Traditional Chinese and why it can help your Japanese

今天天氣很好！

The above is a basic sentence in Mandarin Chinese. Three of the five kanji are common in Japanese: 今、天、好. The character 很 (meaning very) is not to be found in any common sentence. The final character 氣 is also not used in modern Japanese, at least in this form. If you do not know it, you may however be able to guess the meaning (天気?). As it turns out, like Chinese, Japanese actually uses simplified forms of kanji, although usually simplified differently from Mandarin. By only knowing 氣, the traditional form of air, it's almost effortless to learn the simplified forms (气 in simplified Chinese, 気 in simplified Japanese).

If you're anything like me, after having learned a substantial number of kanji, you actually start to appreciate the beauty, and take pleasure in knowing more about their history.

Consider the character 學. Again, you might be able to guess the meaning if you don't know it: 学. The top strokes are simply reduced down to a quicker, easier way to write it. In this case, both Japanese and Chinese simplify the character in the same way. Usually, simplified forms are derived from the cursive forms of the characters, so many strokes are lost in a predictable way.

Another predictable simplification: traditional form 應, simplified Chinese 应, simplified Japanese 応. In this case, the Chinese simplified form looks like it lost a number of strokes, probably derived from its cursive form. The Japanese form however, has just omitted the 2 radicals from the center.

In some cases, simplified forms are seemingly random:
Traditional Chinese: 龍
Simplified Chinese: 龙
Simplified Japanese: 竜
All three mean dragon. In this case however, none of the three characters are similar in appearance. Unfortunately, this means we'll just have to learn them semi-independently.

In some cases, knowing the traditional forms helps to clarify meaning, in my opinion. Take for example the common Japanese kanji 買 and 売. Because of the simplification of the second character, it might not be obvious that the two kanji are actually related. The traditional form of 売 is 賣, which seems a bit more connected to the other kanji (and the simplification seems to follow naturally). In fact, this radical shows up in other common characters too: 続 (續) and 読 (讀).

All of this is unnecessary, but I think it's nice to be able to learn the history of characters, which not only helps you remember them, but also to be more versatile with reading (older texts probably would use the traditional forms). They can also add a flavor to writing, giving a passage an archaic feel.

In any case, it might be a nice break from trying to remember all the kanji to just learn some of the back story and appreciate their beauty.