Kanji of the Week: 場
Last time we talked about one of my favourite kanji ever. Well let's flip it, and talk about one of my LEAST liked kanji. I am of course talking about 場, the kanji for place, location.
"That's one of the most common kanji" I hear you say. "No way you hate that one" First of all, I am capable of many things. Second of all... ok, I don't HATE hate it. But it has brought me a lot of discomfort over time.
The common onyomi reading is じょう, and the kunyomi ば. Aha, and there's were my hatred for it lies.
When I was restarting my whole learning of kanji, this is one of the characters that gave me the most trouble. Mostly because, at a glance, it was impossible for me to tell which reading would be used in the word. Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to explain that even if I knew the other kanji would use their kun or on reading, 場 could be... anything, really.
Let's go through some words real quick.
入場
Entrance. Let's be fair and start with an easy one. Both onyomi readings, so that makes it にゅうじょう. Nothing weird here.
立場
Standpoint. Again, easy, both use their kunyomi reading. たちば. It does that thing where it holds the whole noun reading in the first word (as in, 立 instead of 立ち), but otherwise fairly straightforward.
役場
Now we are talking. This is Town hall. Ok, what's the reading for this one then? Hint: the first kanji is using the onyomi, which is やく. So it is やくじょう？ Nope, やくば. I suppose you can say "oh, well, but it's marking it's thing+place, it would be like getting mad at a lake called something+湖". Ok how about this.
戦場
Battlefield. Read with both onyomi, so it's せんじょう. Also a thing I see every time Unite and Fight happens in Granblue. I do not want to play Guild Wars, but as that gif from Lamy says...
I suppose a battlefield is not necessary something that's a place, but a thing that happens in a place, right? Maybe that's the difference?
職場
EMPLOYMENT JUMPSCARE. Also it's read しょくば, half on half kun. Fuck you!
I would expect to be kiiinda like the one above, right? Because yes, work happens in a place, but it's more of a thing that happens in a place that the place being the workplace. Does that make sense?
場所
Place. It uses both of the place kanji. It's read as ばしょ. Yep, kun and on again. At least this one is so common that I kinda have it burned in my brain, but still.
I guess it's a pretty silly thing, but I still wanted to write something down for it. Maybe eventually I will reach illumination and figure out why it works this way. Until then, I will smoulder with cartoonish rage.