Should Japan Abolish Kanji?

[ricecake]

To state that " kanji is basically a copy of Chinese " doesn't suggest the writer has a good grasp of how all languages develop over time.

Oracle bone - Wikipedia


This is the foundation of Kanji ( Chinese characters ),both past and present.

 

[dark_secrester]

No chance!
Kanji is chinese, whilst kana is based from kanji sumbols.
Example:
Kanji: 二 （に） two
Katakana: ニ （Read に）

Also, there are many kanji that have the same reading even though they have different meanings! It would become confusing beyond anything!

KEEP KANJI

 

[Skullcrushergurl]

Hm. Well. I think that--even though kanji can be veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hard-- kanji should stay around. It's important. That's their language. We don't change english for those who cannot speak it. That's the problem with us dang english speakers!!

 

[White Girl]

I voted "maybe." I can read all the daily use kanji and more, and I think it is MUCH easier to read something in kanji than without, but on the other hand, I think that this may simply be because I am USED to it. If I were used to say, reading everything in hiragana, then that might be easiest for me. They abolished kanji in Korea, and the people do not seem the worse off for it. It seems like there is a bit more freedom when the language is merely phonetic, but it loses some artistic quality.

I do think it might be best to further standardize kanji. As in, make each kanji have only two standard readings--the Chinese reading and the Japanese reading. If the Chinese reading was the same every time for compound words, there would be a lot less confusion. I say this because even though I can read kanji just fine now, occasionally I will come across a compound or rare letter I can't read. Then I ask my husband how it's read...and he never knows either. It is a bit silly to have people who are literate but still cannot read many things. Then again it does add a certain "elite" feeling the more you can read, but it's not that practical. There will ALWAYS be kanji/readings you do not know, even if they are few.

The う/お distinction is also rather useless in situations like...遠い（とおい） and お父さん（おとうさん）. The pronunciation is the same, but it uses different hiragana. Unifying this would make the language more streamlined. Ask a Japanese person if they can write 十日 in hiragana. Most will write とうか, which is wrong!

Also, I'm in favor of eliminating katakana. I do not really see the point except to show that something is "foreign," which to me is a really unnecessary distinction. There are situations when katakana is used for emphasis or sound, but it's not enough to justify having a whole 'nother syllabary for. Katakana used to be useful because it was used like hiragana today. Now it's not really useful, though. Eliminating katakana would streamline Japanese.

But those are just my B.S. opinions and I'm really fine with the current system. I just thought they would be interesting ideas. And truthfully, if they changed it now, I would be quite inconvenienced because I learned it the old way. But I do think it would be more practical. But there would be a lot of people angry about it and it would never happen anyway!

 

[scorpion da black]

kanji is fun and it represents japan
plus it is so fun to have some charecters to represent ur self with instead of words

 

[sigmentofb]

No way ever. Why should they change their system of language to suit the needs of foreigners?

 

[dark_secrester]

Hm. Well. I think that--even though kanji can be veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hard-- kanji should stay around. It's important. That's their language. We don't change english for those who cannot speak it. That's the problem with us dang english speakers!!

No, we english speakers don't change our language. We change all of our laws and customs instead.

 

[orochi]

Kanji is great. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

 

[deathtokanji]

Kanji makes me cry
The elegance and genius of written language is in how simply it can convey complex ideas. Kanji is an archaic, primitive, totally obsolete (am I being redundant here? ) writing system.
It requires memorizing unnecessarily complex and intricate character sets that have multiple meanings, depending on their combinations. Time consuming and difficult to write, they are there only to serve a 'literate' elite and change reading and writing from a gift to everyone to the tool and power source of an elite few.

God damn all kanji, the sooner they adopt an alphabet system such as the West uses, the better life will be for all.

 

[TwilightMoon777]

I think they should keep it around. It's what makes them different. A lot of other countries use the alphabet system, so it's good to have something different. Who cares if it is hard to learn? Everything is hard to learn when you are first starting off. Why get rid of it just to appease people who may be to lazy to put in the time to learn it?

 

[JimmySeal]

have multiple meanings, depending on their combinations.

Isn't this true of all writing systems?

Time consuming and difficult to write, they are there only to serve a 'literate' elite and change reading and writing from a gift to everyone to the tool and power source of an elite few.

Actually Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. I know some "literate elite" students, as you call them, who live in a shack across the street from me.

 

[deathtokanji]

Isn't this true of all writing systems?


Actually Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. I know some "literate elite" students, as you call them, who live in a shack across the street from me.

If all you say say is true then why did another poster comment about how their train station signs include the hiragana/katakana as subtext? I should think it's obvious that pictographic based character systems suffer from unnecessary complexity, obscuring meanings, requiring extra steps to learn and understand and memorize, etc. Language and writing should strive for clarity, as I described in my first post.

 

[tokapi]

Kanji is great.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Give me 5 ,bro

Good analogy

 

[JimmySeal]

If all you say say is true then why did another poster comment about how their train station signs include the hiragana/katakana as subtext? I should think it's obvious that pictographic based character systems suffer from unnecessary complexity, obscuring meanings, requiring extra steps to learn and understand and memorize, etc. Language and writing should strive for clarity, as I described in my first post.

