Three at Once

Japanese · Page 1 of 3

Name Date
DIRECTIONS: Don’t read it: look at the shapes. Write each character’s number in the column its shape belongs to.
1. Sort this sentence.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Dense and blocky

lots of strokes packed into a square

Loopy and round

curly, made of few strokes, no corners

Sharp and angular

straight lines and hard corners, very plain

And Again, Cold

Japanese · Page 2 of 3

DIRECTIONS: Same job, new sentence. No looking back.
2. Sort this one the same way.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Dense and blocky

lots of strokes packed into a square

Loopy and round

curly, made of few strokes, no corners

Sharp and angular

straight lines and hard corners, very plain
Lopsided? Notice which column is fullest, then turn over.

What You Just Sorted

Japanese · Page 3 of 3

DIRECTIONS: Japanese uses three writing systems in every sentence, each with a job. Read, then answer.
Kanji — the dense blocky ones. Borrowed from Chinese a very long time ago, and they carry the meaty words: drink, watch, person, mountain.
Hiragana — the loopy ones. They carry the grammar: the endings, and the little words that hold the meaty ones together.
Katakana — the sharp angular ones. They spell anything imported from somewhere else. This one says coffee.
  1. In the second sentence, which system did the most characters belong to?
  2. You got the sorting right without knowing what any of it meant. What were you actually using to decide?