単純 and 複雑: Actual Structure and Mixed Feelings
Compare a structure that is simpler than it looks with complicated passages and a face showing mixed feelings. Identify appearance, structure, and the object of evaluation.
単純 (たんじゅん): Structure and a task
「複雑に見えるが、仕組みは意外に単純だ。」 — “It looks complicated, but the structure is surprisingly simple.” Something that looks complicated has a surprisingly simple structure. Read the difference between appearance and actual structure.
「単純な作業ほど確認を忘れやすい。」 — “The simpler a task is, the easier it is to forget to double-check it.” The simpler the task, the easier it is to forget a check. Simplicity does not guarantee that everyone completes it without a mistake.
複雑 (ふくざつ): Passages and an expression
「駅の地下通路は複雑で迷いやすい。」 — “The station's underground passages are complex and easy to get lost in.” The underground passages are complicated and easy to get lost in. A condition making loss of direction likely is not a report that someone actually got lost.
「彼女はうれしさと寂しさが混じる複雑な表情を見せた。」 — “She wore a complicated expression mixing joy and loneliness.” The expression mixes joy and loneliness. Its complexity concerns mixed feelings rather than the difficulty of a physical structure.
Appearance apart from the evaluated object
The apparently complicated object is evaluated by its simple structure; the expression is evaluated by the combination of feelings. Simple and complicated do not supply a fixed scale of good and bad.
Checking a simple task and finding a way through complicated passages also concern different objects. Do not place the person with the mixed expression in those passages by joining the examples.
What do a 単純 structure and a 複雑な表情 mixing joy and loneliness evaluate?
Show the answer and why
The first concerns a simple structure; the second concerns feelings combined in an expression. Simplicity is not fixed as emptiness or complexity as something bad.