The kanji used in place names are often not among the set needed to be "literate." They could just render the station names in kana alone, but for those that can read the places' names, they serve as a faster and more pleasant visual marker than the kana.

 

[deathtokanji]

The kanji used in place names are often not among the set needed to be "literate." They could just render the station names in kana alone, but for those that can read the places' names, they serve as a faster and more pleasant visual marker than the kana.

If an individual can't even know how to sound verbally an unfamiliar place name without a more efficient writing system as subtext, then that writing system fails fundamentally to perform as a writing system. The kanji system foils verbal communication because of that weakness.

 

[JimmySeal]

If an individual can't even know how to sound verbally an unfamiliar place name without a more efficient writing system as subtext, then that writing system fails fundamentally to perform as a writing system.

Woah woah, at what point did you establish that kana is more efficient? I'd say it's the other way around.

The kanji system foils verbal communication because of that weakness.

Japanese seem to be verbally communicating just fine.

 

[deathtokanji]

Woah woah, at what point did you establish that kana is more efficient? I'd say it's the other way around.


Japanese seem to be verbally communicating just fine.

If people have no idea how to pronounce something without a second character set, whatever it might be, then this shows that kanji fails as a writing system. I'm not saying that katakana is perfect; simply that kanji should be discarded.

 

[JimmySeal]

Your arguments only beg the question. Where is it written that a writing system's purpose is to be accessible to those that can't read it?

Many English words can't be read without a second writing system (IPA) or at least by twisting it into a convoluted phonetic guide. Does that mean the English alphabet fails as a writing system? The Japanese writing system is kanji+hiragana+katakana. None is required to stand on its own without the others. So a place name could be expressed solely in kana, but the kanji is provided for embellishment, not the other way around.

 

[tokapi]

There is always someone @ Japan-oriented forum calls for complete elimination of Kanji in Japanese script for the sake of simplicity,it's a complex writing system doesn't appeal to certain people.Of-course,those individuals don't understand many written documents would be illegible without Kanji and not able to tell the difference between one word from another when " ambiguity " arises.

 

[Mars Man]

To some degree I agree, deathtokanji san, with your observations, yet have to stop short of reaching the conclusions you seem to have reached.

One thing to keep in mind here regarding written symbols, is that with younger folks, say in the first half of elementary school, and for variation of visual aesthetics, hiragana is used in the main, in place of more difficult or advanced forms, or as sub-texts in support of those.

Verbal communication, of course, has very little relation to the written forms symbolizing it beyond just that, as brought out by JImmySeal.

 

[scorpion da black]

If people have no idea how to pronounce something without a second character set, whatever it might be, then this shows that kanji fails as a writing system. I'm not saying that katakana is perfect; simply that kanji should be discarded.

if you hate kanji so much then stick to your own language......would u like some one to tell u to adopt some other form for ur language???

the japanese are proud of their writing system and i think it is rude to tell them what to do.
they should choose wether to use kanji or not..........and maybe kanji is hard for u coz u r a slow memorizer...........kanji is easy for me for example....
i have memorized couple of hundreds and their combinations in less than 2 months

 

[kireikoori]

Oracle bone - Wikipedia
This is the foundation of Kanji ( Chinese characters ),both past and present.

Actually, this is even older than Oracle Bone Script. Probably where Oracle Bone Script originates from.

Anyway most cultures copy. The "Romaji" we use can be traced back to the writing system the Phoenician alphabet. Yet we're not Lebanese. And the Phoencian system orginates from Ugarit.

Anyway, I think it's neat how Japan uses several writing systems. Kanji, Kana(Hiragana & Katakana) and romaji.

 

[Chidoriashi]

Yeah, I second or third or 10th the notion that the people here who think Japanese would be better off without Kanji, probably cannot read much Kanji and have a very limited understanding of the Japanese language.

Japanese without kanji.. its just absurd. Yes its tough at first, but once you get enough of them down.. 800 or so maybe.. they start to become a very useful tool in increasing your vocabulary and reading comprehension. Its like suffixes and prefixes in English, such as in-crease, in-cline, de-crease, de-cline. etc... only its way better cuz there are way more of them you can put to use. You can just guess the meanings of new words simply by being able to associate their Kanjis with other words you already know. Its a great system and I think the people who are against it are the ones that cannot read Japanese. Which basically means, they dont know what they are talking about. And if you can read Japanese and are somehow against it.. well.. I'd love to hear your theory on why. A voice for the abolishment of Kanji coming from anyone other than those who can fully read Japanese should not be taken seriously.

 

[deathtokanji]

The simple fact that you need to memorize 800 or so kanji simply to become literate is proof in itself that the writing system should be discarded. As a person learning the language who is knowledgeable about 4 other European languages...I can say that I know enough about languages to know when one uses a primitive system. It is also capable of using the same features of word similiarities to hint at the probable meaning of a word. There's a reason why cultures adopted the phonecian based writing system. It is simple, elegant and much more powerful!

 

[pugtm]

oh thats an easy question to answer
NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo
It would take the fun outa life!!!