6840
Kinda out-of-topic.

I know that old Japanese books are written in Classical Chinese (or Written
Chinese), like 日本書紀/Nihon Shoki. As I have known, Chinese people learn
Classical Chinese quite well and many of them can understand books written in
it.

So, do Japanese people learn or write in it? How well will Japanese people
learn? :-)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-17T05:30:19.183
6839
2012-09-17T16:32:04.427
2012-09-17T14:06:42.773
1716
1716
question
chinese classical-japanese
Do Japanese study classical Chinese?
[漢文](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun) (Classical Chinese) is taught in 高校
(at least at most private schools). Thus most Japanese should be vaguely
familiar with the ideas of 漢文 (reading characters backwards, inserting
particles, etc.), but this is not enough to be able to read 漢文 properly.
Still, just by looking at the characters, the Japanese will be able to extract
some meaning, of course.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-17T05:54:09.390
6840
2012-09-17T05:54:09.390
1628
6839
answer
I looked through a recent センター国語 past test (a standard test for college
admissions) and there was a 漢文 section. So it appears at least colleges expect
this, which suggests it should be somewhat common knowledge.

This
[wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_Test_for_University_Admissions)
article says 漢文 counts for 25 percent of the 国語 section.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-17T16:32:04.427
6841
2012-09-17T16:32:04.427
878
6839
answer