How to address / refer to a specific kanji in speech


Original Question

When talking about kanjis or trying to explain a certain kanji, how do
Japanese people usually refer to that specific kanji in speech without having
to write anything or point to any writing, yet still be understood as to which
exact kanji character you are referring to?

Are there "official" names for each kanji in Japanese? If not then how would
you address it?

For example the kanji 好, when talking about it how would you usually refer to
that if it doesn't have a specific name? In fact it may even not have a single
agreed pronunciation. For the same kanji it can be pronounced in different
ways depending on the context. But in English we always refer to "b" as the
letter "be". In Japanese, for a kanji, how would you do the same thing?

Updated Question

After reading some inputs from the comments and answers section below, and
reading the links attached to them, I came to question on : How would a
beginner like me know that the word that I'm using to refer to a kanji in a
conversation is actually defined as "common"? The kanji may have a number of
possible words that it's a part of, but which ones of these words ranks as the
most "common"? I haven't found a popular global "ranking system" on how common
a word is againts each other for the Japanese Language. Is there a site that
has that?




I think that the answer that @chocolate linked is pretty spot-on when it comes
to kanji.

The simple answer is that kanji don't really have names. When there are many
thousands of kanji used in daily writing, that would also require that there
are many thousands of names for the characters. These names would be _in
addition_ to multiple readings, and the meanings (some kanji have multiple
meanings).

When a particular kanji is referenced in conversation that the listener does
not recognize, the speaker will typically do the following to clear up the
ambiguity:

  1. Choose a simple everyday word that is commonly understood. 教師, for example.
  2. Specify which character in the word being used. 教師｛きょうし｝の教｛きょう｝。

Though I am sure you are aware, grammatically, the の in this structure can be
considered as the possessive particle. I include this detail for learners with
less Japanese experience.

If the process I just described is insufficient in specifying which kanji is
being talked about, another common practice is for the speaker to trace the
kanji out with their index finger on the palm of their hand. Depending on the
speaker, and how much understanding of the Japanese language you demonstrate,
you may have them trace the character out on their hand as they say 教師の教.

A final (and ultimately the most complex) way to distinguish kanji is by
explaining radicals used. I have the least experience with this situation, but
you will see it commonly used when you start talking about specific fields of
study, like medicine, science and engineering. If the listener does not
recognize the kanji via the method described above, the speaker may resort to
specifying which radicals are used, and occasionally where they are placed.
This is extremely effective when coupled with tracing the kanji on the palm of
one's hand. Though this method may not be effective at conveying the reading
of the kanji, the meaning as derived from the radicals is usually more clear.

You will also notice that hiragana and katakana characters are similar in that
they do not specifically have names like roman characters have. If we want to
specify a character, し, in conversation, you would probably say something like
ひらがな（の）し, though in some circumstances, the の in this case may be optional.

* * *

**Answer to Updated Question**

You are digging for something that doesn't exist. Just as is with the case in
English, there is no 'master list' of words that are considered common. Such a
list would be excessively long, and nearly impossible to memorize for these
circumstances.

Instead, why don't you use the words you learn when you first learn the kanji?
When learning new characters, the standard practice is to learn the most basic
(i.e. common) words that use the character. That's the closest you are going
to get to this 'master list' you are searching for.

