LEARNING YOUR KANJI RADICALS
(9+ STROKES)
“Nobody realizes that some people expend a tremendous amount of energy merely to be normal.” - Albert Camus
I’m probably as happy as you – this is the last kanji radicals page. Whew. Although this will really speed up your kanji learning, it’s a big relief to get through them all. Make sure you get to know these last ones really well, and review all the previous ones. I can’t stress how important it is to get these down solid!
Not too many more to go!
Noise: Stand on top of the sun and make some nooooise!
Clam with leaf hat: This is a clam with a leaf hat on its head.
Wind: The bug is under a leaf, and an upside down box to protect itself from the wind.
Food: The good radical is under a roof. Good things under a roof are almost always food.
Neck: The monster’s neck was between it’s one big eye and it’s horns.
Goods: Do you see a pile of goods? It looks exactly like it’s meaning.
Horse: This radical consists of a fish tail, sideways set of twenty boxes, and a big front leg. Although this kind-of-sort-of looks like a horse, it’s best to learn this one fairly straight up, though you can put it together with three or four pieces to make it easier on yourself.
Tall: The kettle lid covered the “rocks and box” soup
Demon: The demon possessed rice field ran away with my hat (the hat is the little nubbin on the top).
Dragon: The dragon stood on top of the rice field, and it’s tail (the thing sticking out the bottom) was so long it stuck out of the rice patty.
Admirable: Learn this one straight up – it’s a bit of a doozie.
Fish: Radicals fish tail, rice field, and enclose are in this one. Trying to enclose the fish in the rice field’s irrigation proved difficult, because the fish was too big for the enclosure.
Bird: Once you know horse, this one is easier. At the top, we have the sun, because birds fly in the sky.
Hemp: We have a man on a cliff radical, standing on top of his underground and hidden forest (of trees). It’s hidden because he’s growing something a little more dangerous than hemp.
Standing On The Holy Hand Grenade: Do you know the Holy Hand Grenade from Monty Python King Arthur and the Holy Grail? Well, basically it’s a circle with a cross sticking out of it. The Holy Hand Grenade is in this box, and you are standing on top of it, waiting for it to explode!
Yellow: Under the double grave we have a walking rice field. I’d walk up to it, but I’m yellow with fear.
Black: In the rice field, there is a swimming gravestone (fish tail + grave). Imagine the swimming gravestone in the irrigation, and it’s black as night.
None: Once my plate of Jello sprouted a fish tail, and got stabbed through the middle and broken on the top, the customers wanted none of it.
Tooth: Stop your teeth from looking like rice by brushing them. Do you see the tooth shape with the rice inside of it? Rice teeth would be really ugly, and would probably mean a lot has rotted away.
Before You Move On:
- Study these radicals using the 9+ Strokes Radical list
- Go back and study the previous lists! It’s super important to get these down for the next kanji chapters.
- Take a quick break, you deserve it!