Should Japan Abolish Kanji?

[Mikawa Ossan]

Amazon product ASIN 4569695183Above is a link to a book which adresses the abolition of Chinese characters in the Korean language. Although I have not read the book itself, I can glimpse a bit of what it says by reading the reviews.

Basically, the author of the book thinks it was a bad idea and that Chinese characters should be reinstated in Korean. Due to the nature of the language, it is quite difficult to make new words, and difficult concepts are difficult to discuss, apparently.

I think for similar reasons, abolishing kanji in Japanese would be a rather bad idea.

 

[Chidoriashi]

oﾂ ﾅ?ﾃ伉坂?倪?堙債 ﾅ?ﾂｭﾂ坂?倪?堋ｾ

What the hell is this?? Seriously, your trolling inflammatory comments get really old caster.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

What the hell is this?? Seriously, your trolling inflammatory comments get really old caster.

Ah, but without the kanji, you never would have known what he was talking about, and that was his point, not the specific words he used but rather the fact that were all homonyms.

 

[Chidoriashi]

True, but he could have used an example that was not potentially offense to Koreans. I mean、I am not exactly familiar with the word 姦国、 and I am sure it is a supposed to be a pun, but the kanji 姦 is used in such morally upstanding words as "adultery" and "rape".

 

[Govind]

I believe that a writing system *should* be based on phonetic principles to be easy to use. For example, if you see a word that you don't know, you would at least be able to read it out like you kind of can with the Roman alphabet. Kanji takes away that ability to "sound-it-out".

 

[turtle]

I believe that a writing system *should* be based on phonetic principles to be easy to use. For example, if you see a word that you don't know, you would at least be able to read it out like you kind of can with the Roman alphabet. Kanji takes away that ability to "sound-it-out".

Most Kanji can be sounded out, at least the onyomi (Chinese) pronunciations, even if you've never seen it before. You might be off a little, but generally you will have the vowel and consonant type correct. It's like English.

 

[Chidoriashi]

Most Kanji can be sounded out, at least the onyomi (Chinese) pronunciations, even if you've never seen it before. You might be off a little, but generally you will have the vowel and consonant type correct. It's like English.

I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Many times similar looking kanji will have the same pronunciation. For example 青、精、清＝せい (these can all be pronounced "sei")
But you either know it or you don't, there is no means of sounding something out.

 

[caster51]

Crippling Cracks Found in Ties on KTX Railway

By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

The Korea Rail Network Authority, which manages the KTX bullet train railway tracks, is under fire for having allegedly provided ``special favors'' to an unqualified subcontractor for its Gyeongbu High-speed Line construction.

About 330 concrete railway sleepers on the 96.9 kilometer-long railway line linking Daegu and Ulsan were found to be cracked last month, according to an investigation by a committee of the National Assembly.

The committee said the sleepers absorbed water from rainfall in the summer through faulty sleeper ties attaching the rails to them. The water then froze in the winter and expanded, cracking the ties.

The network authority chose Cheonwon RailOne, a subsidiary of German company RailOne that designed the railway. The sleeper ties the Cheonwon RailOne supplied were found to be substandard because they used sponges to absorb moisture instead of a special waterproof material to repel it.

The faulty ties are raising questions as to whether there were any under-the-table deals in the selection procedure.

A field inspection team also failed to detect the problem in the first place and magnified the problem, according to officials from the construction ministry and opposition party members.

The Gyeongbu High-speed Line, a 254.2 kilometer-long track linking Daegu and Busan, is due to open in December next year, but observers say all 153,000 sleeper ties used in the construction should be replaced, costing an extra 13 billion won ($10 million) and delaying the scheduled opening.

