Kanji Units
Lesson 6 of 12
Kanji Unit 6 — up, down, and which way to turn
about 8 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read a direction sign in a station or a street.
- Say where something is using 上, 下, 中 and 外.
Words this lesson teaches
- 上
- above, on top
- 下
- below, under
- 中
- inside, middle
- 外
- outside
- 右
- right
- 左
- left
- 北
- north
- 南
- south
- 東
- east
- 西
- west
What it explains
口 on a sign means an opening, not a mouth
入口 was the joke in Foundations 0 — the door with two signs. 口 is a mouth on its own, and an opening when it is attached to something else: 入口 an entrance, 出口 an exit, 東口 the east exit. You have not been taught 入 or 出 yet and you can still read all three, because 口 has told you what kind of word this is.
上 and 下 are a diagram, not a picture
Most kanji that look like pictures are pictures of things — a mountain, a tree, a person. 上 and 下 are pictures of a relationship: a horizon with something marked above it or below it. There is no object being drawn at all. It is a small point and it changes what you look for in an unfamiliar character, because not every one of them is a drawing of a noun.