15/08/2023
Is it possible to ‘see’ kanji ON readings? The usual answer to this question is “No”.
But, if you sit down and start analysing kanji for a few hours (or weeks or months!), you might be surprised to find that there are indeed some visible patterns related to how a kanji looks and its ON (Chinese) reading.
Warning: These patterns may be hard to see if you tend toward the literal and away from lateral or creative thinking. Arty Japanese learners who like to make leaps of connection will probably find these patterns the most useful.
For example, if you look closely at these four kanji you will see a square shape. It could be that the kanji itself is a square shape, such as口. Or the square could be the overall shape between the outside lines, such as with 工 and 向 In the case of 高 the square is within the lines on the bottom half. And of course, the shape 向 - which contains a small square - can be found on the bottom half of 高 (apart from the little diagonal line at the top).
Here’s the headline: all of these kanji have the ON reading of KOU. Is this just chance or coincidence? Or is there in fact some method to the madness of kanji ON readings after all?!
Either way once I identified this pattern it really helped me memorize the ON readings of these four kanji characters. It also helped me to create associations between these kanji, which is an important step when learning a new language and especially when learning a complex script like kanji.
And don’t you think that the reading KOU fits the shape? It’s a hard, rigid sound to go with an angular, rigid shape.
Can you see it now?
What patterns have you noticed between kanji shape and reading?
You can read more about visual patterns in kanji ON readings in my book The Kanji Code.
https://thekanjicode.com/the-kanji-code-study-guide/
#漢字 #日本語 #日本語能力試験
#日本語勉強