The network authority said there would not be a delay. ``We are sorry for the mishaps but we will put everything back on track by the first half of the year,'' a network spokesman said

＜レポーター＞
高速鉄道のレールを支えるコンクリート枕木が帯状にぱっくりと割れています。鉄道
施設公団は、京釜高速鉄道第２段階工事現場でこのような亀裂の発生した枕木は
全部で332個だと発表しました。しかし、大邱～慶州間の96.9km区間に設置された
枕木15万3千個全部が、こうした亀裂の危険を抱えていることが分かりました。全部、
防水材ではなく吸水材が入っている不良品だからです。

コンクリート枕木に亀裂を起こした締結装置の設計図を見ると、締結装置に入れる
充填材には防水発泡材が指定されています。

問題は、締結装置を作った業者が、図面に出ている防水(バンス)材を吸水材だと
解釈して枕木製造会社に製品を納品したことです。

＜インタビュー： 埋立栓納品会社関係者＞
「バンスという概念も曖昧で、水を遮断することもバンスだが水の量を減らすことも
バンスだから…」
（訳注：「防水」「放水」「防守」「防銹」「傍受」などはハングル表記では同じ「バンス」。）

＜レポーター＞
納品された枕木を監理監督する監理職員も、きちんと確認していませんでした。

＜インタビュー： 監理職員＞
「彼らが不適切な品を使うとは思いませんでした。」

＜レポーター＞
欠陥工事疑惑はもちろん、15万個の不良枕木が敷設に使用されるまでに一度の
問題提起も無いほど、工事監理監督がきちんと行われていなかったことになります

「防水」「放水」「防守」「防銹」「傍受」 in korean sound "バンス" Bansu?
these things are happen because Hangul is just phonetic symbol

according to a korean native..

It is said only 2% of the collected volume of 630,000 books in the Library of Seoul University is used. As 80% of a Korean words are the kanji origin, this causes enormous homonyms if those are written in the Hangul Alphabet.

Furthermore, the author fears deterioration of abstract or imaginative expression caused by lost of Kanji characters with full of cultural background and the trend of too colloquial and simplified phonogram expression using Hangul. This warning may be applicable to recent trend of Japanese, who adopt easy use of English or corresponding Katakana expression without mature consideration.

BTW
I found this

 

[neokai]

The biggest argument for Kanji to stay is that sentences are shortened and easier to read (no more wall of text).

The biggest argument against Kanji is that they are extremely difficult to read (since each kanji can have 2 or more different pronunciations and their structure gives no clues about their pronunciation).

Easiest solution is to introduce spacing and abolish kanji. Texts will be long, but readable. On the flip side, Japanese calligraphy will die off, since Japanese phonetics by themselves are just not as nice without kanji.

Personally, I think the present system is fine after the last major revision (the one where they removed the va, vo, vu letters I think).

 

[Dogen Z]

It would be foolish to abolish kanji (Chinese characters) now when China is rapidly gaining geopolitical and economic importance. I think those who don't know kanji and for some reason must learn it, should just hit the books and study hard. You can do it! Even children can do it.

 

[jackkrone]

I don't think Japanese language will be working if kanji is not used,many meanings will be confusing.

 

[bakaKanadajin]

As someone who studies Japanese and enjoys reading Japanese books, I can say with certainty that I'd be banging my head against the desk more and enjoying Japanese literature less if I didn't have kanji. I said it earlier I think and I'll say it again, kanji is necessary. Without it, Japanese would be near incomprehensible. Arguments for the abolition of kanji are moot, there's just no good argument for it.

 

[Shizuka142]

I don't learn japanese yet but I will very soon...and the most horrible thing about it is kanji...but I would never want to abolish it, I think it's interesting though difficult xD

 

[damas17]

Definitely not! If so then English should abolish Latin letters, and Arabic should abolish Arabic letters, and .... This is not how it works! A language and its writing system are a part of the culture which cannot be removed even if it were forced to! I agree that's a bit hard! but each language has a degree of difficulty in a part of it (Japanese: Kanji, Korean: Pronunciation, French: Grammar and conjugation, Arabic: dense vocabulary, English: formal speech...)
Just try Your best! and You'll get over it ganbatte kudasai!!

 

[AJBryant]

Well, to be fair, Turkey got rid of the Arabic alphabet, and Vietnam dumped kanji, ages ago. Of course, to represent the sounds they need in "romaji" they've introduced lots of confusing diacritics and other things...

 

[Kostmayer]

i hope they don't abolish it, its a beautiful form of writing.

I've just started to learn Japanese. 5 days in and I've learned a whopping 10 Hiragana

 

[Willem]

While it looks anoying, Kanji makes text alot shorter and show the meaning alot easier and more obvious then when you write it in kana.

