A call went out on the WWWEDU mailing list for volunteers to participate in a quick survey asking which of five different samples of Japanese character (kanji) font was the most appealing to them. 10 hours later, there were 31 votes in my mailbox. 40 hours after the initial request was made, there were a total of 48 votes. During the next 6 hours, no further votes were forthcoming, so the "polls were closed". None of the WWWEDU respondants had Japanese or Chinese names, and none indicated that they were native speakers of either Japanese or Chinese. (In fact, very few indicated any knowledge of kanji at all.) Two had experience living in Japan. It's assumed, therefore, that this sample consists of people who do not encounter kanji in any communicative or "meaning-ful" sense on a daily basis.
After two days, a call for participants in the survey went out on JALT CALL. ("JALT" stands for the Japan Association for Language Teaching.) Unlike the WWWEDU announcement, the JALT CALL announcement did not specify the reason for the survey, only that it was for a project involving my students. The JALT CALL announcement asked that participants have experience living in Japan. Furthermore, JALT CALL participants were asked to state whether they were native speakers of Japanese or not, and if not, how well they knew kanji. A total of 25 votes were collected (6 from native speakers of Japanese, 19 from non-native speakers). 2 votes were not counted in the tally: one expressed no preference (but indicated a dislike for #2), and one liked the "kan" (first character) from #1 and the "ji" (second character) from #5. The votes from the native speakers of Japanese were evenly distributed among the alternatives. So, this sample consists of people who do (or have) encounter(ed) kanji in meaningful ways on a daily basis (e.g., reading signs, etc.).
In order to avoid overlap so that a late WWWEDU vote was inadvertantly counted as a JALT CALL vote, all of the WWWEDU votes went to my home e-mail address, and all of the JALT CALL votes went to my work e-mail address.
My own students voted during the JALT CALL vote. I have 13 students.
This survey is part of a project in which Japanese students explain the meanings of their names to non-Japanese readers. GIF images will be made of their names using one of the fonts. This survey was taken in order to compare the results with the student survey in order to assess possible cultural differences between the perceptions of the different styles.
Here are the tallies of the votes. Percentages are rounded off.
|
Kanji Font Sample |
WWWEDU (48 votes) |
My Students (13 votes) |
JALT CALL (23 votes) |
 |
WINNER Number 3, with 26 votes. (54.1%) |
WINNER (TIE) Number 3, with 4 votes. (37.8%) |
WINNER Number 3, with 8 votes. (34.8%) |
 |
SECOND PLACE Number 5, with 14 votes. (29.1%) |
WINNER (TIE) Number 5, with 4 votes. (37.8%) |
THIRD PLACE Number 5, with 4 votes. (17.4%) |
 |
THIRD PLACE Number 1, with 7 votes. (14.5%) |
SECOND PLACE TIE Number 1, with 2 votes. (15.4%) |
SECOND PLACE Number 1, with 7 votes. (30.4%) |
 |
FOURTH PLACE Number 2, with 1 vote. (2%) |
LAST PLACE Number 2, with 1 vote. (7.7%) |
LAST PLACE (TIE) Number 2, with 2 votes. (8.7%) |
 |
LAST PLACE Number 4, with 0 votes (0%) |
SECOND PLACE TIE Number 4, with 2 votes. (15.4%) |
LAST PLACE (TIE) Number 4, with 2 votes. (8.7%) |
Bill Pellowe
billp@gol.com
May 3, 1997
Link: Student course
Link: home - in need of construction :)
Link: Kyushu JALT page