From: Patrick Davin LYRA VEGA OR JP> Date: 15 nov 1999 Subject: Re: How many kanji for shogi? Can't say that I've learned Japanese strictly for shogi, but... Shogi is certainly a technical subject and your quoted figures sound about right. So, if you want to read Japanese shogi books but are not terribly interested in other subjects, is it more efficient to study only those Kanji that appear in shogi books? I believe so, sure thing. On the other hand (and I don't mean this to discourage anyone) 80% can actually be frustrating. How often will an unknown Kanji correspond with a critical point being made? So, when you learn those 365, consider it a milestone. Take a breath and keep going... :-) tiger22: >According to someone at the University of Wisconsin: "Learning to read >technical Japanese is much easier than learning to read news or cultural >materials; the required vocabulary and grammar turn out to be very >restricted. Only 365 KANJI are needed to cover 80% of the KANJI found in >physics, chemistry, biology, and their related engineering disciplines! >The repetition of vocabulary is far greater for technical material than >for normal Japanese materials." >http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/KanjiFlash/tech.htm >I think shogi is a kind of technical subject and I'm wondering if the >same theory applies. That is, about 365 kanji covers 80% of the >vocabulary found in Japanese shogi books. Has anybody tried to learn >Japanese just to read shogi books? Someone else commented to the effect that there are sufficient materials in English to learn shogi, so why learn Japanese? Though the real reason is "because it's amusing to do so", some might also question the use of the word "sufficient". While there are a handful of shogi books in English, there are hundreds or perhaps thousands in Japanese. I think it can safely be asserted that some of these contain material that has not been adequately covered in English. 'nuf said. Gambatte. :-)