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々 doesn't seem to be a real kanji, but at what grade is it taught?

I'm trying to work out the maximum grade level for 四字熟語【よじじゅくご】, so I'm wondering how to classify something like 興味津々【きょうみしんしん】 with the first three characters having grade levels 5, 3 and 8, but what is the fourth?

Ken Y-N
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1 Answers1

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Since 々 is not a kanji in the first place, there is no rule regarding in which school year it is taught. The official kyoiku kanji list does not mention this symbol at all.

Still, there are many easier two-kanji compounds including 々, such as 人々 and 時々, and 四字熟語 is a relatively difficult set of words no matter how easy their kanji are. For example, you cannot assume a first grader knows the meaning of 三々五々 even though 三 and 五 are very easy as kanji. It's hard to imagine someone who can read a 四字熟語 does not understand 々. If you are specifically working on 四字熟語, I think you really don't have to worry about the "grade" of this symbol.

naruto
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  • Would 々 be taught in first grade then since I imagine 人々 and 時々 might be very early vocabulary? – Ken Y-N Dec 01 '19 at 15:47
  • @KenY-N You can always use kana (ときどき, [わたし](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/62132/5010)), so just because a word is easy doesn't mean its kanji is taught early. I myself definitely knew the meaning of 々 in the first grade, but TBH I don't remember when my teacher officially taught it to me. In addition, 人々 is not really an easy word like "people" in English. – naruto Dec 02 '19 at 08:53