for example

There is a phrase of Chinese character "国史".　(こくし・コクシ)
(Pronunciation in Japan is Koku-Shi.)
　
国 is "country" or "nation".
And in this case，史 is ”history”.
　
So 国史 is "the history of a nation".
　
Currently, China, Japan,etc.
Among  people that use the Chinese characters.
Pronunciation of this word is probably different.
(This pronunciation may be not constant already in China.)
　
But if they look at its Chinese characters.
Its meaning can be understood.

This might be a feature of Chinese characters as ideograms


・・・・・・・・・


国史 is "the history of a nation".

When I found out the word ”nation” and ”history” in the English-English dictionary.
Nation is "a country considered as a group of people with the same language".
And history is "all the events that happened in the past".
It was written that way.
(One of the commentary of course.)
　
Although that is a bit extreme.　

国史 is the "all the events that happened in the past" of a "country considered as a group of people with the same language".
　
Japanese seems to have been such a representation method originally.
And they used one Chinese characters to one sound.
This is no easy matter.

"国史・koku-shi".

But if Japanese use this phrase directly，this two Chinese characters is enough to represent its meaning.
　　

・・・・・・・・・　
　
　
Note: Today，pronunciation of most Chinese characters of China and Japan is different.
And above all、grammar of Chinese and Japanese is totally different.
And Chinese characters of China has evolve.

Chinese characters called "Simplified". (簡体字)
Current，its Chinese characters will be mainstream in China.

Chinese characters used in Japan.
It is ”traditional”.

To understand the exact meaning of the sentence of Chinese.
Therefore，it may be difficult for Japanese.

"Broken English."
To connect the word without regard to grammar.
This feeling may be close.