So whats the real use of Kanji??

Aikor

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So i have been in a Japanese class for around a year now

I have mastered elementary japanese(basic to medium)

Also Hiragana and Katakana

So the teacher has given us some words to learn with Kanji during these holidays

I know around 10 to 15 now

The teacher didnt explain the use of kanji or anything like that tho

So my question is

Whats the real use of Kanji??

I mean if you are gonna write is it optional to use Kanji along with Hira and Kata??

For eg

One of the things i learned was

Student council:

There is the hiragana variant

And then the Kanji 生徒会

The thing that is bothering me is why there are 3 kanjis??

I kinda need someone to explain how it works so i can have a better understanding

Thanks :D
 
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FreakensteinAG

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With the very slim knowledge of Japanese I have, Kanji is the Chinese variant that Japanese learners have to know, and I think that Kanji is used to shorten what hiragana and katakana normally says. I think.
 
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Marin

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Kanji is a kind of measure of your knowledge in Japan. The more Kanji you know, the more you are considered literal.

It's kinda like reading a picture book vs reading a 200 page book. Kata and Hiri are just stepst toward Kanji.

Also, as the user above stated, it's a shorter and more fluid way of writing.

PS: You didn't write the hirigana sample. :p
 
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BlacLord™

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Kanji is important for a few reasons. The main reason though, is to give clarity and meaning. If you use only Hiragana/Katakana, you'll quickly find words that wrote in Hiragana can have different meanings. For example, if I just wrote 「かみ」, I could be referring to either hair, God or paper.

You'll have to to learn just over 2000 if you want to acheive relative fluency. (Jōyō)

I suppose you know Kanji's origins already.
 
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Aikor

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Kanji is important for a few reasons. The main reason though, is to give clarity and meaning. If you use only Hiragana/Katakana, you'll quickly find words that wrote in Hiragana can have different meanings. For example, if I just wrote 「かみ」, I could be referring to either hair, God or paper.

You'll have to to learn just over 2000 if you want to acheive relative fluency. (Jōyō)

I suppose you know Kanji's origins already.
Oh

Im aiming for a 100 now
 

Sugiyama

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What other users said. Kanji knowledge is an important step in learning Japanese, but it's very hard to master since it's "endless" both in number and in the way one word is written.
One opf the reasons I couldn't advance much in Japanese learning.:lol:
 
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