I’m 5 years into my studies and I’m still surprised how specific but also short japanese words can be and it’s obviously all thanks to kanji. Add 2 kanji together and boom, you got a new word with a very specific meaning. Just look at this:(Really big example list I had fun writing you can skip lol):
>寄港 – きこう, stopping at a port.
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>攻城 – こうじょう, raiding a castle.
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>鉄扇 – てっせん, iron fan.
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>防災 – ぼうさい, prevention of natural disasters.
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>殺虫 – さっちゅう, killing insects.
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>玉音 – ぎょくおん, voice of an emperor.
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>胃癌 – いがん, stomach cancer.
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>亡父 – ぼうふ, dead father.
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>試射 – ししゃ, test firing a gun.
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>濃霧 – のうむ, thick fog.
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>車内 – しゃない, inside a car.
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>入市 – にゅうし, entering a city.
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>空軍 – くうぐん, military air forces.
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>軍医 – ぐんい, military medic.
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>精兵 – せいへい, elite soldiers.
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>対潜 – たいせん, anti-submarine.
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>官邸 – かんてい, residence of a government official.
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>義肢 – ぎし, artificial limb.
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>名峰 – めいほう, famous mountain.
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>和議 – わぎ, peace negotiations.
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>老樹 – ろうじゅ, old tree.
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>多頭 – たとう, with a lot of heads.
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>凍死 – とうし, dying of cold.
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>戦果 – せんか, war achievements.
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>腐臭 – ふしゅう, smell of something rotten.
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>静音 – せいおん, low sound.
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>汚水 – おすい, dirty water.
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>清酒 – せいしゅ, refined sake.
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>改宗 – かいしゅう, converting to another religion.
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>聖槍 – せいそう, holy spear.
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>機首 – きしゅ, nose of a plane.
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>誤爆 – ごばく, bombing the wrong target.
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>洗顔 – せんがん – washing one’s face.
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>邪眼 – じゃがん, menacing eyes.
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>豪腕 – ごうわん, strong arm.
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>鼻下 – びか, part below the nose.
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>噴煙 – ふんえん, smoke from a volcano eruption.
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>鮮魚 – せんぎょ, fresh fish.
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>難聴 – なんちょう, difficulty in hearing.
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>夜盗 – やとう, night burglar.
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>降嫁 – こうか, a princess marrying someone of lower status.
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>騎馬 – きば, riding a horse.
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>愛馬 – あいば, one’s beloved horse.
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>樹齢 – じゅれい, age of a tree.
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>遠泳 – えんえい, long distance swimming.
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>渡欧 – とおう, going to Europe.
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>遷都 – せんと, moving the capital to another city.
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>怪光 – かいこう, ominous light.
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>円陣 – えんじん, troops positioned in a circular battle formation.
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>蝗害 – こうがい, damage to crops produced by grasshoppers (actually pretty common in news during summer lol).
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>I think I got my point across. And these are just some words that came to mind while writing them, the list can go on and on… There’s some funny cases like 雪 too where there’s so many variants used in news or official situations in winter like 新雪(しんせつ), 降雪(こうせつ), 積雪(せきせつ), 除雪(じょせつ) for all sorts of things that have something to do with snow (fresh snow, snow falling, removing snow, snow piling up etc. lol). Or stuff like
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>猛, 猛火 – もうか, fierce flames.
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>猛追 – もうつい, chasing fiercely.
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>猛牛, 猛犬, 猛虎 – もうぎゅう, もうけん, もうこ – raging bull, dog and tiger.
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>There’s also a lot of stuff going on with cardinal directions, stuff like
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>北洋 – ほくよう, northern seas,
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>西行 – せいこう, going west,
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>南下 – なんか, going south,
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>左岸 – さがん, left river bank,
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>西風 – せいふう, western wind,
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>南緯 – なんい, southern latitude,
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>洋弓 – ようきゅう, western archery etc.
You get the point. Anyway, that’s a very cool feature but the thing is, while reading a book or the news these words aren’t really a problem but when it comes to listening comprehension (which is one of the last things I’m training by now) they can really be a pain in the butt. While having a lot of specific words and synonyms, japanese also has a very small and limited set of sounds, so LOTS of words overlap… Take for example 寄港, there’s like 20 words that sound like it, 機構, 気候, 気功, 寄稿, 奇行, 紀行, 貴校 etc. that are all also fairly common (and sometimes also have specific meanings too, 寄稿 means contributing to a magazine for example).
At the end of the day it all comes down to experience and context (although I’ve seen natives get confused on some words like this while listening too lol) and some of these words are often not that hard too discern but for a non-native this stuff can be hard sometimes man… I can’t imagine myself quickly hearing something like 主砲 in some news and going “ah yes, shuhou, main cannon, obviously!”
Yeah this was just a post about how I’m struggling to perfect my listening as an advanced learner lol. Last hurdle!
by OldPatience9605