Japanese Learners Use Too Many Kanji!

[KyleGoetz]

Let's post in this thread whenever we come across someone over-using kanji (since so many learners do). Perhaps if learners read this thread, they will learn examples of times to lay off the kanji!

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有り難う御座います。

Really? You're going to write ありがとうございます in kanji? I don't think native speakers do that.

And a couple I know of that I don't come across often but did when I was in school:

出来る

instead of できる

〜て下さる

instead of 〜てくださる.

[maninhat]

the first one i will agree is rediculous, but the last two i see and use quite often actually.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by maninhat

the first one i will agree is rediculous, but the last two i see and use quite often actually.

By whom?

I was explicitly corrected when I was a student and used them. My (Japanese-citizen) professor may have even deducted points off my essays. It may even have happened when I attended university in Japan as well, but I may have learned by then not to use those kanji in that way.

I was taught that it is poor style to use kanji for 〜て下さる (but not for を下さる) and poor style to use 出来る rather than できる. Sort of like writing "labour" or "specialise" in the US. It's technically correct, but poor style to do so. Or maybe more like writing "can't" instead of "cannot," e.g. It's technically correct, but considered poor style in certain contexts.

Some quick googling revealed this:

「できる」
・出来合い、出来上がり、出来心、出来高、出来具合な ど、「でき…」という場合は漢字を使う。
・…することができる、できる限り、できるだけ、勉強 がよくできる、橋ができる、理解できるなど、動詞、副 詞などは原則として平仮名書き

which confirms what I said (granted this isn't an authoritative source).

Additionally, I know for a fact there is a "Japanese style guide" that says you should only use the kanji version of 下さる when speaking of receiving an object, not when someone does something for you. That is to say,

○コーヒを下さい
×宿題を出して下さい
○宿題を出してください

On a Mac, typing ください in the first and third examples automatically went to kanji after hitting spacebar. However, in the second example, I had to hit it twice (the first time it remained kana). So Mac software seems to recognize the style rule, too.

Finally, this website confirms what I said about ください: 「下さい」と「ください」の使い分け（広報Q&A）：日本 広報協会

「クダ」の部分を漢字にするか仮名書きにするかは、意 味や用法によって使い分ける必要があります。
漢字を使う場合
「飲み物をクダさい」といった実質動詞（「くれ」の尊 敬・丁寧表現）の場合は、「下さい」と漢字書きにしま す。
仮名書きにする場合
「お飲みクダさい」といった補助動詞（何かをお願いす るときや、敬意を表す尊敬・丁寧表現）の場合は、「く ださい」と仮名書きにします。

[jesselt]

My Japanese text books frequently used ~て下さい in the first book but then randomly stopped using it in the second book. Weird.

[SSJup81]

I see dekiru written in Kanji all the time.

[dostoyevsky]

I also wonder about this. On Facebook I sometimes see some Japanese native speakers write:

頑張って

whereas others will simply write

がんばって

I think the key is whether the hiragana version of the word is unambiguous enough for not being confused with something else that is pronounced the same. So I'd say the rule of thumb is something like: If it's a very common expression, hiragana should be specific enough.... Still confusing though: In my Assimil books I see 行きます but できます is always written in Hiragana (maybe the latter one cannot be expressed with Chinese characters?)

[Tsuruneru]

それは問題の漢字のものを入れるのですか?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by Tsuruneru

それは問題の漢字のものを入れるのですか?

What? I don't understand what you're saying.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by SSJup81

I see dekiru written in Kanji all the time.

As I said, it's a stylistic issue. Additionally, whom do you see using this? Foreigners or Japanese? I provided references to web pages supporting my claim. I didn't say it was literally wrong. It's poor style. Thus, learners using kanji as such would be "using kanji too much." Perhaps Japanese using kanji the same way do not have an education in style. Similarly, Americans frequently write essays for class with contractions despite the fact that this is categorically poor form for scholarly essays. I was an editor for an academic journal: I should know.

Obviously Nago or Yuri could come along and shoot what I'm saying down, but I feel fairly confident in what I'm saying simply because I'm finding Japanese articles online agreeing with me.

[Tsuruneru]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

What? I don't understand what you're saying.

Is it a problem putting things kanji?