is a massivle conbination of the JR, subway/metro and other private train companies) – if you are not too familiar with the station, I would suggest NOT to meet up with your friends at the Shinjuku station and choose somewhere less confusing.

These directional Kanji are also used for names of places. For example, Tokyo is written as 東京. The second Kanji is from 京都 (Kyoto), which means “the capital”. Since the original capital was in Kyoto (in the Japanese history, the capital of Japan started from Nara, Kyoto, then moved to Tokyo), and since Tokyo is the new capital which is in the east Japan, it’s written as 東京, meaning “east capital”. As another example, the two biggest regions in Japan are called Kanto (関東) and Kansai (関西). Kanto incudes Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba, Saitama, etc. and Kansai includes Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, etc. As you can see in the map, Kanto has the 東 Kanji in it because it’s located in the east Japan, and Kansai with 西 because it’s in the west.

Another example is that the northern island is called Hokkaido, and it’s written as 北海道. Now you can see why it has 北 kanji in it.

By the way, going back to the capital kanji (京), do you know whether there is any northern capital or southern capital in Japan? The answer is NO. But there are places with those Kanji in China! 北京 for “northern capital” is the Kanji for Beijing, and 南京 for “southern capital” is for Nanjin. For some reason, there is no 西京 – but there is a Chinise city called 西安.

These are some of the Kanji I recommend you to learn to make your daily life easier. Kanji are pictorial characters – once you know more characters, you will become much quicker reader because you can get the meaning right away by even looking at one character! There are many more to learn but it will help you to remember many of them by connecting them with daily life or stories of the Japanese history.

You might think that the topic of convenience stores in Japan (konbini, コンビニ) would not be that interesting to foreigners with some association with the country or its culture. After all, there are convenience stores all over the world, and some of the largest Japanese chains, such Seven-Eleven and Lawson, have their origins in America (albeit now Japanese-owned), although there are wholly Japanese alternatives such as Family Mart, Sunkus, and Ministop. However, after spending any length of time in the country, you may find yourself developing a growing dependence on their services and products, and these convenience stores have a number of differences from those you might be used to back home and offer a uniquely Japanese experience.

Service-oriented

It seems that you cannot walk more than 100 meters in any direction in a Japanese city without coming across a convenience store (although they strangely seem to disappear when you really need one). Statistics show that there is approximately one for every 3,000 people in the country, and given the population density of the larger Japanese cities, the 100-meter figure above may not be far from the truth. They are almost all open 24 hours a day and you can be guaranteed of good service upon a visit.

Besides the typical range of products of drinks, alcohol (no limits in terms of purchase times), and snacks, there are a wide range of Japanese-language publications including manga (まんが, 漫画) comics, which you can stand and read all day without a complaint from a shop assistant (tenin, てにん, 店員). There are also various meals that you can have heated in a microwave, and even items such as socks, shirts, or ties, just in case you do not have time to return home before starting work after an extended nomikai (drinking party; のみかい, 飲み会) or after working overtime (zangyou, ざんぎょう, 残業). There is also often an ATM machine, which is very useful given that those at banks (ginkou, ぎんこう, 銀行) and post offices (yuubinkyoku, ゆうびんきょく, 郵便局) generally close early in the evening. Other useful services include being able to pay your utility bills, being able to order concert tickets or pay for books that you previously ordered on Amazon.co.jp, and being able to send and receive parcels.

Useful phrases

You will be greeted with irrashaimase (welcome; いっらしゃいませ) upon entering a konbini, in the same way as in a bar, but will not be expected to respond to this. Upon buying a boxed meal, a staff member will ask you whether you want it to be heated in a microwave in order to eat it immediately: お弁当を温めますか (obentou wo atatamemasu ka), to which you can reply はい。お願いします (hai, onegai shimasu) or いいえ。結構です (iie, kekkou desu). Other possibilities include ２番目でお待ちのお客様、こちらのレジでお伺い致します (nibanme de omachi no okyakusama, kochira no reji o ukagai itashimasu; will the next customer come to this counter). Finally, in order to facilitate your consumption of whatever products you have purchased, you will be asked if you wish for chopsticks, a straw, or a spoon: おはし/ストロー/スプーンをご利用ですか (ohashi/sutoro/supoon o goryou desu ka).