The Image of a Kanji – Cultural Memory as a Means of Education and Progress
The Image of a Kanji – Cultural Memory as a Means of Education and Progress

Summary/Abstract: From ancient times Japanese have been exploiting the image in as many ways as possible and this fact has become nowadays a very good method of teaching and studying Japanese. If a student learns Japanese as a (main) specialty, there are multiple methods of studying it and finally, the level of knowledge has to be in accordance with the academic requests. But if students learn Japanese as a hobby, professors must find additional methods to make them understand and like it. In both situations, using Japanese culture elements might be useful. Teaching through "images” seems to be one of the methods that may help students make connections and remember certain topics. Japanese people used it in Linguistics, Literature, Art and the list is certainly longer. In the 5th century, when they took over and transformed the old Chinese characters in kanji, they used images in order to understand, transform and learn them better. Therefore, kanji became a means of written communication. My work tries to explain the importance of the kanji writing system and the "image” of a kanji, so that the readers that do not understand Japanese can become familiar with it (origin, structure, mnemotechnics).

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