[xandrius]

The difference is that for most words you can easily get 90% there in English and, even if you don't read it properly, the listener can somewhat get what you are trying to say.

And say you don't know how to read "conscientiousness" but you know how to read "con" and "ousness" you can try to go for con-shu-tiouness and at least you're somewhere.

It's not the case with Kanjis, sure you might know one part of a word but you might be wrong. Also similar looking kanji don't read similarly at all, so even that is out of the window.

And don't get me started on the approach of applying memoization techniques purely on the strokes of a kanji, that's gonna hurt more than not.

Simple examples:

- 末 and 未

- 大 and 犬

- 千 and 干

[numpad0]

It actually works the same way in Japanese. Radicals give rough clues about meanings as well as pronunciation. Similar looking kanji do read similarly. It's just... you can read pronounce "brochures" in either French style or in Southern American, and which one is more appropriate depends.

edit: Simple examples:

  - 臆 and 億
  - 誤 and 語
  - 諦 and 締

[xandrius]

Not always, as I wrote in another comment this is because of the Japanese script reform for "modernising" and simplifying the script. So sometimes kanji look similar but are not. More info at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_script_reform#Mazeg...

[numpad0]

So, I don't know what to say, but to be honest, I never even thought 千 and 干 can be considered similar...

[coffeeling]

皮 彼 波

[numpad0]

pi, hi, ha?

[coffeeling]

  皮 kawa
  彼 kare
  波 nami

[codedokode]

The advantage though is that even if you don't know the word, you can guess the meaning if it contains familiar character(s). Also except for the first one, your examples are easy to distinguish.

[xandrius]

Yep and no. That's a common misconception. Like Chinese, old Japanese went through a systematic simplification of its kanji 100 or so years ago. The rules were decided a priori to make the job easier. This meant that several kanjis ended up looking somewhat similar even though they have nothing to do with each other. That's why comparing kanji can work but it can also backfire and lead you astray.