Kanji

Jncocontrol

先輩

25 Dec 2009

74

0

• 3 Jan 2010

• #1

Is Kanji absolutely necessary to learn to "know" Japanese. Cause from my understanding, Kanji is a Chinese, and i personally have no interest [yet] to learn Chinese lettering.

I apologies if this is in the wrong section.

 

ganma

後輩

27 Dec 2009

2

1

• 3 Jan 2010

• #2

If you want to be literate, then yes, it's necessary.

 

Jericho Desu

七転八起

23 Feb 2008

1,105

28

• 3 Jan 2010

• #3

The characters are borrowed from the Chinese but that doesn't mean your learning Chinese, your learning Japanese, just like how Germany/France etc uses the Latin alphabet like English. As for being absolutely necessary maybe not but you will have a much much rougher ride in my opinion.

 

nekojita

先輩

14 Jan 2009

1,660

444

• 4 Jan 2010

• #4

Some kanji were actually 和製 （made in Japan) - 働 of 働く is one of the most common ones, I think. Also 匂 of 匂い.

You don't need to know kanji to speak and listen, of course, and you could always make friends with these people: 公益社団法人 日本ローマ字会