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[Deicide]

As someone who is most likely going to Japan next year I am at once intimidated and simultaneously excited about getting started learning the Kanji....tell me is James Heisig's Book Remembering the Kanji worth the money and as good as so many people say it is? Can you really learn the Kanji as quickly as proposed in this book and by Amazon reviewers? Thanks for the info...

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[kitano]

I think it can be very useful for some people and I'm working my way through it but when you finish you don't 'know' all the kanji. In my experience one book never lets you 'know' everything. But if you race thought it before you come to Japan you have a good base to learn from your environment but you are still going to have to study a lot more before you can read and write. It will just give you a big head start.

[shuize]

I'd heard about it, so I glanced at it when I ran across it in the bookstore. My admittedly brief review led me to the conclusion that it was dumb.

The book I recommend for kanji study is: A Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese. It's not perfect either, but I've seen it advertised used on Amazon for about two dollars.

Sorry, I posted before double checking. $1.30.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0804802262/sr=8-1/qid=1157802223/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8421612-7028662?ie=UTF8&s=books

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[Deicide]

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[canuck]

I think the Basic Kanji Books are excellent.


Basic Kanji Book I


Basic Kanji Book II


Free website that someone made about the books: http://webjapanese.com/kanji/


And the White Rabbit Press kanji cards:



All these are found on amazon or all bookstores in Japan.

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[Glenski]

Some people do well with Remembering The Kanji. Some don't. I couldn't wrap my brain around many of Heisig's definitions and imagery. You can download a lot of the book for free, in case you want to preview it.

[PAULH]

[shuize]

Paulh's post reminds me of something another foreign student once told me about learning kanji when I first came to Japan: "Only the first thousand are hard. After that it's easy." At the time I thought he was messing with me. But I've since learned there was a lot of truth in what he said.

As noted, there are no shortcuts. The text I recommended above is basically just a list of 2,000 general use characters with common combinations. If you're serious about learning how to read Japanese, sooner or later you're going to have to set down and memorize them. Which is why I think it's sort of silly to spend a lot of money on glossy and gimmicky textbooks when the basic information is available for less.

[Deicide]

[ghostrider]

I think it helps to learn kanji while you are also learning new vocabulary. I also think it helps to mix and match methods. Drilling alone doesn't work well (for me at least), neither did Heisig. Heisig gives you a foundation to start with, but it takes a lot of time and constant refreshing. You have to make up and remember a unique story for each kanji character. It doesn't work out well much of the time. [Edit: I didn't word that well. Overall, I like the Heisig method. I think it works well to get to know the meaning of the kanji first, so when you're learning vocabulary, it fits in easily. And it's helpful if you don't know the word for something, you can at least recognize or write the kanji for it.]

[canuck]

Review, review and review is the key to memorizing kanji. The books and flash cards I mentioned above are excellent.

@Deicide, I was hoping you could get a bigger avatar.