I see there are japanese characters that are exactly the same as chinese characters. Do they have the same meaning?

Also I've heard a few times in jdramas how they say 'telephone' (din wah) or the phrase 'so-so' (ma ma day), which sounds very similar in chinese. So who copies who?

From what I recall, Japan had no writing system until they adopted the Chinese characters, Kanji, then made modifications to fit the Japanese language... That would explain the similarity in some words, I think...

yeah.. some japanese kanji are from chinese words. some not.. (derived on their own).. some of these might mean the same.. but others not even close.. for example, [denwa] in japanese kanji means the same with [dian hua] in chinese and is wrote the same way.. however, [benkyo] writte in japanese kanji has the same two words in chinese, but in chinese these two words mean [forcing yourself(to do something..)].. a bit messy.. hope you understand...

You know, I know that they say chinese is very hard to learn b/c you have to know every "symbol". And to some extent, that is correct, it is difficult, I know because I went to school in hong kong. But in JPNese, you have to know all characters (kanji) AND in addition to hiragana and katakana, and know when to use which (at least kanji and hiragana).
Nowadays, a lot of younger JPNese people are just going mainly with the kana's, with just a sprinkle of the main kanji's. IMHO, JPNese is more difficult of the 2 to learn.

niko2x wrote:

IMHO, JPNese is more difficult of the 2 to learn.

Really?? I've always heard it was the other way around...

bmwracer wrote:

Really?? I've always heard it was the other way around...

well chinese does not have have past present future etc. tense all over the place while japanese has..

bmwracer wrote:

Really?? I've always heard it was the other way around...

Chinese is more difficult because of the entonation, specially in Cantonese.

Takez0 wrote:

Chinese is more difficult because of the entonation, specially in Cantonese.

I think that Japanese is a harder language to learn Chinese in regards to sentence structure. Chinese is a harder language to learn regarding the pronounciation and entonation like said above.

I don't know if this is true because I don't know Chinese. I heard that Chinese people have a easier time learning English than the Japanese do because the Chinese sentence structure is like the English language sentence structure. Whereas the Japanese sentence structure does not have the same as an English.
But I'm pretty sure because I had more than one source telling me so, one of who speaks Cantonese.

Hi. Can someone give me a clear explananation between kun and on readings of Japanese kaniji. I've been asking people for weeks now and I still don't get it. So far, I've just been memorizing the different compounds, but I know this method won't work for long, so please help. I know one is based on Chinese pronunciations and one is Japanese pronunciations, but how do you know which one to use and when?

Slackey wrote:

Hi. Can someone give me a clear explananation between kun and on readings of Japanese kaniji. I've been asking people for weeks now and I still don't get it. So far, I've just been memorizing the different compounds, but I know this method won't work for long, so please help. I know one is based on Chinese pronunciations and one is Japanese pronunciations, but how do you know which one to use and when?

Most of the time, the japanese pronunciations are used with hiragana (a kanji followed by hiragana). as for the chinese pronunciations, most of the time when there are multiple kanji together, then the chinese pronunciations will be used. (but there are some that don't fall into this range, like hitori- kanji used is: ichi and hito, but its read hitori, so for those weird combos you'll need to memorize them)
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Ok.Thanks! Are there other ways of telling if a kanji is a stand alone (japanese pronunciation) or a part of a compound (chinese pronunciation)?

Slackey wrote:

Ok.Thanks! Are there other ways of telling if a kanji is a stand alone (japanese pronunciation) or a part of a compound (chinese pronunciation)?

Simply if it's on it's own or in a word consisting of more than one kanji, for example (contrived sentence):

���Ŗk�̕��֍s���āA�C��n��Ɩk�C��������܂��B

has ON and KUN readings for the 3 kanji in Hokkaido, it also gives you a nice idea of the 'meaning' of Hokkaido.

are the chinese characters important on learning nihongo?
thx

jules wrote:

are the chinese characters important on learning nihongo? thx

Not at the beginning, I think, but eventually you'll have to learn kanji.

i agree you will have to learn them some time but by the time you et around to it you will bee comftbl with you japanese to take it on.

Here for you if you want to practice

http://www.kanjisite.com/

If you are new, Start from the Kanji -> JLPT -> Level 4 (it's the easiest one containing the common basic kanji)

Also note that even though the chinese character and the kanji may be written the same way, brush stroke and all, they may have a slightly different to totally diffrent pronunciation, some example:�@�iBTW the chn used here is in cantonese)

����
JPN - okinawa
CHN - choong sing

����
JPN - tomomi
CHN - chiu may

�L
JPN - neko
CHN - mah-o

�d�b
JPN - denwa
CHN - deenwa

����
JPN - kouen
CHN - gong yune

slight to totally different, wouldn't you say?
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lol,its kinda easy to learn since u have the chinese based.some of them r the same meaning.
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jules wrote:

are the chinese characters important on learning nihongo? thx

Well, it would be hard to be fluent in Japanese, and not know the kanji. You don't have to know them from the start, but once you get past the truly basic stuff, you'll need to start learning them.

John.

You will inevitably have to face them sooner or later.

It might be impossible to learn Japanese without learning Kanji in the process. Most Japanese language books from even beginner stage incorporate Kanji into sentences, slowly drifting away from romaji and excess use of hiragana. For example:

Beginner: tomodachi / �Ƃ�����
Beg/Int: �F����
�h����+: �F�B

I think the better you become at Japanese, the less likely you are going to want to write hiragana all the time. For me, although Kanji have many more strokes than hiragana, I prefer writing in Kanji. That and, I can read Japanese faster, or at least understand more easily through reading Kanji.

Nonetheless, good luck!