Kanji in English Context

Is a method of teaching Kanji to an English-comprehending audience first created by Hake Hayashi for the online rapid fluency acquisition curriculum Japanese Complete.

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Every month we send out one or more kanji lessons using Kanji in English Context to help show how easy it is to start learning how to differentiate kanji. After all, they were used for their glyphic value when being imported to Japan and Japanese culture. Why not use them in a similar way in English?

What’s the gist?

Basically, kanji are used to mask certain Japanese “letters” (mora if we want to get technical). When kanji are used as a mask, they add a certain amount of flavor, texture, and context to an otherwise only-phonetic language (Japanese with just Hiragana or just Katakana).

We have found that people can start recognizing kanji meanings very quickly, provided they have a familiar context. If you already know English and its many nouns, why not use it?! We look forward to sending you great content.