分かる wakaru
If you're studying on your own, chances are you've heard this word plenty. Often it translates to things like "to understand." Let's learn a little bit more of this word.
First, look at the kanji that is used to write it: 分
Now, kanji are not pictograms, and you shouldn't look at them as pictures most of the time, but the kanji used in wakaru is literally a 刀 katana (Japanese war sword) cutting through something (see the split wood above the "sword"?)
Of course, wakaru doesn't mean to cut through things, but this kanji is also used to mean things like "divide." The idea behind wakaru is that, in your head, you are "cutting up" or dividing information into understandable parts -- you are making your brain able to comprehend information.
The reason I'm bringing up this word is because its dictionary definition can be misleading. It's always better to pick up words by hearing their usage rather than seeing a translation and assuming they are used the same way.
I was inspired to write this post again after playing UNLIMITED:Saga and realized this a mistake a lot of beginners and self-study students can make.
A lot of times, when you want to say "I don't know," you will use 分からない wakaranai. If you were to use a dictionary, you would probably come up with 知らない siranai/shiranai; however, often it is a lot more natural to use wakaranai instead.
In the opening of U:Sg (Laura's quest), Laura is asking Henri why there are people after him, who they are, if they are bandits or hired, etc. To her questions, he answers simply 分かりません wakarimasen each time. He's saying this not because he's claiming not to understand her questions, but he's saying that he doesn't know the answers -- he doesn't understand the meaning behind his chasers' actions.
But it's used in all kinds of situations. Usually if someone is asking you "how" or "why," even if in English you would answer "I don't know," you would answer wakaranai in Japanese.
The dictionary translation of "to know," 知る siru/shiru, is about knowing in the sense of being familiar with things. Like how you "know" a person, "know" of a place, or "know" a fact. It's used for that kind of "know." Of course, in the case where someone asks you a question about how or why and you absolutely don't know the answer, you can say siranai/shiranai, but if you're not using it with someone who knows you well or you are casual with, it can have a nuance of something like "I don't know (and I really don't care)." unless you say it just right. Often, it's what little kids will say when their 1st grade teacher asks them a question and they don't want to answer because they don't feel like being in school. It's like "Why would you even ask me that? How could I possibly know?" That kind of feeling is carried in siranai/shiranai.
When you're talking about knowing someone or knowing a fact, you can use siru/shiru, but when you're talking about "knowing" anything else, I'd say it's safe to say wakaru first.
Even still, though, in a lot of situations, people still will use wakaru to state that they don't know something.
A lot of times when I see people asking for the title of a song (like, they've heard a song but don't know the name), they will state their request by saying 曲名が分かりません kyoukumei ga wakarimasen, meaning "I don't know the (song) title."
When you want to say you don't know Korean, you would say 韓国語がわからない kankokugo ga wakaranai, which means by a dictionary that you don't "understand" Korean, but it's the same way that you would say you don't understand/speak/know Korean. If someone is speaking Japanese to you, but you aren't good enough to understand them, you can say すみません、日本語分かりません。 Sumimasen, nihongo wakarimasen. This would mean "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese." A lot of people who were using a dictionary would try to say something like 話せない hanasenai, but this isn't very natural (and you're talking about understanding their speech in your apology, not your ability to speak... although it is true that you're not able to speak back. But if you're saying your response in Japanese, even if that's all you know, you do technically have that ability to speak, so it would be weird to say that.)
Check out these Google instructions that teach you how to look up the spelling of words when you don't know the spelling. 分からない単語の正しいスペル wakaranai tango no tadasii/tadashii superu is a phrase that refers to not knowing the spelling of a word, not that you don't understand the word, even though a dictionary would translate wakaranai to "don't understand."
The main point here is that wakaru, although a dictionary will say "to understand," is used to mean "know" in the sense that we use it in English, among many other things, and it's important to listen out for it and pick it up this way. A lot of times when you want to use what we would say as "know" in English, it's better to use wakaru instead of siru/shiru or other words.
And since we're talking about the word, another important use of wakaru is receiving directions or information. When someone has explained something to you or told you to do something, you can say 分かった wakatta to confirm that you understood what was said. It means kind of like "got it" or "ok," though literally means "understood." But you will hear this a lot, so listen for it, too.
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