Japanese people's Japanese spelling mistakes

[tanuki]

Hello!

So, I was wondering...how hard is Japanese spelling for Japanese people? Like, for example, we all have had (or still have...) our problems writing words in our own languages, but how does it look with the Japanese writing system? How are the Japanese people's spelling mistakes?

Do they use wrong kana? I would be surprised if this happened a lot, since the kana are phonetic.

Do they use wrong kanji? I guess this must be hard for some people...

Do they mix up hiragana and katakana? Like, writing foreign words in hiragana and such.

Do they write kanji badly, with missing parts, lines, etc.? I don't know if this can be called "spelling", but it is a mistake anyway.

Or what else? Thanks a lot in advance for your replies!

[Sharingana]

Do they use wrong kana? I would be surprised if this happened a lot, since the kana are phonetic.

Actually, I've seen this quite a few times...even my Japanese Language teacher (who is Japanese) has done this before...not that I'm one to talk, pathetic little second year student that I am ^^ Once, during my first year, a Japanese exchange student was a TA in my class, and when we were practcing our kana writing in calligraphy, he wrote the character "み" without that last little line on the end, and no one noticed until another student (also Japanese), pointed it out. We all though it was funny, though.

Do they use wrong kanji? I guess this must be hard for some people...

Do they write kanji badly, with missing parts, lines, etc.? I don't know if this can be called "spelling", but it is a mistake anyway.

Oh, yeah. Many Japanese people I know have told me they do this all the time...and its no surprise - many kanji seem to differ only by a single stroke. Take "本" and　"木" for instance. While, personally, I've written them enough I almost never mix them up, I can see where it would be easy to forget that last line. And when you get into kanji with 14+ strokes, its even harder.
Also, with kanji that are really difficult to write, a lot are simply abbreviated in kind of a short-hand fashion...at which point, you probably just have to take them in context to figure out what's being said.

Well, that's my take on things. Hope it was somewhat enlightening...

[Shibakoen]

A couple years ago there was a game show on in Japan where the Japanese contestants would use kanji for foreign words in katakana. It surprised me how often the contestants would have incorrect kanji. You know how the TV in Japan usually has kanji text going along the bottom (everything's closed captioned, I guess). Anyway, they would actually correct the contestants mistakes. It made me feel much better about studying kanji.

[keatonatron]

My Japanese teachers forget kanji every once in a while. Maybe once every two or three days (considering we're in class every day for 5 hours a day, that's actually not too bad!). Most of the time they just forget which kanji it is and have to think for a bit. The second most common mistake is using a wrong radical. It's very rare for them to write the correct kanji but miss a single stroke.

As for hiragana, spelling mistakes are pretty slim. Compared to English, spelling in Japanese is EXTREMELY easy. I've never seen one of my teachers make a spelling mistake with hiragana.

With foreigners, the biggest problem is with long vowels (i.e. しょ　しょう、　しゅ　しゅう、　お　おう etc), but I haven't seen Japanese people make this mistake (probably because they can distinguish Japanese sounds so well)

[Shibakoen]

You forgot the small tsu. That always gave my class problems.

[keatonatron]

Oh yeah, that one too!

In my class, the Chinese and Thai students have a BIG problem with "ten-ten" (i.e.　か　が、　た　だ). So... I guess for some asian cultures, that's a hard one. Seems to be no problem for westerners though.

[Frumious Boojum]

Reminds me of something I was reading last night... in it, there was an alien, "The Slime King" who wrote one two many strokes on the kanji for King and accidentally called himself the Slime Ball -- which greatly amused this little boy.

(In Japanese in Mangaland - not exactly the best language book, but does add a little to help.)

[ebear215]

I can give you an example right here!

Media: http://www.ear-tweak.com/iy_sounds/wtfistenka.mp3
Translation:
KAPPEI: [The title is] Inuyasha...
(long pause)
SATSUKI: Yes?
KAPPEI: ...I can't read the kanji.
(laughter and random loud "Whaaaat?!" from the cast)
KAPPEI: (laugh) I can't read this kanji. Hehe, of course. Okay, so the title is... (dramatic music) Inuaysha: Tenka Hadou no Ken! Ah, so "Tenka" is... uh... er...
SATSUKI: ...kinda hard, isn't it?
KAPPEI: What the heck DOES this say? Looks like it's "west-morning..."
SATSUKI: It's "world conquest."
KAPPEI: Oh! Right! Right!

[coco]

Please read this thread.
When I searched Paul-san's question, i had remembered your thread.
(at that time I could not find this thread though)

The word 鍵前 is not correct word. (Japan Crime Prevention Association answered my question) But put the word 鍵前 in Google. They(=日本人) confuse 鍵 with 錠.

And as you know I have many typos in Japanese ( of course with engrish-SAE!).

[paul_b]

誤字等の館 is well worth a visit.