甘 - A Package of Candy

Readings & Meanings:

あま（−い）

カン

sweet, naive

Common Usage:

甘いもの

人工甘味料

Examples:

その子は甘いものが大好きだった。

アメリカでは、砂糖の代わりにノーカロリーの人工甘味料がはやっている。

Translations:

The child liked sweets very much.

In place of sugar, zero-calorie artificial sweeteners are popular
in the US.

Bonus:

In the US, when you say a person is sweet, it's usually a compliment, meaning nice or kind. There are times, however, when calling someone sweet is a backhanded compliment.

"I want to kill my husband," she said with murder in her eyes.

"You wouldn't do that," her younger brother said. "You're too good of a person."

"You're sweet," she said, patting her brother on the cheek.

This kind of "sweet" still means nice and kind, but the feeling is more like her brother is a sweet child who doesn't know anything. From what I've determined, this is what the Japanese 甘い means when applied to human beings.

If someone calls you 甘い, it means they think you are naive, soft, overly-optimistic.

References:

http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kanji/kanji/a.htm