by breaking them down into smaller pieces.
This Kanji Breakthrough column was written by Mary Sisk Noguchi, (who passed away last December 2012, may she rest in peace), who was Associate Professor at Meijo University in Nagoya, columnist at Japan Times, and owned the website http://kanjiclinic.com.
This website has a wealth of fun articles not only about Kanji but about Japanese language in general.For a sampling, below is an excerpt from the article Popular Japanese Words (2012):
- スマホ (sumaho, “smart phone”)
Yes, this is the way “smart phone” has been abbreviated to create a foreign loan word unrecognizable to the world outside Japan.. More and more Japanese consumers are giving up their cell phones for touchscreens, both Japanese and international models. The 4S iPhone proved wildly popular, and dozens of other models are available, including the DoCoMo smart phone.
わず (wazu, "was," i.e., where I was)
ういる (uiru, "will," i.e., where I will be)
The Japanese approximation of the English word “now,” なう (now) has been used for several years by young people when texting, as a suffix to indicate their current location, i.e.,「渋谷なう」Shibuya nau. “I’m in Shibuya now.” Recently added to the mix are the past (わず, was) and future (ういる, will) tenses, i.e.,「渋谷わす」Shibuya wasu.“I was in Shibuya”; [渋谷ういる」Shibuya uiru. “I’m going to Shibuya.”
借りパク (karipaku, “the failure to return a borrowed item”)
パクる (pakuru) is a long-standing slang word meaning “to steal.” New face 借りパク is a combination of 借 (ka-riru, borrow) and “steal.” Riding someone else’s bicycle home from the station with no intention of returning it is a common example of 借りパク, as is filching some else’s umbrella from an umbrellas stand when you forgot to bring your own. If you have had a book belonging to someone else on your shelf for several years you may be guilty of 借りパク yourself.
More good news!
12 of her wonderful Kanji Breakthrough columns in the Nihongo journal were compiled into a FREE single PDF which you can download thru the kanjiclinic website
or directly here: http://kanjiclinic.com/kanjibreakthrough.pdf
These are the 12 topics in the pdf:
"Kanji Breakthrough"Topics:
1. Learning to divide individual kanji into all of their components
漢字の個々の要素を分解してみる
2. Getting a grip on different types of kanji components
漢字の構成要素のタイプを把握する
3. Remembering a keyword for every component
構成要素のキーワードを覚える
4. Remembering a story to tie the components of kanji together
構成要素を結びつける’物語’を覚える
5. Creating your own stories to tie the components of kanji together
自分だけの’物語’をつくろう
6. Remembering one core meaning for each kanji
漢字の核となる意味を覚える
7. Figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar kanji compound words
漢字でできた未知の熟語の意味を解明する
8. Mastering kanji compound word patterns, #1
熟語の結合パターンを習得する
9. Mastering kanji compound word patterns, #2
熟語の構成パターンから語彙を増やす
10. Predicting on-pronunciations with phonetic components
音声要素から発音を予想する
11. Understanding on-yomi and kun-yomi
「音読み」と「訓読み」
12. Getting a grip on irregular kanji readings
例外的な読み方をする漢字
