Kanji (漢字) Made Simple

Basically…

Kanji is one of Japan’s alphabets.

https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/

A little Deeper

There are actually three alphabets in Japanese. They are:

・Hiragana (ひらがな)
・Katakana (カタカナ)
・Kanji (漢字)

Here is an example of what Kanji looks like:

一 二 三

Which says, one two three.

You can think of Kanji as symbols representing things or ideas.

For example, look at the symbol below:



This symbol represents recycling. Kanji is kind of like that. Take the Kanji below,

食

This symbol (Kanji) represents eating in Japanese.

Hiragana and katakana are like the ABC’s in English.

It is said that there are over 180,000 kanji in Japanese. Don’t worry though, most people have never even seen that many, and Japanese only use from 1000 to 2000 in everyday life.

Putting it all Together

So, when you hear kanji, just think of it as symbols representing things and ideas.