Hello, I am Yoshi from NILS Japanese language school. For foreign students, kanji is definitely one of the most difficult parts when learning Japanese language. Today, we would like to talk about how you can improve your kanji sense.

Point 1
Kanji makes words easier to understand. Because Japanese has many words that sound the same, writing only in hiragana can confuse the reader. But if a word is written in kanji, its meaning is immediately clear.
[Example]
火　(Fire)　＋　山　(Mountain)　→　火山／かざん　(Volcano)
住　(Live)　＋　所　(Place)　→　住所／じゅうしょ　(Address)

Also there are no spaces written Japanese, so long strings of hiragana can be difficult to process. Kanji also helps solve this problem.
[Example]
ははははをみがいている　→　母は歯をみがいている
My mother is brushing her teeth.
*You will be confused with four “は” in a row.

Point 2
You can figure out what words mean by knowing the kanji in them. Even if you don’t know how to read certain kanji, you can guess the meaning of a word if you know what its kanji mean. Many words are made up of more than one kanji like the example above.

January 22nd News, from NILS Japanese language school.