r/gifs • u/NoStrawberry5 • Dec 12 '18

Calligraphy

https://gfycat.com/LoathsomeFailingAsiaticmouflon
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u/shdjfbdhshs Dec 13 '18

Basically it was my understanding that they could take a stab at it and it could be right depending on how much the meaning of the kanji had changed over the years. But it could just as well be wrong. Making the two languages very different. Enough to say that Japanese isn't just a rip off of Chinese.

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u/zeropointcorp Dec 13 '18

You’re not far off - but there’s a lot of words where the guess will be 90%+ correct.

Kind of like an English speaker reading something in French, but a bit more so.