What can I help for you to learn Kanji as a Chinese

As for the title, I am Chinese and new here. I am also just a new learner of the Japanese language, and I want to improve my Japanese (and English).
I know a lot of Chinese characters, even if they are subtly different from Japanese kanji. But I think I can help with something. And I want to be friends with you all.

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Welcome in, Kevin! I’m also a new Japanese learner and having a firm foundation in Chinese has helped me a ton! It’s actually a lot of fun to learn the on’yomi readings of the kanji because you can usually find some sort of similarity with the pronunciation of the hanzi. Sometimes the vocab ends up being basically a freebie, eg: 注意 = zhùyì /ちゅうい.

Sometimes false friends trip me up though haha. Today I found out that 愛人 doesn’t mean lover/spouse in Japanese, but lover/mistress. Could see that leading to some awkward situations.

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I wasn’t very good with Chinese when I started Japanese, but is now studying Chinese via Japanese YouTube.

That’s the thing to be careful about. So, learn common words from meaning-to-sound, rather than Kanji compositions. And more important than that, learn grammar to expose to Japanese sentence patterns and vocabulary choices.

Kanji can be learned as you go if you are good at radicals (parts), but going from – vocab => Kanji in the vocab => various readings of the Kanji => vocabularies associated with each reading.

Sometimes, even with Chinese, I find ignoring individual ideograms at first => general look of the vocab => meaning => reading => affirmation of the reading by individual ideograms. Japanese is more strongly that, looks => meaning => reading, is more important that characters in most common cases.

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Thank you and welcome to WaniKani and this community!
We have a very nyaaaaaaaaaaaice commeownity and I really hope you’d like it here! love2

P. S. You said you want to improve your English as well, so, if you don’t mind my correction recommendation, I’d phrase the title as “What can I, as a native Chinese speaker, do for you to help you learn kanji?”
Then again, I’m not a native English speaker myself, so my recommendations have to be taken with a grain of salt… :sweat_smile:

Anyway, best of luck with your studies and thank you again! wricat

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You are right. Like 注意, its pronunciation in Japanese is very similar to Chinese, so I can remember it when I learn it for the first time. Some words like 娘 and 切手/切符, have totally different meanings and pronunciations between Japanese and Chinese.
But I think this is a very interesting part when learning Japanese. :cowboy_hat_face:

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Thank you for your correction! But I’m wondering whether there is a shorter one for the title here :full_moon_with_face:

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You studied very carefully. If I can express myself in English fluently, then I hope to talk with you for more details in language learning. Sorry for my poorly English :durtle_yellow_rodent:

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welcome!

you know, i watched this video that said you should learn japanese, chinese, and korean at the same time–it’s even more efficient. i don’t know why i’m bringing that up right now. feels relevant.

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My favourite is 手紙 :slight_smile:

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I had to look up the Chinese, but worth it.

Hello, Kevin. As an old friend of many Chinese people back in the day when I was still in south Africa (I grew up there), it’d be my pleasure to be a friend of yours. I’m also a very passionate Japanese learner and Kanji is my challenge now.

English is my mother language, so if you are seeking to improve your English skills, I can gladly help.

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I’ve seen that video. I’m leery of starting too many new languages at once and being spread thin, but I did dabble a little in Mandarin on Duolingo briefly and immediately noticed tons of words I already knew from Japanese. I could see the languages complimenting, maybe accelerating each other. I’m not sure what relation Korean would have to them though other than supposedly having similar grammar to one of the other two.
I think younger people with more free time on their hands can get away with trying to learn three or more languages at once, certainly a few people out there claim to. Us older folks are pressed for time and energy to focus so we end up needing to make wiser choices but I’m planning on taking on Chinese regularly alongside Japanese after I reach a certain level in the latter and just seeing how it goes. Maybe I’ll report back on that in a year or two.

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Come to think of it, both Japanese and Chinese interpretation make sense… Also, I guess, if you don’t have any other paper – you could write a letter on toilet paper… And vice versa, if you’re out of toilet paper, you could substitute it with a letter from someone you don’t particularily like… :sweat_smile:

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“hey bro ima send you a 手紙”

“how nice, it’s been war in the bathroom these past few days!”