Of course, its insanely hard to learn. But, when you master the basic kanji, you can see with one blink of a eye what's written down somewhere

 

[damas17]

Well, to be fair, Turkey got rid of the Arabic alphabet, and Vietnam dumped kanji, ages ago. Of course, to represent the sounds they need in "romaji" they've introduced lots of confusing diacritics and other things...

Turkish abolished Arabic alphabet and Korea & Vietnam abolished Kanji because they represent the Arabs/Japanese domination over these countries! I see no reason why Japan should abolish kanji! It's just that latin became the most famous and easiest alphabet. And as You see, Americans expect everyone to speak English, whereas Japanese people expect no one to speak their language! that's why a lot of countries tend to choose English as a second language to remove the borders between citizens and foreigners! even if no one of them are a native American! of course, when Turkish removed the Arabic alphabet they changed a lot of sounds in order to fit the latin alphabet! That's the problem that will face Japanese if they replaced kanji by latin especially if we consider that Japanese uses syllables and not letters!

 

[Lledargo]

No, Kanji makes japanese easier to read, also the hard work behind learning kanji gives you sense of fulfillment when you have achieved it.

 

[ryuurui]

This issue was raised up I think sometime before in Japan but it never got passed.
Do you think they should keep kanji? Kanji is makes it more difficult to learn Japanese, and hiragana and katagana could be used to write any word. Since Kanji is basically a copy of Chinese and hiragana and katagana are more Japanese unique, I don't see why kanji should be kept.
What do you think?

it is impossible. Japanese is language is based on homophones, thus words sounding identically. Often happens that Japanese "write" a kanji on their palm while talking to tell the other person which meanign they are referring to. If they remove kanji, communicating will be very difficult to impossible.

 

[Ather]

Abolishing kanji would make japanese a lot more difficult to learn & read, and it can't "just" be done. It would probably take more than 10 years to remove kanji if they decide to abolish kanji, which is a very long time, will take too much effort, and method for learning japanese will change continiously, making less and less people want to learn it. Kanji is not something to read only, it changes the whole context.. Abolishing it would only make japanese more complicated. As for turkey abolishing arabic, its not the same because arabic is an alphabet like latin, its composed of letters, but kanji is more about meanings.

 

[YukiAnne]

Kanji is beautiful and there is so much depth and cultural heritage. It's inextricable from Japanese culture, and it would rob the world of something breathtaking and gorgeous.

 

[ryuurui]

And what YukiAnne says is very true.

 

[jerryleouiche]

KANJI is practical

I began learning Japanese 9 months ago. It was no big deal learning Hiragana and Katakana, but Kanji is a tough cookie. However I don't think they should suppress Kanji, because it is practical. Too many homophone nouns and verbs. Same with Katakana.
Who tells you that Miruku is not a Tokyo area, if not the fact that it writes in Katakana.
Who knows kiru from kiru ? Kanji knows.

 

[thepie]

Aside from the cultural reasons, Japanese's Hiragana and Katakana lack visual cues, thus make it hard to skim over a sentence. Kanji provides effective visual cues and thus help people to read easier. You can read one article in Tae Kim's guide to Japanese to understand this "visual cues" thing better (I can't post link - just google it)

I actually learned Korean, and it's a phonetic language and the way a word is written is very easy to read quickly - this is due to the Korean writing system has visual cues. That's why Korea was able to abolish the use of Hanja (aka Kanji in Japanese, but Hanja is a bit more ancient) just from the 1990s and now the young generations know little of Hanja. So I don't think it's just simply the problem of many homophones in Japanese that makes Kanji necessary - Korean language is similar in many aspects (grammar, homophones etc) yet they have no problems communicating without using Kanji (or more precisely, Hanja).

Vietnam abolished Kanji because they represent the Arabs/Japanese domination over these countries!

=> as a Vietnamese, I can say that your statement is totally wrong. First, the use of Chinese writing in VN centuries ago was due to the invasion of China, not Japanese influence. Second, we abolished Chinese writing sytem simply because we have a more effective writing system developed in the 17th century based on the Latin alphabet. It's much easier to learn since it's based on phonetic and so the government decided to abolish the use of the old one, which was not understood by the majority of the population.