Language Journal: March 9th 2020
草食動物はゆっくりとモグモグ食べます
I don't normally catch myself in the midst of a notable language learning moment. But, the text above from a recent Anki card provided just such a moment.
As I've been at this for over 3 years now, I've gotten well past the point where I think Kanji is some antiquated system that the Japanese should consider removing and reached the point where I see it for the value it adds.
This sentence is good an example. I have never seen the word 草食動物 before. Not even once. In the first 5 seconds I tossed around in my mind on places I had seen those 2 Kanji and how they had been pronounced in those cases and I quickly decided that the reading was most likely 「そうしょくどうぶつ」. And I was right. Furthermore, I assumed that it meant herbivore. Which is also right.
The fact that I can guess the correct reading and meaning of a totally foreign word is nothing short of astounding from the point of view of a native English speaker. But, the only reason this is possible is because of the Kanji. Had the word been written as 「そうしょくどうぶつ」rather than using the Kanji, I would have been less likely to have ascertained the meaning (though the reading would than have been a given at that point).
If I were to simplify the crap out of this, 草 typically means something like "grass, weeds or plants". 食 typically has to do with eating. 動物 is animal and a pretty common word. So, you basically have "plant eating animal". Which exposes yet another valuable element... even if I didn't have the word Herbivore in my English vocabulary, I could VERY likely STILL have figured out the meaning of this word.
Next is the reading. This is less of an exact science. But, 草 when used in words combined with other Kanji often has the そう reading, as in 草原 (そうげん: Plains, grasslands). And, 食 similarly often reads as しょく in Kanji compounds like 食欲 (しょくよく: appetite) or 食費 (しょくひ: Food expenses) or 食堂 (しょくどう: eating hall).
So, while my guess on the readings may not have been guaranteed, there was a solid foundation for my belief in how they would be read.
Yes. This all puts a LOT of emphasis on the learning of Kanji. But, the benefit, I think, is greater than the effort invested. So, it isn't surprising to see that the Japanese education system does exactly that. Spends TONS of time teaching students Kanji.
Am I making a big deal of nothing? Probably. But, I keep seeing new articles debating the value of Kanji. Most of them simply decide "people would never agree to killing it off" as the only reason or at leas the major one that it still exists. I've yet to see an article acknowledge the benefits.
Kanji contain more information density than an alphabet or syllabary alone do. And that provides benefits which are hard to quantify but which are clearly there.
Honestly, the existence of both Katakana and Hiragana is more questionable than the existence of Kanji. I think they both add value as well, but I could argue that having both adds less value than having Kanji.
For instance, with mimetic words, they follow repeated sound patterns not typically found in normal Japanese words, and it is typically obvious from context when they are being used.
And while it makes a great way to delineate loan words, that only works in writing. Japanese people end up needing to determine the word and its meaning in context just to get by anyway.
As such, it is really no surprise that Japanese people often don't even realize that certain words ARE loan words. And many loan words end up taking on their own Japanese meanings. サラリーマン (salary man) for example. Granted, I suspect the Japanese know that this near tongue twister of a word is 和製英語. But, the word isn't really English either, and its meaning is now deeply tied with Japanese culture. So writing it out with Katakana is a silly exercise in my opinion.
Which fundamentally leaves just 2 reasons I can think of; emphasis, and cleaner writing.
And, pretty much every other language is just fine without needing a separate script for emphasis. We can bold, or underline or throw in punctuation.
On the cleaner writing we finally arrive at some real world value. In English we have "printed" letters and "written" ones. We learn to "print" clean and legible characters in some scenarios and we can get a bit more fancy and personal with cursive "written" characters other times.
The Japanese do the same with Hiragana and Katakana to some extent, with the latter largely often used when filling in forms for official documents.
The biggest problem/reason though? It isn't really all that difficult to learn that many characters. Many non-native people pick up both Hiragana and Katakana over a single weekend. For us 26 character Roman alphabet users, the near double characters per syllabary seems like a huge hurdle. But, simply putting forth the time to learn them dispels that myth right quickly. And, for that minimal effort, you get another way to express yourself.
And Kanji is bigger, but not different in the sense that it isn't as big of a challenge as it is often made out to be. While I don't know of anyone learning the full 常用漢字 in a single weekend. I know of many who have done it in 3 months or less with reasonable proficiency at the end.
Language is evolutionary. The weak do not last long. There is a reason that Kanji has "survived" to this day. The assumption that the language would somehow be improved simply by removing it and without any sound reason or evidence is beyond foolish.
