Something New

"All things must change to something new, to something strange."
-by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Whenever a new store opens,or a new product is being launched,
or a new service is being offered, the temptation of checking it out is strong that sometimes you find yourself waiting in line with the rest of the curious customers.

Maybe because something new gives us hope that new is better.
Maybe because we try to convince ourselves that something strange is extraordinary.
Maybe because something inconceivable to our own intellectual capacity is ingenious.

Let's study the Kanji character "shin" which means new.
Take a look at the strokes presented below:

新【しん】
	On yomi(Chinese reading)	shin
	Kun yomi(Japanese reading)	atara.shi ara.ta araa nii
	Meaning	new

Try writing this Kanji on a piece of paper. Like I mentioned on my previous post,
try writing it down 3(three) times. If you forget, try doing it again until you gain confidence that you could recognize the character when you see it.

That wasn't so hard huh? Let's move on to the next stage. Please take a look at the images below. Do they have something in common? If you look closely, this is where we could commonly see the Kanji character 新【shin】.

	新発売 【しんはつばい】 (n) new product or model
	新登場 【しんとうじょう】 (n) a new product joining a group of other products
	新快速 【しんかいそく】 (n) limited express (train, faster than an express); 快速directly translates to high speed or express so the direct translation would have been "new high speed" or "new express."

The more you experience the word, the longer it remains in your memory. The next time you eat at a fast food chain try to glance at one of the posters if it contains 新発売, or while waiting for the train to arrive try to look at the time tables and see if you can spot 新快速. Don't worry if you can't recognize some of the Kanji besides "新". We will encounter them again some other time, perhaps in my future articles.

Now wait, it doesn't end here. I have prepared a little gift for you, it is called a memory map of the Kanji characters covered in this article. Stare at the image and when you close your eyes, try to reconstruct the image in your head. You may print it and take peek from time to time.



Whew! That's it! Learning Kanji isn't that hard, we just need a "new" approach that works.

First Step

Welcome! When in Japan, learning Kanji is a necessity although most common signs and billboards have English translation, it would be nice if we could recognize each Kanji character and associate it with other compound words so that we could have a clearer picture of what it means.

We have a common goal and that is to recognize, understand, and retain as much Kanji so that we could communicate more effectively here in Japan. I know that at first it would be difficult in adjusting to this new way of writing system but if we do our homework diligently, our progress could be astonishing.

As we embark on this journey together, I will share with you my study methods.
It is not a strict discipline that you should follow but rather a guideline or a technique that you could incorporate or improvise to whatever method that works for you.

"A picture is worth a thousand words."
-by Napoleon Bonaparte

Well if you're in Japan and when basic nihongo speaking skills is not enough,
we resort to what our ancestors have done in the past - drawing illustrations.
Inject a few "kore(this)" or "sore(that)" in between and you will instantly hear a "Naruhodo(indeed)" reply from a Japanese. Well, the reply depends on how good you draw and if "kore" and "sore" falls in the right places.

I did a few research on various writing systems and I found out that Kanji, which originated from Chinese characters, is a Logographic type of writing system. A logogram or a logograph is a single representation of a fundamental unit of a written language. A single fundamental character has its own meaning or when combined with other characters could have a new meaning.

Before we dig deeper into our course in learning Kanji, lets start with the first type of the Chinese character classification which are pictograms or the pictorial representation on the smallest unit of the written language. Pictures are more interesting isn't it? I have seen books on how to study Kanji and I prefer those with lots of pictures in it. It's like reading a comic book. So it's that easy? No it's not. It takes a lot of creative mind power, realization of the word, and cultural immersion.

Each article focuses on a single or a couple of Kanji, take your time as you go through them, don't put too much pressure on yourself that you have to study N numbers of Kanji per day. The important thing is, for each Kanji that you encounter, retain and never forget. Make it count!

I was privileged enough that I joined a Chinese school in my early education but since I'm not Chinese and we don't practice Chinese at home, I have forgotten most of the Chinese characters. I can still remember how we studied Chinese during my school days. My classmates and I used to race to finish the repetitive calligraphy exercises. We write on a sheet of paper similar to a graphing paper but with larger boxes enough to fit a single Kanji character which runs from top to bottom. Our "Sian-si or Lao-sher" would then demonstrate the strokes for us to follow but a race is a race so we didn't care hahaha. It is important however to know the strokes, I would suggest taking a calligraphy lesson because it helps a lot in recognizing each characters.

Repetitive writing works! Repetition in martial arts is the key to perfect and instinctive execution. Our teacher once told us to at least write 3 times. First: to familiarize with the character; Second: to internalize the meaning; Third: to review

I guess that some of the visitors of this website are looking for ways to learn as much Kanji in preparation for the JLPT(Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Others might just want to learn much of the language itself. In any case, you are welcome and feel free to look around and digest the articles presented here at your own pace.

Congratulations! You have started taking your first step. But of course it doesn't end here because we'll start learning Kanji on my next article.