Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
No, Japanese people cannot read Chinese. They may be able to recognize characters, but the way Chinese characters are used is very different than Japanese.
Japanese adopted Chinese characters in the same way English adopted the Roman alphabet. That doesn't mean we are able to read Greek, though.
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Japanese adopted Chinese characters based on the now defunct Classical Written Chinese.
Classical Chinese can be easily read by Japanese and Koreans and it is taught in high school as part of Kanbun class in Japan. Elementary Classical Chinese grammar and Japanese conversion rules is taught as part of the curriculum.
Classical Chinese is completely different to Modern spoken Chinese. Any educated Japanese person would know who 李白 and 杜甫 is. Chinese poetry are also composed by Japanese and Korean scholars even today and it can be interpreted by both Chinese, Korean and Japanese without any translation.
However, Classical Chinese is just as difficult regardless whether you know Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Just because you can speak modern spoken Chinese, doesn't really give you any advantage in interpreting Classical Chinese.