The 10 Most Important Kanji All Japanese Learners Should Know
Not loving all of the kanji you have to memorize? Want to know the most important kanji first, so that you can avoid spending unnecessary time in brutal struggle, and more time watching your favorite anime?
Yes.
I want to help you out. The following 10 kanji (technically 20, as I wanted to give you the simple compound words they are found in) are the most important and versatile in the Japanese language. Most of the language is built off of them. For anyone not a beginner, you’ve probably seen these already, but it’s always good to get a refresher.
Ready?
10. 鞦韆
9. 螇蚸
8. 鸛鵲
7. 踆鴟
6. 吩咐
5. 盈虧
4. 躑躅
3. 髑髏
2. 螺鈿
1. 鳳凰
I would include their readings and meanings, but I assume you already know them, so I won’t waste your time with that.
Master these and you master all!
Add to the list?
What are some other super easy and important kanji you think every learner of Japanese should know?
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
I definitely agree, it would be difficult even to have a basic text conversation without these. Everyone has to start from somewhere, but this is a great place to start.
i can’t recognise a single one of these from rtk? I’m so confused lol. Am I the only one that doesn’t know any of these?
Don’t worry, everyone could use a refresher from time to time. I remember forgetting number 4 when I just started learning and was trying to text my Japanese friend to ask how his day was… Needless to say it led to embarrassing circumstances for both of us.
Poor Australians it isn’t April fools here anymore :(
Oh my gosh, now I get it. Hahaha.
当然!俺もやられた。T_T
Lol (>_<) definitely got these down… (the article is meant as a joke – I HOPE!!1???)
Sure! How about 魑魅魍魎、and 檸檬 for a couple more easy basics?
One of the best articles Adam has ever made so far
April 1st? hehe
I think I’ll practice these a bit using Google 日本語入力ピロピロバージョン.
やろう!
You got me.
Your smiling profile picture looks a little sinister today Adam.
Good one! It’s funny that I ran into 鞦韆 today for the first time on a blog. But then again, it wasn’t written with the kanji! Number 11 maybe 蜻蛉? hehe
驫鸞 easily could have made this list for most-used/ versatile kanji.
Here’s a list of other Japanese April Fool’s stuff:
http://www.fashionsnap.com/the-posts/2015-04-01/aprilfools-2015/
Lol I read the Google panda article that was hilarious
Hah, it is pretty funny. And the announcement video even has a great “fluent foreigner” example midway through =)
https://youtu.be/lI9Qb4PuiOU
It was a lot of fun playing the Pacman game yesterday when I stumbled upon it while looking the nearest post office near my workplace. They really should make it a permanent addition. ^^
Serious moment of panic there before I remembered what day this was posted. Whew!
Nice one :) Just subtle enough that I didn’t even think twice about it at first.
I was seriously questioning the quality of my years of study until I looked at the posting date. This is the second best prank that has ever been played on me. The first was a couple of years ago, when I pulled a $400 parking ticket off the windshield of my car in the parking lot of my college campus. I had forgotten that a friend of mine worked at that campus, and was so panicked at first that I didn’t notice her obvious typo on the “Notice of Parking Volation.” That “ticket” earned a permanent place on my fridge, but I think I’ll skip memorializing this prank in my Anki! :D
I actually got one of these, thanks to 鳳凰院凶真!
Dude, I’ve never seen any of them.
lol, good job
I just saw this long after April 1. Being just a doll and all it scared me!
But now I’m laughing.
この記事を見たばかり。恐かったです!
今笑っています。
I knew only one, 鳳凰 from Steins;Gate :P
Thank you! Now I can talk about my time as a trapeze artist. :)