Did you know that Kanji (漢字) literally translates to "Han characters" (China + character)? While they are central to Japanese life today, these characters began their journey thousands of years ago across the sea. To truly master Kanji, it helps to see them not just as static lines, but as living pictures  that evolved over four major historical stages.   1. Oracle Bone Script (Kotsubun · 甲骨文) The story begins with magic and mystery. Dating back to the late 2nd millennium BC

In order to pass the second level of JLPT (N4), the students need to master a 181 new kanji plus the 103 Kanji from the previous level...

In order to pass the first level of JLPT (N5), the students need to master a total of 103 Kanji. The Kanji for this first level can be...

Japanese radicals, known as bushu  (部首) in Japanese, are the fundamental building blocks of kanji. Think of them as the equivalent of...

The complete KATAKANA  syllabary consists of 48 characters . In contrast to the hiragana syllabary, which is used for Japanese words not...

The modern HIRAGANA  syllabary consists of 46 base characters . It is mainly used for: Okurigana  - kana suffixes following a kanji root,...

The importance of the stroke order of a Kanji I have always heard the question: Is the stroke order of a kanji important? . This was also...

At first Japanese was a spoken language, and it wasn't until China got to Japan, that Japanese didn't start writing... However, guess...

How do can you successfully learn a new kanji? Before I get into the tips that I've used to learn a new kanji, I have something important...