Different letter in languages

What is the difference between English and Japanese?

This may be the issue between Asian and American (or European) languages but I would say the difference could come from the origin of letters used by the languages.

From several kinds of Japanese letters, “Kanji” is very unique in its shape. It represents the image of subject and some of the parts called “Bush” also play a role of telling the meaning visually. So, when we see “Kanji”, it feels like seeing a painting.

On the other hand, I would say alphabet is very useful for understanding some scientific information. The objectivity of reading alphabet lead us to reach the general and natural conclusion.

I don’t want to say which one is better because it depends on the situation. However, why I mention this is that to learn the other language enables us to review our first language and understand the precious concept about why the language exists.

Anyway, from that reason, I would like to introduce the feature of language. When I learned English at first, I was so surprised it only has 26 letters from “A” to “X”. How about Japanese letters? When it comes to the “Kanji” letters, even Japanese like me don’t know how many letters actually exist. It is common sense that we always find some Japanese letter we don’t know how to write, pronounce or read even in daily newspaper.

In case of English, you may also find some difficult word while reading something but it is impossible to find difficult letter if you are adult. If you find it, I think you had better learn alphabet before reading.

But, for Japanese, it is acceptable to start reading before we learn all of “Kanji” letters. Then, why can we read newspaper?

The reason of this is the shape of letter give us some hint to understand the meaning. For example, “鰯”(sardine), “鰹”(bonito) and “鮪”(tuna) has the “Bush“ of “魚”(fish) in its shape. Most of us including me cannot write them correctly but can easily assume it is the species of fish.

So, if you are beginner of learning Japanese, please don’t worry about the variety of “Kanji”. Only the key letter like “魚” would work well for understanding the meaning.


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