I don't normally catch myself in the midst of a notable language learning moment. But, the text above from a recent Anki card provided just such a moment.
As I've been at this for over 3 years now, I've gotten well past the point where I think Kanji is some antiquated system that the Japanese should consider removing and reached the point where I see it for the value it adds.
This sentence is good an example. I have never seen the word 草食動物 before. Not even once. In the first 5 seconds I tossed around in my mind on places I had seen those 2 Kanji and how they had been pronounced in those cases and I quickly decided that the reading was most likely 「そうしょくどうぶつ」. And I was right. Furthermore, I assumed that it meant herbivore. Which is also right.
The fact that I can guess the correct reading and meaning of a totally foreign word is nothing short of astounding from the point of view of a native English speaker. But, the only reason this is possible is because of the Kanji. Had the word been written as 「そうしょくどうぶつ」rather than using the Kanji, I would have been less likely to have ascertained the meaning (though the reading would than have been a given at that point).
If I were to simplify the crap out of this, 草 typically means something like "grass, weeds or plants". 食 typically has to do with eating. 動物 is animal and a pretty common word. So, you basically have "plant eating animal". Which exposes yet another valuable element... even if I didn't have the word Herbivore in my English vocabulary, I could VERY likely STILL have figured out the meaning of this word.
Next is the reading. This is less of an exact science. But, 草 when used in words combined with other Kanji often has the そう reading, as in 草原 (そうげん: Plains, grasslands). And, 食 similarly often reads as しょく in Kanji compounds like 食欲 (しょくよく: appetite) or 食費 (しょくひ: Food expenses) or 食堂 (しょくどう: eating hall).
So, while my guess on the readings may not have been guaranteed, there was a solid foundation for my belief in how they would be read.
Yes. This all puts a LOT of emphasis on the learning of Kanji. But, the benefit, I think, is greater than the effort invested. So, it isn't surprising to see that the Japanese education system does exactly that. Spends TONS of time teaching students Kanji.
Am I making a big deal of nothing? Probably. But, I keep seeing new articles debating the value of Kanji. Most of them simply decide "people would never agree to killing it off" as the only reason or at leas the major one that it still exists. I've yet to see an article acknowledge the benefits.
Kanji contain more information density than an alphabet or syllabary alone do. And that provides benefits which are hard to quantify but which are clearly there.
Honestly, the existence of both Katakana and Hiragana is more questionable than the existence of Kanji. I think they both add value as well, but I could argue that having both adds less value than having Kanji.
For instance, with mimetic words, they follow repeated sound patterns not typically found in normal Japanese words, and it is typically obvious from context when they are being used.
And while it makes a great way to delineate loan words, that only works in writing. Japanese people end up needing to determine the word and its meaning in context just to get by anyway.
As such, it is really no surprise that Japanese people often don't even realize that certain words ARE loan words. And many loan words end up taking on their own Japanese meanings. サラリーマン (salary man) for example. Granted, I suspect the Japanese know that this near tongue twister of a word is 和製英語. But, the word isn't really English either, and its meaning is now deeply tied with Japanese culture. So writing it out with Katakana is a silly exercise in my opinion.
Which fundamentally leaves just 2 reasons I can think of; emphasis, and cleaner writing.
And, pretty much every other language is just fine without needing a separate script for emphasis. We can bold, or underline or throw in punctuation.
On the cleaner writing we finally arrive at some real world value. In English we have "printed" letters and "written" ones. We learn to "print" clean and legible characters in some scenarios and we can get a bit more fancy and personal with cursive "written" characters other times.
The Japanese do the same with Hiragana and Katakana to some extent, with the latter largely often used when filling in forms for official documents.
The biggest problem/reason though? It isn't really all that difficult to learn that many characters. Many non-native people pick up both Hiragana and Katakana over a single weekend. For us 26 character Roman alphabet users, the near double characters per syllabary seems like a huge hurdle. But, simply putting forth the time to learn them dispels that myth right quickly. And, for that minimal effort, you get another way to express yourself.
And Kanji is bigger, but not different in the sense that it isn't as big of a challenge as it is often made out to be. While I don't know of anyone learning the full 常用漢字 in a single weekend. I know of many who have done it in 3 months or less with reasonable proficiency at the end.
Language is evolutionary. The weak do not last long. There is a reason that Kanji has "survived" to this day. The assumption that the language would somehow be improved simply by removing it and without any sound reason or evidence is beyond foolish.
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