Once you navigate down to a certain level, the site uses frames to split your window into two parts. The top part of the screen contains the standard logo and navigation toolbar. The bottom part of the screen is further divided into two halves, left and right.
The left-hand side gives lists of kanji, or compounds made from more than one
kanji. If you're having difficulty remembering a character's reading, you can
reveal it by moving your mouse cursor over the kanji. Then, for more information
on that particular kanji, clicking on it will call up all manner of info in
the right-hand window, without losing the left-hand window. Don't believe me?
Then try the handy example below...
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Furthermore, the complete reading of that compound is accessible by moving your mouse over the small Japanese flag to the right; the English translation is also accessible via the small UK flag. To read either, move the cursor over the flag and leave it there for a couple of seconds. It should appear in a pop-up window, if you're using Internet Explorer. With Netscape Navigator, the meanings should appear in your browser's status bar, which is found at the bottom of your browser's window. Try it above.
If you haven't done so already, click on the "dai" kanji above and look at the page that comes up on the right of your browser screen. You should get a list of different readings, plus examples of usage, and even a guide to help you distinguish between it and other similar-looking characters.
The readings in capitals are called on-readings, and are loosely (very loosely) based on the original Chinese pronunciation. These are most commonly used with other kanji to form compounds, whereas the lower case readings are called kun-readings, and are typically complete Japanese words or stems of verbs or adjectives. See the What's a kanji? section of the site for a more detailed explanation.
Here, leaving the cursor over a miniature kanji tile will generate a small floating box containing either the reading or translation. Again, clicking on any kanji will bring up information about that character in the right-hand window. Clicking on the large kanji at the top of the page will reset the right-hand side to a blank page. This way beginner-level students needn't be unduly worried if they follow a link to a kanji they don't "need" to know; they can simply return to the previous page using their browser's "back" button, or reset the page and forget all about it...
Until they take the next level, of course....
I've tried not to have too many links from Level 4 kanji to higher-level kanji. However, I'm of the opinion that even kanji you don't need yet are worth investigating for curiosity's sake. Furthermore, although you can indeed make the word daimyou (feudal lord) from Level 4 kanji, it is perhaps unlikely to crop up during your test sentences about what kind of bentou Mrs.Tanaka bought this morning. The point is that this is a kanji site, not a rigourous vocabulary primer, and anything that helps you learn how kanji can fit together has got to be good. Right? Right.
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