学
がく · gaku · JLPT N3 · noun
learning
🧒🏫 学 = child 子 under a roof 冖: a child at school, learning
The old form 學 showed two hands guiding counting sticks 爻 above a roofed building where a child 子 studies. It is the 学 in 学生 (gakusei, student) and 大学 (daigaku, university).
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.