up behind a tree
forms the written word for east
A picture of the stone lantern that guarded each ancient Chinese capital simplified to abstract form
squared off and forms the written
word for capital. These two characters put together in a compound form the written word Eastern-capital, The characters may look mysterious and impenetrable at first approach, but as these examples show, they are not difficult at all to understand. The c h a r acters are not just random strokes: each one is a picture, and has a meaning based on the content of the picture.
The Japanese w r i t t e n language contains a number of these c h a r a c t e r s , but fortunately not as many as
Westerners often assume.
To graduate from gram-
mar school a student must know 881 c h a r a c t e r s . At this point he is considered literate. g r a d u a t e must know 1,850.
A high school
To read college t e x t -
books about three thousand c h a r a c t e r s are necessary.
A I I these thousands of c h a r a c t e r s , however, a r e built up from less than 300 elements, or pictures,
many of w h i c h a r e seldom used. Once you learn the most f r e q u e n t l y used elements you w i l l not only know a number of the common c h a r a c t e r s , since some of 10