JLPT N3 Kanji Step 4: No.31 - 40 米粉庫毛夫泣浅深漁温

[@missmusiqk]

Thank you for all your hard work!! These videos are amazing to learn kanji :)

[@DavyPhai]

❤🎉

[@Obachan-Kobachan]

🤗

[@Finity_twenty_ten]

Used to think the san in fujisan was an honorific and the Japanese were just that respectful to it.

[@Obachan-Kobachan]

🤗

[@Finity_twenty_ten]

0:52 Strangely the Kanji for rice is used for the formal name of the United States (米国) and also for meters.

[@Obachan-Kobachan]

The answer from the clever ChatGPT is: The term "米国" (Beikoku) is the Japanese word for the United States of America. It comes from the use of kanji (Chinese characters) to abbreviate foreign country names. In this case: "米" (Bei) is derived from the second character in the transliteration of "America" in kanji, which is "亜米利加" (Amerika). Instead of using the entire long name, Japanese people use the kanji 米 as a shorthand. "国" (Koku) means "country" or "nation," making 米国 literally translate to "Rice Country" in kanji. However, it is simply a phonetic abbreviation and not related to rice. This method of abbreviation is common in Japanese for foreign countries. For example: 英国 (Eikoku) = The United Kingdom (from 英吉利, Eikoku) 仏国 (Futsukoku) = France (from 仏蘭西, Furansu) This tradition stems from historical Chinese influences, where abbreviated kanji were used to refer to foreign nations in a concise and practical manner.

[@rawcopper604]

How about teaching the actual etymologies which are both true and way more fascinating

[@Finity_twenty_ten]

Just a note, you had no way of knowing this but radicals are actually countable nouns. So it would be THE water radical. Again you would have no way of knowing this and it doesn't make sense but it is.

[@Obachan-Kobachan]

Thank you. Arigatou.🤗 Judging if we need to use a definite article (the), an indefinite article (a, an), or do not need to an article in front of a noun is very tricky for Japanese people...