Learning Japanese Language

[dorothia15]

I am starting to learn Japanese language or in Swedish it is called as Japanska språk. I have just finished Swedish and French language program. About the Japanese language, I am quite confused about the way they use their numbers. Somtimes they use “Kanji” and sometimes they are using “Arabic” numerals. What is the difference between the two? When is it appropriate to use “Kanji” and “Arabic”.

[QuackingShoe]

It's the same as writing "one" and writing "1." 千五百六十二 is an eyeful, 1562 isn't.
Though, the general rule in English is to actually write out the number from ten and below, and use numerals for anything above. This is less true in Japanese, where they use numerals just about as often with the lower numbers. Which is very, very often.

[Belton]

In general, when writing left to right Arabic numerals are usually used. When writing Top to Bottom, Right to Left Kanji are usually preferred.

In daily life, you can often see prices in restaurants in Kanji, especially if they are posted on the walls or on wooden slats. I've also seen them used in food stalls and vegetable stalls. Everywhere you see 万 used as a shorthand in a similar way to K in English.

It's not quite the same as Arabic numerals being written out (one etc) as I think Japanese read them as readily as we read Arabic numerals and use them in places we would use Arabic numerals. (IMO)

To complicate things there are other kanji used to prevent fraud in legal documents. Changing a 一 to 二 or 三　（壱　弐　参）
When giving money at a wedding (or funeral) you write the amount on the envelope using these kanji.

[jemstone]

To complicate things there are other kanji used to prevent fraud in legal documents. Changing a 一 to 二 or 三　（壱　弐　参）

you know, i never thought of it this way until you just said it. and it makes perfect sense!

even though i'm chinese, i always thought it was the old way of writing because often the old way of writing has a lot more complicated strokes.

[Belton]

I think the easiest and most blatant would be 一 to 十, 三 to 五,　or 十 to 千 !

[jaypunkrawk]

So is there another kanji for ten? Because changing 十 to 千 is quite a jump!

[Belton]

I had to look them up but here's 1 to 10, 100, 1000

壱 [いち] (num) one (used in legal documents)
弐 [に] (num) two (used in legal documents)
参 [さん] (num) three (used in legal documents)
肆 [し] (num) four (used in legal documents)
伍 [ご] (num) five (used in legal documents)
陸 [ろく] (num) six (used in legal documents)
漆 [しち] (num) seven (used in legal documents)
漆 [なな] (num) seven (used in legal documents)
捌 [はち] (num) eight (used in legal documents)
玖 [きゅう] (num) nine (used in legal documents)
拾 [じゅう] (num) ten (used in legal documents)
佰 [はく] (n,num) hundred (used in legal documents)
陌 [ひゃく] (num) one hundred (used in legal documents)
仟 [せん] (num) thousand (used in legal documents)
阡 [せん] (num) thousand (used in legal documents)

and probably 10,000
萬 [まん] (num) (1) 10,000, ten thousand

[jemstone]

long live belton!!

[dorothia15]

Thank you for your warm response friends. I appreciate it a lot!