Thursday, November 10, 2005

Today's kanji : 宿

Today's kanji is 宿.

The blue part describes "building".

The red part describes "person".
The green part describes "futon (bed) ".

Person and futon(bed) in a building.

Can you guess the meaning?

See the comments page for the answer!

8 comments:

  1. "Person and futon(bed) in a building."

    宿 means "hotel" and "to stay"

    For example...

    民宿(minshuku) : Japanese style hotel
    下宿(geshuku) : lodging
    新宿(shinjuku) : Shinjuku

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for another interesting kanji!! I will try to remember it (*o-o*)

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  3. Anonymous2:24 AM

    All your blog is very interesting reading, Akiko. May be I will start learning japanese again :).
    You keep surprising me...

    ReplyDelete
  4. >Tom
    Wow!
    Tom with glasses!
    It's cute☆
    Do you remember that 宿 was in unit 21 in our kanji textbook? ;)

    >Dali
    Hey! Long time no see!!
    Thank you for giving comments for my blog from Slovakia!
    Hope you remember some Japanese which we studied together. :)

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  5. Anonymous9:41 AM

    I have a question the kanji symbol for person.. by itself is different then when it's grouped with other symbols...

    in the kanji symbol for "hotel" the symbol for "person" looks like the Katakana character for "i"...

    also I see kanji characters and Katakana characters sometimes look the same... are they from the same source?

    sorry to ask to many questions...
    russ

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  6. Hi Russ,

    Yes, katakata "i" is same shape as "person" in 宿 (hotel).

    Hiragana and katakana were originally made from Kanji about 1100 years ago.
    Kanji is sometimes too complicated, so they decided to develop hiragana and katakana.

    For example, katakana イ (i) is from kanji 伊.
    伊 is read "i", so they decided using イ (the left part of 伊) for "i" in katakana.
    It doesn't matter kanji 伊's meaning.
    They just used the sound (pronunciation) of the kanji.

    That's why, you sometimes find some similar or same shape in hiragana, katakana and kanji.

    If you study hiragana and katakana now, I recommend you use "Kana can be easy" published by The Japan times.
    You can remember hiragana and katakana with pictures.
    Like hiragana の looks like sign for "No smoking".
    の is "NO".
    Interesting book. (^ ^)

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4789005178/qid=1137289050/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8833464-6520952?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

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  7. Anonymous2:43 PM

    this is a very cool Flash program
    I'm using to help me remember the look of Hiragana and Katakana...

    http://www.dragonmedia.us/programs/kana.php?login=JA2342segsr4545swfde_243s

    remembering the look of a characters.. I don't have too much trouble with, it's remembering the sounds that I have trouble with...

    If I see a word written I can pronounce it, but if I hear it.. that's when it's rough...

    thank for the information on Hiragana and Katakana coming from Kanji....

    ReplyDelete
  8. I saw the website you told me.
    Very helpful site!
    I want to let my students who are studying hiragana/katakana about this site. (^ ^)
    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete