At 21:36 01/10/04 +1000, Jim Breen wrote: > >> > The limited set of kanji has survived pretty well. Only a small > percentage > >> > of Japanese know many kanji outside that list, and often they are just > >> > for names. > >> > >> Many (I think majority part of) Japanese people know Kanjis outside > >> the rules of Monbushou. > >I am quoting reports from several Japanese NS educationalists who have >examined this issue and determined that the average kanji recognition level >among Japanese is well below the full Jouyou kanji set, and that relatively >few can readily recognize kanji outside that set. Note that this is from >reported recent studies, and not "from literatures". I have no way of >confirming or refuting this myself. I you can point me at studies that >contradict these findings, I would be very interested.
You are probably both right. There are some Kanji in the set that rarely anybody knows (my favorite example is one meaning 'imperial tomb' or some such), and there are some that people easily recognize in context, but may just say 'what is that?' when they see it alone. Also, depending on the subject, kanji knowledge can vary a lot. Wheneven I read a newspaper about baseball or horseraces (which I do extremely rarely), I'm surprised by the complicated kanji that are used, and which don't appear really in 'standard' newspapers. Individual kanji knowledge is really quite diverse, I think. Of course, there is a real core that 'everybody' knows, but this is not the Monbusho set. Regards, Martin. _______________________________________________ I18n mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/i18n
