I just can't wrap my head around Kanji

[rendezvousjp]

So for example we have Kanji 工 (contruction), it means construction. Why is it the meaning important? Just to associate a name with the visual representation of character?

Then we have On’yomi readings, こう, く. Are these supposed to be words with meaning, or just standalone characters which fit in a broader context. If they are words, why is there no translation?

Finally we see the character as a part of a combination 人工 which means, artificial.

So when I see the character 工, am I reading it as construction, or as こう or く, or do I see if there is another kanji next to it making something even different. I just don’t know what is going on here.

[Belthazar]

I think you’re getting yourself too buried in the nitty-gritty of things, and missing the bigger picture.

Kanji are like English letters in that they’re building blocks used to construct words. Unlike English letters, however, they also have their own inherent meanings, and can have multiple readings. WaniKani teaches you these meanings and one of the readings first so that you have a building block to start with.

However, when it comes to words, vocabulary items, you need to stop looking at the building block and look at the whole word. In English, you wouldn’t look at “word” and go “oh, that’s a W, pronounced ‘wuh’, and then an O…” and so forth, you’d go "oh, that’s the word ‘word’ ".

In the same way, 人工 isn’t “oh, that’s 人, which means ‘person’ and you can read it as ひと or じん or にん, plus 工, which means ‘construction’ and you can read it as こう or く” - it’s a single word 人工 which means “artificial” and is read as じんこう.

The meanings of the individual kanji can help you to intuit the meanings of words you haven’t yet encountered - in this case, person-construction = manmade = artificial - but don’t lose yourself in the kanji.

[candus1]

Take a look at those two emojis. If you see each, what would you understand? could be construction or a machine that’s constructing or something else. is a man. If you see these 2 together, and someone sends you those, how would you understand those? Construction and man. So a man that works in construction.

This is how kanji works. Kanji are like emojis, and a combination of them give a specific meaning. Sometimes that combination makes sense. Sometimes it doesn’t. You have to memorise both the single emojis, and the combinations.

[MikkaFelipe]

In my opinion more than not it actually works pretty well if you can bend your point a view a bit.
To know the meaning of the Kanji often helps me to remember the vocabs as well.
人工 = artificial is kind of ok if you think of it like “human constructed” or constructed by a human.
My favorite example for Kanji meanings and the meaning of a composite vocab word is
火山 which means volcano.
火 means Fire and
山 means mountain. So together they are fire mountain which is a volcano.

[trunklayer]

With regards to deducing the meaning of words from kanji – it depends on the word.
On one side of the spectrum, there are words like 電気 or 本棚 where the meaning is practically the sum of the meanings of the kanji.
On the other side, there are words like 珈琲 or 弁当 where there seems to be no connection between the meanings of kanji and the meaning of the resulting word.
A lot of words are in-between. For example, 地獄。“Earth” + “Prison”. It might not be obvious that this means “Hell”, but you can figure that this is some kind of underground prison, which, in a way, is what Hell is…

I personally quite like trying to deduce the meaning of the word from meanings of its kanji and then to check how right or wrong I was

In any case, best of luck with your studies!

[Belthazar]

@trunklayer

On the other side, there are words like 珈琲 or 弁当 where there seems to be no connection between the meanings of kanji and the meaning of the resulting word.

For the former, there is no connection - the kanji were chosen for their reading, not their meaning.

For the latter, that one’s etymology! at work.

[DIO-Berry]

Welcome to the forums! I think others have answered your question pretty well. I have a question for you though, are you just studying kanji or are you learning Japanese through other resources as well?

[simias]

Technically it’s also true for the べん part of 弁当 since originally it was 便当 but the 便 kanji became associated with bowel movements so they ateji’d the 弁 to replace it.

[evandcs]

if you are questioning this, why are you actually learning Japanese then?

[Belthazar]

Aye, was gonna mention that, but I decided I’d made my point.

[Vanilla]

Questioning what?

[rendezvousjp]

Not exactly sure what you are trying to say?

[rendezvousjp]

Thank you! I’m studying vocabulary through anki and grammar through genki/bunpro. I’ve also done some pimsleur for pronunciation.

[ctmf]

You already do it and don’t know it.
8 - octo, eight

There’s nothing about the shape of the numeral 8 that suggests the concept of “eight”, but you just know because you learned it. (I guess you never see “octogon” written as 8gon though.)

[doublemc]

congratulations on your first post!

[MichaelCharles]

All great questions. Let’s go over them one by one.

So for example we have Kanji 工 (contruction), it means construction. Why is it the meaning important? Just to associate a name with the visual representation of character?

Yes, you’re learning the English word “construction” to have something to associate with the kanji. That’s why some of the meanings you’ll find for the kanji (and especially the radicals) are a little… modern sounding. They’re just stuff WaniKani made up to give your brain something to latch on to.

Kanji are generally thought to have “meanings” even in Japanese but I think this is more related to the fact that individual kanji are usually also words in and of themselves.

They will also have historical meanings, since the kanji themselves either are or are derived from Chinese characters.

In Japanese, in situations where a kanji isn’t a common word, Japanese people will refer to a compound word that the kanji is used in and say something like, 人工のこう.

Then we have On’yomi readings, こう, く. Are these supposed to be words with meaning, or just standalone characters which fit in a broader context. If they are words, why is there no translation?

The kun and on`yomi readings are just potential sounds that the kanji might make. You can read this if you really care about learning the difference, but I don’t think it actually matters that much.

The vast majority of kanji can just make different sounds depending on what word it is used in. There are rules for guessing which one it will likely be, but I honestly don’t recommend trying to learn them, especially not right now. Just learn individual vocabulary and words. So you’ll learn 人工 as じんこう, and you’ll learn 一人 as ひとり, and you’ll just know, “Oh, I guess this time 人 is pronounced り.”

I know that sounds ridiculous but it actually isn’t as confusing as it seems.

Trust me, just learn the individual vocabulary, and your brain will start to just feel it out.

Finally we see the character as a part of a combination 人工 which means, artificial.

So when I see the character 工, am I reading it as construction, or as こう or く, or do I see if there is another kanji next to it making something even different. I just don’t know what is going on here.

When all is said and done and you actually get to the point where you are using Japanese regularly, you will look at 人工 and think じんこう. And when you think about what it means you’ll either wordlessly think about the concept of something artificial, or maybe you’ll think something like 人間が手を加えて作り出すこと.

In the meantime, WaniKani is building some scaffolding in your brain to climb up on. You might not need to break down each kanji into English words in the end, but trust me, it is helpful in the short term. And in the end, when you learn to fly, you can leave the scaffolding behind.