Can Japanese Elders Really Write Kanji?

Snapchat: ThatYuta

[Verbalaesthet]

When I look at them I think "Ah, so easy" and then when I want to write them from memory Im like "How was that part again...."

[biohazard]

We need a "are you smarter than a 5th grader" Kanji edition!!

[RosetaiのKuroNavi]

reading and writing is a complete different thing altogether lol, i can read quite a few kanjis but if you asked me to write them...no chance xD

[egemen]

It's so impressive how fast some of them can write such complex kanji!

[Mashiris]

I like this type of videos because It's encouraging for people learning japanese that not even japanese elders can write every single kanji.

[faufaufau]

Japanese and Chinese writing is so difficult to master because everyone progresses their writing, reading, and speaking skill at a different pace while learning due to their kanji system. Back when I was learning French, the moment I can write a word, I can read it and say it. That doesn't happen while I'm learning Japanese, which makes learning new vocabularies substantially more difficult. :/

[aerox]

Guy at 3:20 actually didn't get it correct. He's missing the diagonal stroke through the right side of the character.

[EvgenyUskov]

i am one of the few foreigners (i.e. non-native kanji learners and non-native Japanese language speakers) who have passed the first level of the Kanji Kentei - i usually take it every time (three times a year) at one place in a prefecture where i live, and most other Kanken level 1 takers are as this video puts it "elders": for many of them studying kanji is a valuable hobby after retirement, and a sort of a mental gymnastics, a way to maintain intellectual capacities at old age

[moaangol]

At 4:10 探険 is actually correct too. 探検＝探索、検索。探険＝危ない、未知の場を探索。Even the Chinese version is “探险”。It means to explore the unknown as well as dangerous area.

[AceFuzzLord]

Doesn't matter how old/young you are or how smart/dumb you are, Japanese kanji is difficult. Period.

[aguacateadosmilpesitos]

Aw, I would've loved if this video was longer. I really enjoy these kind of videos

[ayeyeb]

Well done to all the おじさん for playing along in the first place!
What they are saying in the end is the truth, being able to read Kanji often doesn´t translate into being able to write it down, and like all things, the less you practice the more you forget.
For us foreigners, being able to write kanji, actually helps memorize words and helps reading, so they are quite important. Of course you wouldn´t start with these complicated ones like in this video.

[ultraali]

Watching this video is comforting to me because after learning Japanese for a few years, I can read many words but still not write them from memory.. now I know that I'm not alone

If I can get to native level on anything, that is what I would call language fluency

[oldladyhater]

wonderful video, but it would be cool if we could see the typed kanji next to what everyone wrote on the whiteboard, so we could compare the two :)

[pig]

the word "探検" says a lot of history...
actually the word elder wrote "探険" is "correct" old way to write the kanji, word "探険" means "exploration", and character "探" means "to explore", and character ”険" means "danger", on the other, character "検" means "to check", it's nonsense to combine the meaning "to explore" and "to check".
It's all because GHQ fucked up Japanese kanji, twisted a lot of words to "reduce the character to learn" to eventually "eradicate the using of kanji", which is luckily aborted due to the takedown of McArthur, who was the leader of GHQ.
Actually the elder remembered "the old correct way" to write the word "探険", touched me a lot.

[li_tsz_fung]

Many of them are actually good at kanji.
They write 探険 in stead of 検，which is similar to 探險 in Chinese. I suspect it's just shinjitai (kanji simplification) switched character.
Just like 栄養 is 營養 in chinese. But Japanese do have 営

[usageunit]

I always thought it'd be neat if he did a video like this with reading or writing unsimplified kyuujitai characters. 圓, 體, etc.

[basketfreak]

1:54 you can see his excitement and is raring to go. What a fun and educational video, great work!

[gattaca]

when japanese students test my english knowledge I always test their japanese and ask them to write "kanpeki" "peki" is always incorrect.

[wigglenips]

This makes me feel better for not being able to remember how to write basic kanji, despite being able to read quite a bit lol