Westerners in Japan Don't Do Kanji

[Charles]

Yeah, I know about simplified kanji, that wasn't really what I meant, I don't think it's really equivalent. I was thinking of eliminating whole kanji from sentences. [snip]
But I'd still argue that was more like dropping the U from "colour," just a modernization of archaic spelling.

Borrowing your analogy, the simplification of kanji would be equivalent to dropping letters or abbreviating spelling. As far as Japanese words (this applies to Chinese as well) dropping kanji and yet still implying their meaning, there are tons of examples.

[vir-jin]

charles,
I just ordered this book after reading the pages on amazon. com. It is even cheaper on amazon.co.jp- a sale article

Today I went to listen to a concert of some university students. They always meet to have dinner afterwards. Though I know that already I got something to eat before the concert and of course they ordered masses of food. Think I will read this book in one night!

Thanks a lot :P
I wish you could be here to see the exhibition about Hanga ( Hanga- Waves of East- West Cultural Interchange) at the Geidai bijutsukan.

http://www.geidai.ac.jp/museum/exhibit/planed_en.htm

Did you know that Rembrandt printed on Japanese Paper? He mentioned to one of his scholars that the scale of black and gray he could get from printing on Japanese paper was incredible. It is amazing how many shades he actually got in this portrait they exhibit. I just can't believe how cool Rembrandt was. I guess people knowing of the existance of Japan were really rare at that time.
Besides there is a whole floor of Japanese Hanga and different other printing methods from the last 30 years. One is a conceptual art print of a bedsheet on a futon exhibited on a futon. They made a very nice catalogue they will sell until you come here the next time. You can get an additional english translation if you ask for it.

[vir-jin]

From your conclusion it sound as if you may have become "more Japanese" than you give yourself credit for... [/quote]

I bet I am, and I am truly and utterly amazed about the power of this page that enables me to talk to you right now and here!

[Charles]

charles,
I just ordered this book after reading the pages on amazon. com. It is even cheaper on amazon.co.jp- a sale article

Today I went to listen to a concert of some university students. They always meet to have dinner afterwards. Though I know that already I got something to eat before the concert and of course they ordered masses of food. Think I will read this book in one night!

Thanks a lot :P
I wish you could be here to see the exhibition about Hanga ( Hanga- Waves of East- West Cultural Interchange) at the Geidai bijutsukan.

http://www.geidai.ac.jp/museum/exhibit/planed_en.htm

Did you know that Rembrandt printed on Japanese Paper? He mentioned to one of his scholars that the scale of black and gray he could get from printing on Japanese paper was incredible. It is amazing how many shades he actually got in this portrait they exhibit. I just can't believe how cool Rembrandt was. I guess people knowing of the existance of Japan were really rare at that time.
Besides there is a whole floor of Japanese Hanga and different other printing methods from the last 30 years. One is a conceptual art print of a bedsheet on a futon exhibited on a futon. They made a very nice catalogue they will sell until you come here the next time. You can get an additional english translation if you ask for it.

I think you'll really enjoy the book, a lot of it is about business communication, mostly because that's the kind of book that sells, but it's full of interesting bits about language. And you got lucky, I paid $25 when the book was just published, it was a textbook for a linguistics course. I always find all sorts of interesting books when I check out what textbooks they're using today, even though I'm no longer a student.

I'm a fan of Rembrandt too, but I think too many people misunderstand his work. My favorite illustration in any art book is a Rembrandt portrait of a man wearing a heavy silver necklace made from linked rounded silvery blocks. In the full-page illustration, it looks like he painted extremely fine detail on the silvery jewels. But there is an extreme closeup on the next page, and you can see it is nothing more than a single splot of paint, roughly applied with the blunt end of a dry round brush. ha! Only Rembrandt could fool your eye like that, you think he spent hours working with a fine detail brush, but he did it in one dab of paint, in one instant. What a virtuoso..

I wish I was there to see the hanga exhibit too, that's just the sort of show I love. My art school is supposedly the #1 printmaking school in the world (but really, ranks #2 behind Tamarind) and we have a big papermaking facility that makes tons of washi. But they'd never let me into the printmaking department, I wasn't a very traditional artist, and they only wanted traditionalists and purists.
You know, I had a friend take me to her favorite art supplies store in Tokyo, I wanted to buy some block printing materials and try out the old ukiyo-e carving techniques. I inspected some carving knives and got the evil eye from the owner, and the moment I picked up a wood block to examine it, she had a fit and tossed me out of the store. Sheesh! I never get any respect..

[vir-jin]

[Pencilslave]

[quote="&quot"]

But I have to admit, I've actually let my kanji skills slip since I came to Japan (especially my writing, christ). Every gaijin should at least periodically try to improve their kanji knowledge as life becomes a lot more fun the more literate you become... [/quote

Is the basic 1,945 kanji enough to read most Japanese books and magazines?(I've heard that Japanese uses about 4,000-5,000 Kanji.)

[hirorshishi]

some westerner are not familiar with kanji sentence
because they use 26th signals and their own .
for asian people ,chinese , korean , chinese taipei use kanji
in their life. so it's not so difficult to familiar with kanji.
westerner should write kanji and read japanese sentence more
as japanese children learn kanji.
practice makes perfect . try hard !