Lesson 2

Question 1

古

Question 2

吾

Answer 2

あ

Question 3

冒

Answer 3

ボウ　おか.す　Risk

Remember when you were young and told not to look directly into the sun? Probably you were foolish enough to take the risk.

Here we have the sun right above the eye looking up at the sun, which is risky.

Question 4

月月

Question 5

明

Question 6

唱

Answer 6

Easy! You have one mouth making no noise (the choirmaster) and two mouths with wagging tongues (the minimum for a chorus).

Think of chant as monastery singing.

ショウ　となえる　chant

Question 7

晶

Answer 7

If you hold a diamond up to the sun, it sparkles like a minature sun.

Imagine three sparkling diamonds in the palm of your hand.

ショウ　sparkle

Question 8

品

Answer 8

As with the character for sparkle, the triplication of a single element in this character indicates “everywhere” or “heaps of”.

When we thik of goods in a modern society, we think of what has been mass produced… i.e. for the “masses” of open mouths waiting like fldglings in a nest to “consume” whatever comes their way.

ヒン　ホン　しない　goods

Question 9

呂

Answer 9

spine

Question 10

昌

Answer 10

We think of prosperous times as sunny

What could be more prosperous, than a sky with two suns?!

ショウ　さかん　prosperous

Question 11

早

Answer 11

The sunflower rises fastest, to be early in the day.

The sun shines earlier on its namesake than all of the others.

ソウ　はや.い　Fast, early

Question 12

旭

Answer 12

キョウ　あさひ　Rising sun

Question 13

世

Answer 13

We generally consider a generation as 30 years (or 10 +10+10).

You can imagine three ‘10’ characters side by side, but you can also think of the three horizontal lines as ‘additional’ lines, which add up to a generation - 30 years.

セイ、セ、ソウ　よ　generation

Question 14

胃

Answer 14

What the kanji says is that the stomach helps the brain.

Think of the flesh holding up the brain.

イ　stomach