Japanese Lesson – Kanji Practice 001

Hello Everyone!

Today, let’s have some fun and put what we’ve seen up to know into practice with some everyday life examples of kanji use. Let’s go!

If you missed the previous lessons, here they are:

Example 1:

Let’s have a look at the advertising for the new season of  「(ぼく) の ヒーロー アカデミア」

  • (ぼく) の ヒーロー アカデミア」
  • / me (male) / {relation} / hero / academia /
  • / My Hero Academia /
YTV caption of the anime series My Hereo Academia
YTV caption of the anime series My Hereo Academia

OK. Let’s start with the first line, some of the kanji there should look familiar now and you shound have a sense of what’s going on.

  • 4月7日 土より (しん)シーズン放送(ほうそう)中!

Let’s break it down. The first part should be quite easy:

  • 4月7日

Did you catch it:

  • 4月7日 (し がつ なの か)
    • / 4th month (April) / 7th day (7th) /
    • / 7th of April /

The next part may be a bit more complicated:

  • 土より

Does it recall anything to you?

  • Hints:
    • 土 is the short for 土曜日
    • より means: from, since

Do you start to make sense of this part of the sentence?

  • 土より (ど)
    • / Sunday / from, since /
    • / from Sunday on /

The last part of the sentence is more complicated as it contains mainly kanji we have not seen yet:

  • (しん)シーズン放送(ほうそう)中!
  • 新(しん) means new
  • 放送 (ほうそう) means broadcast

Do you catch what this means?

  • (しん)シーズン放送(ほうそう)中!(ちゅ)
    • / new / season / broadcast / middle /
    • / new season on air now! /

Now, let’s have a look at the sentence in the middle of the picture:

個性(こせい)“出していこうぜ!

  • 個性 (こせい) / personality, individual characteristic /
  • ぜ / {emphasis} (male) /

Now, can you read the sentence and find its meaning?

  • 個性(こせい)“出していこうぜ!(だ)
    • / personality / to put out / let’s go / {emphasis} /
    • / Let’s show (them) who we really are! /


Example 2:

Here is an advertising for Honda cars:

Honda advertisement
Honda advertisement

ホンダ車の事なら何でも当社(とうしゃ)にお(まか)せ下さい。

  • 当社 (とうしゃ): (this) firm, (this) company
  • 任せ (まか)せ: leave everything up to someone else

Many of the kanji in here should now be familiar…

  • ホンダ 車 の 事 なら 何でも 当社(とうしゃ)(まか)せ 下さい。(くるま・こと・なん・くだ)
    • / Honda / car / {relation} / fact, things / as for, on the topic of / whatever, anything / (this) company / {destination} / leave everything up to someone else / please do for me /
    • / When it comes to Honda cars, please leave everything up to (our) company. /

Here it is for this practice lesson. I hope you enjoyed it. Do not hesitate to comment and share if you enjoyed it.

またね!

Stéphane ( ^^)/

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