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Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters | 
| Author: James W. Heisig
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Category: Book
List Price: $32.00
Buy New: $23.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  87 reviews
Sales Rank: 7341
Media: Paperback
Edition: 5
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 460
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0824831659
Dewey Decimal Number: 495.682421
EAN: 9780824831653
ASIN: 0824831659
Publication Date: May 2007
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Book Description
The aim of this book is to provide the student of Japanese 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 how to write the kanji and some way to systematize what he or she already knows. The author begins with writing because--contrary to first impressions--it is in fact the simpler of the two. He abandons the traditional method of ordering the kanji according to their frequency of use and organizes them according to their component parts or "primitive elements." 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 result. 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, students are 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 pronunciation in Japanese, they are now in a much better position to learn to read (which is treated in a separate volume).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 The negative reviews just don't get it. Buy this book. August 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
People reviewing this book negatively obviously didn't read the author's introduction very well. This book does NOT claim to be some magical cure that will give you instant Kanji fluency. It's purpose is to give you an incredibly effective way to IDENTIFY nearly all of the modern use Kanji and be able to write them from MEMORY based on their association with a key word that is USUALLY tied to an effective general meaning. It teaches you to SEE Kanji as visual image and not just a random patch of crazy strokes.
For those that say knowing the meaning alone means nothing I say:
You're just flat out wrong. I honestly can't comprehend how anyone could possibly think that not knowing the general meaning for almost ALL general use Kanji isn't useful. You say you need to learn them in combinations...well guess what? That's exactly what this method helps you do if you have the dedication to complete it. It allows you to go to the next step of learning Kanji in context with incredible ease because you will RECOGNIZE every single Kanji you come across. When you learn the reading of a new combination it will be tied to your mental image of Kanji that you ALREADY KNOW. You won't have rely on brute memory to try and remember a combination. It will now be tied to the imaginative image's that you have learned through Remembering the Kanji.
Buy it, now.
 Alright for beginners August 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book does what it says it does: it helps you remember the keywords, but a lot of the time you're not even sure what exactly the keyword in English is supposed to mean, since one word can have many meanings and connotations, and the author doesn't always go into those. Also, he curtails the English meanings -quite a bit- and is by no means comprehensive--he gives only one word usage for each kanji. This may be helpful just to get a foot off the ground for a beginner, but it's also irksome since it doesn't prepare you in any way to apply practically the kanji you learn any time soon.
I had a second problem with this book, and it's not entirely personal--he really, direly overuses christianity and christian mythology in the explanation of the kanji. I find this irksome firstly because I don't want to have to use someone else's religion in order to remember these things; and secondly I don't think it's appropriate to tie a Western religion to a character that comes from a completely different culture and had absolutely no such intentions behind it when it was written. I feel like this does a disservice to the non-Western cultural value behind each character, and makes it, if anything, more difficult to understand what the kanji really means, and where it's coming from/why it's written that way.
WOW, this approach is a REVOLUTION! August 2, 2008
WOW! I have been plodding along, slowly at best, with Japanese, including writing and reading. I am totally SHOCKED at how easy James Heisig makes this.
I have already spent a *small fortune* on Japanese references and grammar books, so my desire to get a great self-learning tool has been balanced by a STRONG aversion to spending YET MORE MONEY. Therefore, on the advice of other reviewers of "Remembering the Kanji", I downloaded the sample from "Reviewing the Kanji" at http://kanji.koohii.com/
In case that was filtered out, that's * kanji dot koohii dot com *.
Going through the first 3 lessons, I made flashcards and quizzed myself once on those first 52 kanji (and the couple of non-kanji radicals thrown in). In just one quiz, I only had to peek a couple times to remember the imagination-clues (kind of like mnemonics, but based more on ideas). I could also just cover the kanji, look at the meaning, and write them with almost no sweat.
Keep in mind I already know quite a few kanji from my studies, and certainly, as he said we might, those first 15 (counting from 1 to 10 and another 5 which are extremely well-known and easily remembered).
The fact that the imagination clues are used to lead you to easily build on previous knowledge as you go along is the KEY!
