Remembering the Kanji 1 - James W. Heisig

Remembering the Kanji 1

By James W. Heisig

  • Release Date: 2016-02-10
  • Genre: Foreign Languages
3.5 Score: 3.5 (From 16 Ratings)

Description

Updated to include the 196 new kanji approved by the Japanese government in 2010 as “general-use” kanji, the sixth edition of this popular text aims to provide students with a simple method for correlating the writing and the meaning of Japanese characters in such a way as to make them both easy to remember. It is intended not only for the beginner, but also for the more advanced student looking for some relief from the constant frustration of forgetting how to write the kanji, or for a way to systematize what he or she already knows.

The author begins with writing the kanji because - contrary to first impressions - it is in fact simpler than learning how to the pronounce them. By ordering the kanji according to their component parts or “primitive elements,” and then assigning each of these parts a distinct meaning with its own distinct image, the student is led to harness the powers of “imaginative memory” to learn the various combinations that make up the kanji. In addition, each kanji is given its own key word to represent the meaning, or one of the principal meanings, of that character. These key words provide the setting for a particular kanji’s “story,” whose protagonists are the primitive elements.

In this way, one is able to complete in a few short months a task that would otherwise take years. Armed with the same skills as Chinese or Korean students, who know the meaning and writing of the kanji but not their Japanese pronunciations, one is then in a much better position to learn the readings (which are treated in a separate volume).

Remembering the Kanji has helped tens of thousands of students advance towards literacy at their own pace, and to acquire a facility that traditional methods have long since given up on as all but impossible for those not raised with the kanji from childhood.

Reviews

  • Kanji Stroke order messed up again

    3
    By jts 23
    When I upgraded to iOS 16.2, the stroke orders started being muddled on Books for iPhone and iPad. At least they’re still okay on Books for my laptop (running Ventura 13.1).
  • Issue with kanji depictions has returned

    2
    By Palmtree :)
    The order for how to wrote kanji is butchered again from the previous reviewer. Not totally the end of the world - if you use this book to learn mnemonics and then use an Anki deck for RTK that includes stroke order (and write your mnemonics into the cards too of course), you can have the best of both worlds. Just a tad jank lol, but better than carrying the book everywhere with me while I speed run this book. Happy studying :)
  • No problems

    5
    By ddkv
    I was a bit hesitant to buy after reading the previous reviews, but whatever problems there were with symbols seem to have been fixed: the book looks good on both iOS and the Mac.
  • Bugs

    2
    By LotusNLilies
    I began reading this just the other day and the step by step writing of the kanji was recognizable after each snippet but today when i started reading they had been replaced by something completely different. Im not sure how much that may limit the usefulness of this book but it seems entirely odd that such a bug should be possible in the first place.
  • Symbols Stopped Working

    1
    By mk2947
    The “step by step” depictions of how to write the Kanji symbols have a bug that changes them to other unrelated kanji. Unsure how to fix but makes it Impossible to use the digital version of the book

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