• kanji learning:
• how to learn kanji - textfugu ๑
• how to learn kanji - fluentu ๑
• how to learn +2000 kanji in 97 days - nihongoshark ๑
• start with 1-2 strokes ๑
• kanji on wikipedia ๑
• learning japanese: when to use on-reading and kun-reading for kanji ๑
  • kanji for starters:
• 日, hi
• 月, tsuki
• 川, kawa
• 一, ichi
• 二, ni
• 三, san
• 四, yon
• 私, watashi ๑
  • if you're not familiar at all.

There are over 85,000 kanji. One must know at the very least 2,136 for living in Japan, reading plates, newspaper, gathering information of any kind. Like the korean hanja, they are obtained from the chinese alphabet, so they can be pretty complicated and contain many many strokes.

Now that you have read the articles above, let's jump on the migration from hiragana to kanji. Lets take these two kanji for instance: 一(ichi, one) and 人(hito, person). When written together, 一人, you would thought that they would be read as "ichihito", obviously right? Turns out that the correct spelling is "hitori". Unlike korean, is not just a bunch of signs that together create the union of boths sounds like, for instance, ㅎ(h) and ㅏ(a) equals 하(ha), but no. I`m afraid kanji is not that easy. Let us analyze.

• 一 (grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji) one, "one" radical
  • Goon: いち (ichi)
  • Kan’on: いつ (itsu)
  • Kun: ひと (hito), ひとつ (一つ, hitotsu)
  • Nanori: い (i), いっ (it), いる (iru), おさむ (osamu), かつ (katsu), かず (kazu), かづ (kazu), すすむ (susumu), てん (ten), はじめ (hajime), ひ (hi), ひとつ (hitotsu), まこと (makoto)
• 人 (grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji) person, human
  • Goon: にん (nin)
  • Kan’on: じん (jin)
  • Kun: ひと (hito), り (ri)
  • Nanori: じ (ji), と (to), ね (ne), ひこ (hiko), ふみ (fumi)

(so many useless information) Let's keep in mind that...

• They were acquired from chinese characters, but not all of them.
• Kanji are simplified, their pronounce is not identical.
• Kokuji are kanji created in Japan.
• Today there are three variants from chinese characters: China-Taiwan-Hong Kong, Korea-Singapore, Japanese (the so called Shinjitai).
• Unlike chinese, japanese uses kanji only on important elements of a phrase. Particles are written in hiragana.

Now into the kanji...there are 3 types:

• Pictographic: 火(fire), 日(day), 月(moon), 川(river), 雨(rain), 人(human), 木(tree), 鳥(bird), 馬(horse), 龍(dragon)
• Ideographic: 一(one), 二(two), 三(three), 四(four), 上(above), 下(below)
• Complex:
  • Formed by radicals that together create a new idea: 明 clarity - 日(sun) e 月(moon)
  • A radical provides the meaning, and the other the pronounce (mostly on-yomi, whatever it is): 聞 listen, ask - ear (耳) provides the meaning, and gate(門) the on-yomi pronounce "mon".

Kanji are formed by radicals: they give you a hint about the meaning of the word. Plus, there are kanji that are radicals themselves. And there are words formed by radicals that have other kanjis too.

(mar 21 2017)