少

Few

Meaning: Few

You have a small slide. The thing about small slides is that they can only fit a few people at a time.

Imagine a small slide (how could you not, after you see the radicals?) with only a few people on it, trying to move forward. Only a few people are required to create a slide traffic jam, though :(

Reading: しょう

Why is there a little traffic jam on the slide? Because someone is putting on a show right in front of it, causing everyone to stop and watch, even though there are people behind them. How inconsiderate.

Come up with a ridiculous show in your mind. It’ll help you to remember that there’s a show there. Perhaps it is the “greatest show on earth” (the circus?) that’s there causing the little slide jam.

Vocabulary

Learn the meanings and the readings (if you can, it’ll help you out later) of the vocab, then move on to the next kanji!

a 少し（すこし）＝　a little bit, small quantity

• Meaning: Means pretty much the same thing as the kanji.
• Reading: The reading is the kun’yomi reading (you can tell because there’s hiragana sticking out of it). Have you heard the English word “skosh” before? It also means the same thing, because I’m pretty sure it came from the Japanese word すこし (this word). So, if you know that word, you know this reading.

a 少ない（すくない）＝　a few, a little

• Meaning: Also pretty much the same thing as the kanji.
• Reading: Another kun’yomi reading. This one is a bit harder than 少し, so you’ll have to try to memorize it straight up.

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