断 - severance - division

Word:

• 判断　hanDAN
• English: judge
• Spanish: juzgar

Sentence:

• 本を表紙で判断するな
• hon wo hyōshi de handan suru na
• Don't judge a book by its cover
• No juzges un libro por la portada

Mnemonics:

• The right part is an axe 斤 and the left part contains rice 米. Imagine that there is a fight between two neighbors because they both say they own a certain rice field. The judge comes and uses an axe to divide the rice field in two parts!!

替 - exchange - intercambio

Word:

• 着替える　kiGAERU
• English: changing clothes
• Spanish: cambiarse de ropa

Sentence:

• 私は服を着替えるために家へ帰った
• watashi ha fuku wo kigaeru tame ni uchi e kaetta
• I went home in order to change my clothes.
• Volvi a casa para cambiarme de ropa

Mnemonics:

• The upper part are two husband 夫 and the lower part means day 日. Imagine two couples going spend the day on the beach. When they arrive, the two husbands realized that they forgot the swim clothes to change, so they have to be in the beach in underwear!!

袋 - sack - saco

Word:

• 手袋　teBUKURO
• English: gloves
• Spanish: guantes

Sentence:

• 彼女は車の中に手袋を置き忘れた
• kanojo ha kuruma no naka ni tebukuro wo okiwasureta
• She left her GLOVES in the car
• Se le olvidaron los GUANTES dentro del coche

Mnemonics:

• Upper part means to change 代 and lower part means clothes 衣. Most Kanji that contain the clothes part 衣, refer to some kind of clothes. Imagine a person that has a collection of gloves with thousands of colors. Every day he changes color of his gloves!!

種 - species - especie

Word:

• 種類　SHUrui
• English: type, kind
• Spanish: tipo

Sentence:

• 彼女はお姉さんが着るのと同じ種類の服を着る
• kanojo ha oneesan ga kiru no to onaji shurui no fuku wo kiru
• She wears the same TYPE of clothes as her elder sister
• Se pone el mismo TIPO de ropa que su hermana mayor

Mnemonics:

• Left part is a rice plant 禾 and right part is heavy 重い omoi. So imagine a person carrying a lot of different TYPES of rice plants, they are so heavy!

What Kanjis I want to study

There are three main Kanji lists:

• The Jōyō Kanji
• JLPT Kanji
• Most frequently used kanji in newspapers

The Kanjis in each list are more or less the same but they are classified in different ways. In this blog, I will make a mix of the lists according to my own experience. That is, if I think a Kanji is worth the effort to memorize it I will include it, and vice versa. Each post will include one Kanji, the general meaning, an example word, a sentence and a way to memorize it. The Kanji will be tagged according to the classification of the previous three lists. I will also make posts containing reviews and small tests.

Some links to Kanji related websites:

• Tangorin
• JPLT2 Kanji dictionary
• The Kanji site
• Reviewing the Kanji

Preface

In the last years, the study of the Japanese language has gained a strong interest among many people from different countries, mainly thanks to the success of Manga and Anime. One of the most important barriers to learn Japanese is its writing system, based on the use of around 2000~3000 Chinese symbols, the Kanji. There are lots of resources (e.g., books, websites, applications, etc) to learn the Kanji. However most of the current learning approaches are based on endless Kanji lists which are not suited for people who are impacient or do not have enough time to learn all the details about the Kanji. In this blog, I try to develop a practical approach to study the Kanji based on several restrictions and ways of grouping them:

• Only study Kanji that appear in common words
• Learn pronunciation and meaning through an example word and sentence
• Extract similarities among Kanjis or mnemonics to learn faster

This is not a systematic approach to study the Kanji but rather a diary of my own study.