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Stupid Japanese writing system.

If you could choose between writing a word (in this case, 'go' [language]) in 15 strokes or the same word in 4 strokes, what would you choose? The Japanese dig the 15 stroke option. Supposedly, it helps them understand what they're reading to use Chinese characters (kanji) instead of their own letters. Nevermind that when they talk, they don't carry around signboards to help people understand them, they just speak phonetically and everyone gets it. And when they want to use a Japanese word processing program, they don't type in kanji; they type phonetically and then have to have the program switch the letters to kanji.

Kanji doesn't save time writing, learning, or typing. Even when it comes to reading, there are several ways to read the same kanji depending on the circumstances, and most publications end up havig to give the phonetic readings of at least some kanji just so their consumers can keep up. So, other than wasting time, what's the purpose of kanji? To keep calligraphers employed? To make it fucking hard to read or learn their goddamn language? To keep the Japanese proletariat down? Shoot, I don't know, and I'll bet they don't either, but I wish they'd wise up.

Kanji is fucking annoying.
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  1. Unknown7/07/2005 6:50 PM

    Additionally, the history of kanji is one of class oppression and misogyny. The Japanese wouldn't even have a phonetic system if they hadn't disallowed women the use of kanji in feudal times. It would be interesting to set about a survey of the former and present effects of the patriarchal militarist domination of the Japanese langauge, but that would require research and work. >_>

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1/21/2006 11:41 AM

    i bet japanese doesn't have enough vocabulary. That's why they have kanji. To read all hiragana and katagana in newspaper, i will faint.

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