漢字とかな： Japanese Writing

I've recently begun private lessons in Chinese and Japanese. A large portion of both involves writing, and my homework requires a lot of memorization - an old technique I'd almost forgotten since the atrophy of my mind began with all the wasted free time at work. Now, I'd like to share some insights into the tedious work of achieving literacy in Chinese and Japanese. Don't worry if any of this gets confusing. Japanese students spend 6 years of primary school, 3 years of middle school and some of high school learning this stuff. I'm sure it's the same in Chinese speaking countries.

漢字： Chinese Characters (read "kanji")
The Japanese had no writing system until delegates from China introduced their ideographs about a millenium and a half ago. The characters taken from Chinese are not phonetic (ie. not an alphabet), but rather represent an idea. Some resemble images, some are abstract images of the ideas they convey, but most seem rather arbitrary. A few examples:
木：　tree
森：　forest (a gathering of trees)
女：　woman, 　子：　child, 　好：　good/like (woman and child)
魔法：　magic (how could you make a picture of magic?)
凸凹：　bumpy/jagged (no, not tetris - these are actual kanji)

So, anyway, the Japanese took on this system of writing which required a knowledge of several thousand characters for complete literacy. This was great for scholars who already spoke Chinese, but did little to help anyone who spoke only Japanese since the two languages are very different in grammar and pronunciation. Thus, the debate began regarding how to properly read the characters. Characters which originally had one reading in Chinese then took on a Chinese and Japanese reading in their new island home. Some characters even developed several readings.
examples:

南： south
original Chinese reading: nán
possible Japanese readings: nan (from Chinese), minami
(this kanji is pretty standard fare - 2 common readings)

not all kanji are so simple, however:
生： life
original Chinese reading: sheng
a few possible Japanese readings: sei, i, u, nama, sho, ki, ha, o
(a bit of an extreme case, granted, but not unusual)


Generally speaking, kanji use their Japanese reading when used by themselves, but when combined with other kanji they take on their Chinese reading (which often sounds little like the actual reading used in China today). Of course, there are exceptions (no need to waste time on that here).

Kana
From the kanji Japanese scholars went on to develop two more writing systems called Hiragana and Katakana. The Kana systems together form an alphabet-like syllabary (mix of syllables) of 46 characters each (92 total).

ひらがな： Hiragana (The characters read "hi-ra-ga-na")
Used for native Japanese words not written in Kanji or any time the Kanji cannot be recalled.
カタカナ： Katakana (ka-ta-ka-na)
Used for words taken from foreign languages (not Chinese) or to draw attention to a word

Here's an example of the same word in all 3 writing systems:
残忍： atrocious/inhumane (kanji "zan-nin")
ざんにん　(hiragana "za-n-ni-n")
ザンニン (katakana "za-n-ni-n")

All three systems are used simultaneously. Thus, a typical sentence looks something like this:
ブラピの映画を見ました。 I saw a Brad Pitt film
ブラピ： "bu-ra-pi" (katakana nickname for buraddo pitto - Brad Pitt)
の： "no" (hiragana)
映画： film (kanji)
を： "o" (hiragana)
見ました： 見： kanji for "to see" / ました： hiragana "ma-shi-ta"　

Note that the above sentence has no subject. Those usually aren't necessary. It could just as easily be translated as "You saw a Brad Pitt film", or "we saw...", or "he saw...", etc.


Chinese - Japanese
A person who is fluent in Japanese can read and understand a good deal of written Chinese and vice-versa. It's possible to understand the meaning of kanji without knowing their readings. Thus, even though Chinese and Japanese cannot speak each others' languages, they can make themselves understood through kanji - usually. The Chinese write only in kanji, and many of the kanji that they use are written in a different manner or are entirely different kanji from what the Japanese would use.

Even within Chinese speaking countries different kanji are used. After WWII, the communist government on mainland China decided to simplify the Chinese writing system in order to encourage literacy, but Taiwan and Hong Kong were not under communist control and did not follow along with the PRC. This is why you'll notice "Traditional Chinese" (Hong Kong & Taiwan) and "Simplified Chinese" (the mainland) whenever you see text translated in Chinese.

Here's an example of how Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese compare:
"Hello, teacher! Are you listening?"
TC: 老師好 ! 　　　　　 您聽不聽？
SC: 老师好！　　　　　 您听不听？
J: こんにちは先生！ 聞いてますか？


Finally, a word on "inspirational" kanji. Perhaps you've read in an email forward or heard from some public speaker something about dual meanings of Chinese characters. For example,
"in Chinese 'opportunity' and 'struggle' are the same word", or "the Chinese write 'challenge' and 'opportunity' with the same character", or, perhaps, "in Chinese 'Wisconsin cheese' and 'heavenly substance delivered to man on the wings of Pegasus' are the same character" or "the Chinese say 'California cheese' and 'tasteless imitation of real food' with the same word" or any number of similar things. Well, I can't confirm or deny any of this (pretty certain on the cheese ones though), but I did discover an inspirational kanji on my own while studying this week.

介： The Chinese character for "mediate" is also the character used for "shellfish"
紹介： introduce
魚介： fish & shellfish

Knowing that made my studies feel all the more worthwhile this week.