Several parts combine into one character.

Compound ideograph: 目 (eye) on top + 儿 (a person, the legs-radical) below. The encoding is "a person with their eye emphasized" — the act of seeing personified. Three forms: 繁體 見 / 新字体 見 / 简体 见.

Mandarin: jiàn, falling 4th tone. The Mandarin everyday verb for "to look" is 看 (kàn), but 见 dominates two crucial domains: completion ("to perceive / to have seen") and meeting people. 看见 (kànjiàn, "to look-see" = perceived/saw it), 听见 (tīngjiàn, to hear / perceive sound), 见面 (jiànmiàn, to meet face-to-face), 再见 (zàijiàn, "see you again" = goodbye — every Mandarin learner's first farewell), 意见 (yìjiàn, opinion), 不见 (bùjiàn, missing / not seen).

Note: in Mandarin, the perception verbs 看 (look) and 见 (perceive) split labor — 看 is the active gaze, 见 is the result of perception. 看见 means "looked AND saw"; just 看 might mean "looked but didn't notice".

Japanese: on-reading ケン (ken) for compounds — 意見 (iken, opinion), 発見 (hakken, discovery), 見学 (kengaku, school visit / observation tour), 会見 (kaiken, formal meeting / press conference), 偏見 (henken, prejudice). Kun-readings divide labor among related verbs: — み.る (mi.ru, to see) — basic everyday verb. 見る. — み.える (mi.eru, to be visible / appear) — passive/spontaneous. 見える. — み.せる (mi.seru, to show) — causative. 見せる. The trio 見る / 見える / 見せる is one of the foundational verb-relationship sets in Japanese — active, passive, causative.

Memory aid: an oversized eye on legs — perception walking the world.