JLPT N5 - Lesson 7 - Kanji Part 1

Kanji introduction

Kanji or the other name 'Chinese character' came to Japan around 4th or 5th century along with Chinese culture. It is believed, that time Japanese writing system was not developed and to represent Japanese spoken language, Chinese characters or Kanji was adopted. Over the period, many Chinese characters developed a Chinese reading and a Japanese reading. The Chinese reading is called Onyomi and the Japanese reading is called Kunyomi. One kanji can have multiple Chinese reading (Onyomi) and can have multiple Japanese reading (Kunyomi). Means a single Kanji can have multiple sound and multiple meanings. Now approximately more than 2000 kanjis are commonly used in Japan. For JLPT a student may need to prepare for about 2000 Kanji.

As of 2010, the JLPT authority are no longer publishing any official vocabulary list. To prepare for N5 a learner may need to know about 80 to 100 Kanji which are frequently used in the beginners courses on Japanese Language.

For N5 level preparation, we will learn here about 100 Kanji characters. In this lesson I am introducing here 10 kanjis. By learning these 10 kanjis you will learn first 10 numbers as well.

Kanji
Onyomi
Kunyomi
Meaning
一
いち
ichi
ひと - つ
hito - tsu
1
One
二
に
ni
ふた - つ
futa - tsu
2
Two
三
さん
san
みっ - つ
Mit - tsu
3
Three
四
し
shi
よん
yon
よっ - つ
Yot - tsu
4
Four
五
ご
go
いつ - つ
Itsu - tsu
5
Five
六
ろく
roku
むっ - つ
Mut - tsu
むい
mui
6
Six
七
しち
shichi
なな - つ
Nana - tsu
なの
nano
7
Seven
八
はち
hachi
やっ - つ
Yat - tsu
よう
you
8
Eight
九
く
ku
きゅう
kyuu
ここの - つ
Kokono - tsu
9
Nine
十
じゅう
juu
とお
*too
10
Ten

*too - do not pronounce like english too, it's a romaji and the pronunciation is like To in Tokyo

Effective strategy for mastering Kanji:

Memorizing kanjis one by one, may be the most challenging tasks for a Japanese Language learner. I usually follow a strategy that is, I learn a kanji with an associated vocabulary and visualise the stroke order of that kanji closing my eyes. May be you may find different strategy that suits you. But, if you can develop a strategy for your own, that may help you learn the kanjis with less struggle. Last thing, most importantly, you need to read a lot of texts with kanjis.

How to write 1st 10 Kanji

This lesson was the 1st step of our kanji learning journey. We will learn more and more kanjis in the coming lessons.

Lesson 6......Lesson 8

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