Using the Kanji

Alex at Victory Manual wrote a nice post about how the Kanji are the layman's best friend. I couldn't agree more. I want to write a quick note about how the Kanji work and how they can actually be very useful to a language learner with a few observations from day 8 of my 6k challenge.

Kanji are ideographic or logographic depending on your school of thought. Either way the Kanji have intrinsic meaning and phonetic sounds. Depending on whether the word is Japanese or Chinese in origin the sound is usually different. This sounds confusing but once you get a little experience and build up some vocabulary it can be quite helpful. Here are two ways that I use the Kanji to remember words.

Meaning of the Kanji

All of the Kanji have meaning. Sometimes they have multiple or abstract meanings but anyway you look at them, they have meaning.

Vocabulary words that consist of multiple Kanji are usually borrowed from Chinese. Fortunately the compounds are usually quite logical. When you evaluate the meaning of the Kanji in a compound it usually tells a story (or you can make one up!). This story can be used to learn and remember vocabulary words.

Here are a few concrete examples from the 50 words I learned yesterday!

Word: 議題
Definition: topic of discussion, agenda
Compound: 議題 = debate/deliberation + topic/title

Pretty easy right? Debate plus topic simply means "topic of discussion". Not every word is this logical but thousands of them are. Here are a few more examples.

Word: 貧弱
Definition: poor, meager, insubstantial
Compound: 貧弱 = poor + weak

Word: 護衛
Definition: guard, convoy, escort
Compound: 護衛 = safeguard + self-defense

Mnemonic Devices

Sometimes the words can be supplemented with a mnemonic device or a story that helps you remember the meaning of the word. Here are a few of the stories I created yesterday that helped me remember.

Word: 負う - to bear, to owe
Compound: 負 sometimes means wooden box carried with supplies for a pilgrimage
Reading/Pronunciation: オウ (sounds like owe)
Mnemonic: I don't owe you anything.

This type of mnemonic is rare but it's really nice when it happens. It's called a false cognate. Sam Alexander / Glowing Face Man wrote about this recently. Basically it's when two words in different languages have similar sound and meaning. It's usually pure coincidence but it's really useful for a language learner.

Word: 護衛 - guard, convoy, escort
Compound: 護衛 = safeguard + self-defense
Reading: ゴエイ (sounds like go-aye)
Mnemonic: guards tell you to go away

Word: 貧弱 - poor, meager, insubstantial
Compound: 貧弱 = poor + weak
Reading: ヒンジャク (sounds like he-n-jack-u)
Mnemonic: he and jack are both poor

I like to use peoples names in my mnemonics whenever I can. Another example of name usage is the word meaning "exception/exclusion". 除外 is pronounced ジョガイ (sounds like joe-guy) and my mnemonic is "everyone is invited except for Joe and Guy because you guys suck." It might sound like a strange way to remember words but it works for me!

Do you use mnemonics to remember words? What are some examples?