Kanji Disassembled #10: ‘Alright’

Doubtless, if you’re a fan of anime, you’re going to hear this word a lot. It was so often appears that if you don’t notice it, then simply, you aren’t eligible to call yourself an anime fan. It’s “daijoubu” or often translated as “Alright” as in, “daijoubu ka?” (Jap.大丈夫か？) or “Are you alright?” or “Are you okay?”

This word has three syllables (dai.jou.bu), and each has their own kanji. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be too hard to memorize this word and its kanji for they share the strikingly similar shape.

The first kanji, “dai” is a kanji that often translated as “big.” Imagine a person, spread his legs as wide as permitted, spread his arms as wide as possible to make himself look big, and you get the idea.

The second kanji, “jou” is a kanji that looks a bit like the previous kanji explained but with one simple exception. The very last downward stroke, is crossing the second downward stroke where in the previous kanji for “dai” the last stroke begins roughly from a point where the first horizontal stroke intersects with the second downward left-wise stroke. This kanji represents the word “length.” Imagine you do some shape that indicates a rough length of something with your two hands. You won’t ended up spreading your hands apart unless you described something “big” but rather fold your elbow appropriately which is how the last stroke of this symbol looks like to me.

The third kanji, “bu” is a kanji for a husband or “head of the family.” I was using a metaphor to remember this kanji, by combining a kanji for “big” as we’ve seen above, plus a horizontal stroke that symbolizes a “head” near the top.

Combining these three into a single meaning probably isn’t obvious, but here’s my story to it. “The sense of security, a sense that everything is alright, that everything is okay could be much easier to obtain if we’re having enough space to wiggle. A space big enough, a space with enough length to go through hard times. And in a family, it is my job, as a husband to provide the space big enough, long enough so as for my family to have a sense that everything, no matter how bad, is going to be alright.”

Okay, I’m a bit stretching here, but as usual it works, and like I said before, the fact that this word is represented by a three suspiciously similar consecutive kanjis made this kanji (and the meaning) a relative stood out.