Hanja: Finally to words again

I’ve been studying Hanja (Chinese characters) alongside my Tae Kwon Do class. Essentially, I write out a character about 18 times before I join everyone else for practice. It’s not something I’m required to do, but something that I have chosen to do because 1) the kids have to do it and 2) I might have to pick up Chinese eventually and I know I want to learn Japanese. As both languages use the characters extensively, I figure it’d be good to get a head start on them.

Up until now, though, I’ve just been studying numbers, starting with four as one through three are essentially hash marks. So, I know how to write one through ten, hundred, thousand, ten-thousand (East Asian languages base their big numbers on the ten-thousand instead of the thousand, million, billion system we have). Finally, though, I’m learning actual words again. I’m up to sun and moon (or day and night, not sure…). Future attractions are going to be fire, water, plant, tree.

I will finally be able to understand cryptic Asian writing on American t-shirts! I can’t wait!