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Hello! I’ve run into an issue, one where I find a learning Radicals a bit contradicting when it comes to associating that with Kanji. I’m not sure if I’m the only one who feels this way, but some of the Kanji look like the Radicals itself so it seems confusing at times. Not only are we supposed to learn the On and Kun per Kanji, the meaning and the looks, does anyone else find adding Radicals on top of all that makes it harder, not easier?
Did radicals make learning Kanji harder for you? What method did you find easier to pickup Kanji? Feels like I’ve hit a bump on the road, because I really want to get the foundation of how I approach Kanji down before I continue further. Thanks in advance for the help!
Radicals are really helpful once you start getting to kanji with higher strokes. Something like 愛[love] is actually pretty simple if you think of it in terms of radicals. Just keep at it :)
Thanks for the assurance, I will work hard on radicals!
Radicals are well worth it.
Yes they are. It helps take a seemingly random-looking symbol and turns it into manageable pieces that can at times be quite logical. A simple example that I like is 時。Think of a sun (日) shining down upon the earth (土) and there is a dial measuring (寸) the current time, your classic sundial. Thus, 日＋土＋寸＝時. Now granted, not all symbols are going to be quite so easy to take apart like that, but it does serve to illustrate the point that if you know how a symbol is constructed it becomes so much easier to remember.
Conversely, learning readings works better in the context of practical use and vocabulary. Just arbitrarily trying to remember On and Kun readings from the void, so to speak, will only lead you to confusion.
Personally, I just remember 時 as 日 plus 寺 (= temple), because time was once marked by the temple ringing a bell.
Radicals can also come in handy for a decent guess at readings too. Once you get the hang of it.
@Jason: Ah, that’s a good example. I was trying to think of one where all the radicals were proper kanji in their own right but my mind was blanking :P And on your second point (about readings), I totally agree :D
@Joel: But 日 is “sun”, not “bell”, or am I missing some vital connection here?
@thisiskyle: Yeah, that’s a good point.
The 日 radical also indicates time, or the passage thereof. For example, 間 or 暇 or 曜, et cetera.
And in many cases it doesn’t like in 曲、甲、昌（you see this in names)、厚、硬、堺（if you ever go to Osaka be sure to vist 堺市)、鏡、湯 etc.. I think way over 50% of kanji where this radical is used aren’t related to passing time at all;)
And in many cases it doesn’t like
Ok, this is like me saying “just remember, I before E except after C” and you piping up with “actually, there’s more exceptions to that rule than there are words which follow it” – which, while technically correct, is (a) missing the point, and (b) completely useless as a handy mnemonic. “Also” means “as well” not “always”. But hey, let’s humour you:
曲 – I suppose you could say there’s a 日 in there somewhere, I guess. I wouldn’t use that as a way of remembering how to write that, though. I’d probably memorise that as one chunk.
甲 – That’s more like 田 than 日, really.
昌 – That’s 日 being a sun.
厚 – It’s read as あつ. あつい = hot. The sun is hot. 日 is the sun.
硬 – Yeah, this is another one which, technically speaking, has a 日 in it, but again, I wouldn’t memorise it like that. 便 too.
堺 – That’s 田 again. Are you the sort of person who comments that the Chevvy Nova didn’t sell well in Mexico because “no va” means “doesn’t go”?
（if you ever go to Osaka be sure to vist 堺市) – I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m there.
鏡 – That’s 見 squished down a bit for size.
湯 – That’s 日 being a sun. A hot, hot, sun. Besides, who doesn’t like to pass time in a bath?
I think there are more cases where it doesn’t have anything to do with time or passing of time ;)
You mean, such as some of the more obvious ones like 音, 意, 暗, 闇, 億, 白, 指, 映, 書, 源, 宿, 婚 or 混, many of which appear to have nothing to do with even the sun, let alone the passage of time? But hey, I wouldn’t use a “日 indicates the passage of time” mnemonic to remember any of those – 音, for example, is just “stand on the sun”. If you’re going to try to trip me up, there’s a thousand better characters you can pick without resorting to non-Joyo kanji, or kanji made of 田 or 更…
Seems like you agree with the point I was trying to make, “sun” being used as a radical doesn’t necessarily mean the kanji has to do with time. I’ve never said anything about radicals not being a good way to give a hint at the kanji meaning, I have done RTK so I have a lot of experience with making mnemonics from radicals :P
The kanji were just the first that came to mind, it was like 3am when I posted it and this was apparently the best I could think of ^^ Seems like you found way better examples yourself though.“The 日 radical also indicates time” – that just makes for a confusing mnemonic then. If the three keywords in your sentence are “time”, “temple” and “bell”, and if 日 = “time” and 寺 = “temple”, does that not imply that 時 = “bell”? A better alternative would be to replace “bell” with “sun dial”, then everything fits together nicely :D (It’s not even a difficult kanji to remember, I’m just nit-picking here :P)
… But 時 doesn’t mean “bell”. It means “time” or “hour”. The bell is irrelevant to the mnemonic. And besides that, it’s not really a mnemonic, but more a historical and etymological fact. The mnemonic is just “time was once kept by the temple” and the bell is incidental to that. It could be marked by a cannon, or some guy standing on a tower shouting “it’s three o’clock and all’s well” for all the difference it makes. 時 is 日 + 寺 simply because time was once kept by the temple, and it was signaled by ringing a bell.
I don’t get why this is such a sticking point. Go make your own mnemonic if an etymological one isn’t working for you.
A lot of veterans in here ! How many of you are able to watch anime and play imported games? How long did it take you all to get there? Just curious!
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