Are traditional characters used in Japanese?

shinyspoons
 March 29, 2009, 01:46 PM posted in General Discussion

Hey,

I am think about making the cross over form simplified to traditional characters.  One of the motivations behind this is, when the time comes, the help, or not, it will give me when i learn japanese.

I have a vauge recolection of someone telling me that japanese uses traditional chinese characters, but i have no idea to what extent, after a spy on the internet and asking some chinese friends, i am still none the wiser.

Can anyone tell me how helpful a knowledge of tradtional chinese characters will be when i study japenese.

Thanks

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changye
 March 30, 2009, 03:07 AM

Hi shinyspoons

Chinese characters used in Japanese are called "kanji", and they are kind of "half-traditional/half-simplified" characters. Japan had also used full-traditional characters until 1949, which are basically the same as those used in Taiwan now. For the record, so called "traditional characters" (繁体字) are based on the character forms shown in 康熙字典 (1716).

Let me show you some examples. The characters in the fourth group are all different from each other....wow. Anyway, the knowledge about traditional characters is definitely beneficial for learning Japanese. At the same time, your knowledge of simplified characters would also greatly help you learn Japanese.  

So, if your goal is to learn Japanese (but not traditional characters themselves), I think you don't have to hurriedly learn traditional characters (only for mastering Japanese) now. That can wait until later. In the case you have interest in 繁体字, please go ahead, of course.

The knowledge of 繁体字 is a must when you look into, for example, etymlogies of Chinese characters. Actually, not a few mainland Chinese can manage to read 繁体字, even if they can't write them. Anyway, no need to hurry. 你别急，慢慢来吧！Good luck！

繁/日/简

同/同/同
友/友/友
大/大/大

學/学/学
舊/旧/旧
體/体/体

機/機/机
陽/陽/阳
華/華/华

關/開/关
辯/弁/辩
發/発/发
邊/辺/边
豐/豊/丰
龍/竜/龙

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shinyspoons
 March 31, 2009, 01:57 PM

cheers man, thats really helpful. 

The help it will lend to learning japanese is not my only motivation.  After learning traditional characters (which i am assuming you have) do you think it was worth the effort? What other benefits are there, and is it worth the extra effort.

Thanks