I am a student learning Japanese language. I have seen many students not learning Kanji while learning Japanese due to its complexity. But
to me, the vocabulary I learn in Japanese, I rigorously practice the Kanji for it. I also think that the Japanese language is incomplete without Kanji because if its vast uses in everyday life and books. If there is a passage only consisting of Hiragana, my mind collapses. If there is Kanji, we are able to identify the particular word. I think Kanji is important and necessary, what do you think?
6 comments
> I think Kanji is important and necessary, what do you think?
I mean, yeah, that’s a given, since it’s part of the written language.
What people often don’t realise too is that, once you get beyond the beginner phase, kanji makes it *much* easier to read since your brain immediately recognises the meaning of the words from the kanji rather than having to parse the hiragana character by character, which is a really unnatural way for your brain to process words. I tried recently to read a book intended for children that was far below my current level, expecting it to be an easy read. It was actually really difficult to read because of the heavy use of hiragana instead of kanji. So yes, learn kanji words from the beginning and it’ll make your life so much easier as you progress in the language. Don’t put off kanji like many people do and then regret it later.
okay… but, everyone can start learning how they want and no one needs to stress out about it.
At some point kanji are inevitable in normal life and learning. The brain even uses them as quick pointers in a text. Yes, important. (technically, not necessary because with effort it would be possible to understand an all hiragana sentence, while an all kanji sentence would likely only work in context or by utilizing Chinese patterns) I would say greatly beneficial.
… Hiragana is inevitable, though, so you should take your own advice and not neglect the other skill! Grammatical information is often conveyed with hiragana (I mean adjective and verb inflexion). E.g. かまいません。申し訳ございませんが、良かったです。on the top of my head, very little Kanji, practical phrases. and while I was typing this and debated myself on the use of 良, it is also very typically ありがとうございます。NOT 有難う御座います。The latter is not appropriate in business use [quick google](https://junforlife.com/arigatougozaimasu-kanji/)
In my personal opinion, just like reading latin-based words, hiragana-patterns need to be trained to then be perceived as words or phrases rather than indiviudal hiragana, which is an essential to a good reading skill.
Find balance, young padawan.
Kanji is most definitely needed beyond the early-mid beginner phase. And practice writing them – for me that solidly put them into my long-term memory! How you learn Kanji is up to you and what type of learner you are. There are many resources out there – make the most of them!
Japanese can be a little difficult at first. But in my opinion, it is one of the most logical and intuitive languages once you understand the mechanics behind the rules.
Kanji makes kana easier to read.
Wow. How come nobody ever thought of this?