Sunday 10 January 2016

Curious Japanese Numerals

My Mummy worked in Japan when she was younger and I am getting interested in it.

Japanese has numerous different ways to count, but the most commonly taught in primary school Japanese classes are the Japanese pronunciations of Chinese numbers. Two sets of pronunciations for the Chinese numbers exist in Japanese: one is based on Sino-Japanese (on’yomi) readings of the Chinese characters and the other is based on the Japanese Yamato kotoba (native words, kun’yomi readings).

The most typical way to teach Japanese numbers to young children is using the ‘on’yomi’ way of reading numbers.  Here they are below.

To me the numbers look like words, each has a straight line or more than one.   Number six looks like a man, number eight looks like a wigwam and four looks like a house without a roof or a door.



Here below are the numbers one to ten thousand.



A hundred looks like an airport radar.

Do they paint them with a small brush or a big brush? 

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