TextFugu Kanji Radicals, Part 5
“When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Congratulations. In terms of radicals, you’re actually almost there. Although there are around 250 radicals, we’re actually going to cut that number down. After a certain point, radicals are so complicated that they’re just kanji in disguise. Instead of learning too many more radicals, after 5-strokes, you’ll just learn the “important” ones that show up in a lot of places. Otherwise, you’ll just learn these more complicated radicals by learning actual kanji (we’ll build kanji on top of each other just like we did with radicals). Stick with it, it’s all going to pay off. Really, at this point you’ve simplified 80% or more of kanji down from 6-12 separate steps (i.e. each stroke) down to 2-3 steps, each. By spending the time you spent learning these radicals up until now, you’ve made kanji up to 600% easier on yourself (compared to the regular kanji learning methods). Keep on going and it’ll only get better.
In this chapter, we’ll be going over 5-stroke kanji radicals. There aren’t too many more radicals after this, and then you’ll be able to start learning kanji at a pretty quick rate. That being said, let’s hit 5-stroke kanji radicals hard. They deserve it, I hear. Go through and try to learn as many of these radicals as you can just by reading through and following the directions. Read through it again tomorrow, and again the next day. You’ll remember more and more of them. Also, add the 05 tag to your Radicals Deck on Anki to practice there as well.
Mysterious
Looking at this radical, you’ll see the radical for Pile of my stuff and kettle lid. If you put a lid on my pile of stuff, it becomes hidden, and therefore mysterious.
Melon
This one you’ll most likely have to learn straight-up. It has the my radical in the center of a (curved) upside down box. “My overturned box has a melon inside of it.
10,000 Eggs
With this radical, you’ll see the 10,000 radical surrounding a speck. That speck in the center is the egg molecule, and there’s a slide ready to shoot it out once the egg is ready – thus, 10,000 eggs.
Sugary
With this, you have the sun radical with lines going out extra far both horizontally and vertically only on the top portion. The sun ate a mouthful of sugar, and it caused the sun’s hair to stand up on end because it was too sugary.
Life
This radical consists of the cow radical plus a base on the bottom. If you have cows, you are on solid ground, and you have a good life.
Double Moon
Do you remember the moon radical? This is pretty much just two of them stuck together, thus a double-moon.
Rice Field
Rice fields are made up of patties with irrigation going between them. See the four rice patties with the water going along their outer edges? The bottom right one smells a bit rotten, though.
Running Man
This one’s a bit tough to put together. You have a crooked up radical (with a slide on the back), plus a line on the top. To me it looks like someone running (and the radical also has a “running” meaning).
Shore Breaker
See the man on cliff radical? Now there’s water hitting the side of the cliff, making it a shore breaker.
Battle Tent
I’m sure you can see the tent. But look how spiky it is! Two spikes on each side to knock back the Chinese on one side, and the Mongolians on the other.
White
The sun has a little speck on the top, because you’re painting it white.
Covered Stool
This is a stool with a cover the size of a cliff on top of it. It’s so big, it requires a stick to reinforce the ceiling.
Plate
This is a plate with three tall columns of Jello on top. When you carry it, make sure you keep it flat, since the Jello Towers need to be perfectly straight and right next to each other.
Eye
Do you see the iris in the middle of the eyeball? Remember how in kanji there are no round things, so square things take their place. If you imagined these shapes as round instead of square, do you see the eye now? This one is self explanatory, it looks like an eye!
Heavenly Slide
Do you remember the heaven radical? This is the heaven radical, but with a slide. Looks like that’s how Satan got down from Heaven. “Whee” he says.
Stone
I bet you see the stone in the radical. It’s that round (i.e. that square) thing. On it is a “crooked uppercase T” shaped mushroom growing. The base of the mushroom is reaching out towards the ground (away from the stone) because the stone doesn’t give it much nourishment.
“Two” Small
The radicals for two and small are both present, making this the first “pun” radical. It’s “two” small.
My Box Home
Inside the upside down box is the my radical, making this My Box Home.
Two Branch Tree
Hopefully you remember the tree radical. There’s an extra stroke on the top, making it a two branch tree.
Cave
If you look at this radical you can see the entrance to a cave – therefor, it’s the cave radical.
Stand
Two sticks are set up on the ground to prop up a kettle lid. By setting it up this way, you’re able to make everything stand up.
Nelly’s Got A Knife
Do you remember the (ne)lly radical? This is the same, but now Nelly has a knife. Run!
Generation
If you look at this radical, you’ll see that the outer piece and the inner piece are the same, except the outer piece isn’t quite finished yet. Once that outer piece gets finished, we’ll have made it to another generation, and a new layer will start.
Giant
If you were looking at a giant from above, this is what you would see. Do you see the head and the two arms? The giant is facing towards the right.
Twenty Upside Down Boxes
See the twenty radical inside the upside down box? This makes this radical twenty upside down boxes.
Attentive Mother
This mother is more attentive than the other mother we looked at earlier. This one has a splash of compassion and a splash of love instead of a stick running through the middle. The stick mother is too rigid, this mother is more fluid.
Sideways Eye
This is just eye but sideways.
Fang
You’ll have to learn this one pretty straight-up. This radical actually means fang, and that’ll be helpful later on (though not super helpful for actually learning this radical).
After you’ve read through all of these, I imagine you’ll know about 50% of them, give or take a little (as long as you used the memory helpers). Download and import the Radicals 5 deck to your big Radicals deck, and then study and review until you’re ready to move on.
Don’t forget to keep reviewing in the future, too!