共感（きょうかん、kyoukan）
- empathy

The Japanese word 共感, read きょうかん, primarily means "empathy," "sympathy," or "to sympathize." It describes the feeling of understanding and sharing the feelings of another person. It's about being able to emotionally connect with someone else's experiences and perspectives. It's not just about knowing what someone is feeling, but also *feeling* it with them. It can also refer to agreement or resonance with an idea or opinion. It implies a deeper emotional understanding.

⚫︎ 彼の話に深く共感した。 Translation: I deeply sympathized with his story. ⚫︎ 彼女の意見に共感する人が多かった。 Translation: Many people agreed with her opinion. ⚫︎ その映画は多くの人に共感を呼んだ。 Translation: That movie resonated with many people.

⚫︎ You would use 共感 in situations where you want to express that you understand and share someone's feelings. ⚫︎ It is appropriate when discussing someone's personal experiences, problems, or achievements. ⚫︎ You can also use it when discussing ideas, opinions, or works of art that you agree with or find moving. ⚫︎ It is often used in conversations about emotions, relationships, and societal issues. You can use this word when you want to express your understanding of another person's feelings or experiences.

⚫︎ 共感 is most commonly written in kanji. ⚫︎ The reading is きょうかん in hiragana. ⚫︎ It's not generally written in katakana. ⚫︎ There are no variations in the okurigana. It's always 共感.

⚫︎ 同情 (どうじょう) - sympathy, compassion (can be used, but implies a stronger sense of pity) ⚫︎ 理解 (りかい) - understanding (focuses more on intellectual understanding, rather than emotional) ⚫︎ 感情移入 (かんじょういにゅう) - empathy, identification (implies deeply feeling someone else's emotions) ⚫︎ 共鳴 (きょうめい) - resonance, echo (can be used to describe agreement or shared feeling)

⚫︎ 無関心 (むかんしん) - indifference ⚫︎ 反感 (はんかん) - antipathy, aversion ⚫︎ 不理解 (ふりかい) - lack of understanding

私は彼の苦しみにとても共感しました。 ・Translation: I felt great empathy for his suffering. ・Explanation: This sentence demonstrates 共感 being used to express emotional understanding and shared feelings of another person's suffering.

そのアーティストの作品は、多くの観客に深い共感を与えた。 ・Translation: The artist's work gave deep empathy to many audience members. ・Explanation: This shows how 共感 is used when describing a feeling that artwork can evoke in an audience.

⚫︎ The word 共感 is composed of two kanji: 共 (きょう), meaning "together," "shared," or "mutual," and 感 (かん), meaning "feeling," "sensation," or "emotion." ⚫︎ The combination of these characters creates the meaning of sharing feelings together or mutual feeling.