Getting through the first 3 lessons in a couple hours (because I *am* writing things down as I go along), I will be done with the sample in a couple days, which has 11 lessons. I can easily see why someone using this method can memorize about 2,000 kanji in a few short months!
Others here have criticized the seperation of kanji-memorization from learning the readings, compound words, and grammar. Hogwash! Learning the kanji either by rote memorization, or even in conjunction with grammar, does NOT work well. Why? There are too many, and as you build complex sentences and practice communicating real ideas with others (things you actually WANT to communicate), you don't repeat most kanji often enough, and there is no LOGIC to the kanji-learning process ITSELF.
Mr. Heisig's method promises to get ONE aspect of Japanese language-learning DONE WELL IN A TIMELY MANNER, which in my opinion will make the others EASIER, since you will not be distracted from your grammar to constantly memorize kanji in an ad-hoc manner or to look them up. You can go back to RTK now and then to review, or use your own flashcards -- but AT A SEPERATE TIME. Let your grammar studies be dedicated to GRAMMAR, in which you will naturally use kanji -- kanji you have learned or are learning in isolated lessons.
Think of it this way, it would be like taking 2 classes. A Japanese kanji class and a Japanese grammar class. Even if you take them at the same time, they will use their own SEPERATE METHODS and FOCUSED LESSONS, though they each make doing your homework easier for both classes because they inter-relate. Does that help you understand the benefit of learning kanji in this way?
It seems obvious to me that if you can remember the meaning of a couple thousand kanji merely by looking at them, it will be a GREAT aid to *memorizing vocab* and to *reading* in actual Japanese!
Mr. Heisig says to not mix his method with others, and I think that's a good warning. However, I don't want to lay off the learning I've already started, so I will continue with grammar practice (that *happens* to introduce kanji). But I will focus on the grammar and not care about retaining any kanji in the grammar book beyond the lesson itself.
So I can continue to learn grammar in JLPT order, which is as good order as any, considering I am not in a formal classroom and can buy previous JLPT test questions to self-test myself.
And as soon as I learn the 2000+ kanji in "Remembering the Kanji" (which should be fairly quickly), I will NOT have to keep looking up kanji I've forgotten, or which are included in vocab lists (or sometimes overlooked in vocab lists) of grammar texts.
Yay!!! I am buying this IMMEDIATELY!!!
 Disappointing :( July 10, 2008
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I had SUCH high hopes for this book - what a disappointment. I've been learning Japanese for a year now and I'm moving to Japan in two weeks, so I was hoping for a crash course on kanji before I left.
As soon as I opened the book, I realized its major flaw: there is no Japanese pronunciation! In each box you will find the kanji with an explanation in English, but no way to use the word in conversation. I feel totally lost learning it this way. I was accustomed to the Genki I and II books, which have the kanji, pronunciation in kana, and the significance in English, followed by a few ways the kanji is used. This book is really flawed if you are serious about learning kanji.
A radical paradigm shift. June 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Learning Kanji by rote memorization the way native Japanese do is something that is only worth pursuing if you happen to start your Japanese language studies at any early age. As a fully developed adult, the way in which one should go about studying vast amounts of characters is entirely different from that of a child. Through various techniques utilizing visualization and imagination, this book presents a radically different approach that blows traditional kanji learning methods out of the water.
It does require some mental flexibility on your behalf but the rewards are astonishing, should you put the proper time and effort forth necessary into this study series.
Do not be afraid by the lack of readings and other aspects you may deem pertinent, as this first series is solely designed to help you commit the characters' meaning and writing to memory. You will find that once you have a character's core meaning internalized all the other elements fall into place.
I highly recommend this book to those who have found themselves frustrated by traditional methods of studying the characters and also to those who wish to systematize what they already may know.
As my studies progressed I found myself altering some of the imaginary/arbitrary meanings associated with radicals in order to cement them in my mind. While Heisig recommends following his system strictly, remember that he created this system from scratch. So this is not the final end all be all. You too are entitled to create your own offshoot or modify this as it suits you best. As human beings we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Once you can harness your true learning potential strengths, the sky is the limit. I was able to take the fundamental principals shown in this book and run with it.
I hope you can use it in a way that will benefit you as well!
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