Kanji radical names


Do you have to learn the kanji radical name? ex:こどもへん Do people use it?
Thanks.




Strictly speaking, no you don't have to learn the radical names.

It's far more important to learn the meanings of the radicals, rather than the
names of them. Perhaps that's what you meant, I'm not sure. It's certainly
useful to also know the names, in cases where you are specifically asking
about the composition of a kanji. But learning the meanings is by far more
important.

If possible, you should also learn the associated pronunciations of elements
within kanji. There are many elements which have set pronunciations and lend
that pronunciation to the overall reading of the character. For example, the
character 寺 has the on-yomi ジ. When this element appears as part of other
kanji characters, the on-yomi of the whole character is often ジ. 時、持、侍 etc are
read as ジ. This isn't a 'rule' because other characters do not behave that
way. But there are many examples where knowing an element's reading can
provide a general guideline as to how to read a character in which it appears.

Therefore, my advice is to focus on learning the meanings and readings of
radicals and elements as a priority. You can learn the names later.




I’m from Japan and learned radical names (部首 in Japanese language) in
elementary school. So the answer to the first question is yes. I think there’s
some reasons but the main reason is to memorize kanji more easily.

You might know kanji is a logogram. So a radical name is deeply associated
with the kanji meaning it composes of. So learning them will help you to
memorize kanji itself. For example, 貝(かい) means ‘shell’ and there are a lot of
kanji containing shell radical name, like 貯 買 賞, which relate to ‘trade and
money’. This is because in ancient times people used shells as coins.

And Japanese people sometimes use radical names when they want to explain how
to write kanji. Like this,

> “Ah, do you know how to write つたない?”
>
> “Write てへん (hand radical name) and 出{で}る next to it.”

I hope this will help you. :)

