Kanji - The Chinese Characters

漢字（かんじ）are the Chinese characters used by the Japanese.
By the time children graduate from high school in Japan, they are expected to know 1945 of them. These 1945 are referred to as the Jouyou kanji, or 常用漢字.
You won't need to know all of them, just the most common ones.
As you learn them, you start with the most common, and work toward the less common ones.

They have two types of pronunciation: 音読み（おにょみ）, the Chinese readings, and
訓読み（くんょみ）, the Japanese ones.

most words consist of two kanji.
The Chinese 音読み pronunciations are typically used when they are in pairs.
The Japanese 訓読み are used with individual ones.

The ones for the days of the week are some of the most common.
Note that these are 音読み, and are different by themselves.


日曜日-nichiyoubi-Sunday
月曜日-getsuyoubi-Monday
火曜日-kayoubi-Tuesday
水曜日-suiyoubi-Wednesday
木曜日-mokuyoubi-Thursday
金曜日-kinyoubi-Friday
土曜日-doyoubi-Saturday

日 - nichi - sun
月 - getsu - moon
火 - ka - fire
水 - sui - water
木 - moku - tree
金 - kin - gold, metal
土 - do - earth
"-曜日", or "-youbi", is the equivalent of "-day"

In 訓読み、the plain, single Japanese kanji,
Fire, or 火, is ひ.
(drinkable)water, or 水, is みず.

Next time I'll show you the first 80 "grade 1" kanji.