A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters: All the Kanji Characters Needed to Learn Japanese and Ace the Japanese Language Proficiency Test

by Kenneth G. Henshall

Book Overview

This is a one-of-a-kind kanji study guide that introduces joyo kanji along with detailed, authentic notes about the historical development of each. As useful as it is fascinating, it's a book any new or aspiring Japanese language scholar will visit over and over. In clear, large-sized entries, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters details each of the General Use Characters In clear, large-sized entires, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804820384
• ISBN13: 9780804820387
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 1.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good faith

Many of the criticisms raised about this book are valid. The mnemonics and example words that Henshall gives are often eccentric (his example words are often from outdated "Kojien Japanese"). But these faults are outweighed by its special quality relative to other texts -- its academic integrity. His approach draws on modern scholarship exploring deep connections between apparently unrelated characters, and draws connections between apparently unrelated meanings given to single characters in different contexts. He avoids the faults of either (a) unhistorical mysticism or (b) lack of seriousness and rushing to easy explanations that end up misleading the student. I honestly think I learned something about ancient civilization from this book, and even about ancient psychology. If you want to be treated like an adult and appreciate honest complexity rather than simple glosses, buy this book over any of its competitors.

Good book for serious learners

I think your benefit from this book will very much depend on what you're trying to do and the type of memory you have.About 3 years ago I bought this but soon after it began to gather dust - I preferred "Kanji Pict-o-Graphix" as I was impressed with my ability to `learn' 20 kanji a day from just remembering the images. As I was learning Japanese as a hobby, this was fun and very useful for the basic vocab at night school, but last year I moved to Japan and needed to rapidly learn as many kanji as possible.I then realised the worth of this book. As I approached the `useful' minimum of 250 kanji I immediately realised that you can't simply remember any more by rote learning (unless you have 16 years like Japanese children!) and that the only way to fix them in your mind is to actually _understand_ the meaning. This book emphasises the usefulness of the individual kanji components (radicals) and also gives a guide to the broader `sense' - invaluable when an identical kanji is used in very different words.The only criticism of this book is that it's presentation style at first appears too academic, but if you're seriously attempting to be able to write all 2000 kanji then I've found this one most useful. The various `simple methods' of learning kanji in my 5 other books simply didn't work for me and they are now long forgotten.Don't worry about the lack of stroke-order, use a book like "The Basic Kanji Book" by Bonjinsha to learn the order of the first 50 and it becomes natural after that (it's about the only thing that has fairly well-kept rules in kanji). There is no English->Kanji section - but this would just perpetuate the myth that Japanese can be translated word-to-word from Latin languages. I just used a dictionary, then looked up the kanji in the book's Japanese index (thankfully in roman text). If you get tired of this, then some of the free computer-dictionaries (e.g. JWPce) have cross-references to the order in this book.

This Book Is What It Says It Is!

Reviewers have critized this book for not being a Kanji dictionary (it's not) or for not providing needed stroke order. (The excellent Tuttle Guides to Writing Kanji provide workbook pages so that you can learn stroke order by guided practice.) If there could be a book that would provide all that you need to learn Japanese, it would come with a forklift. I find Henshall's guide to be tremendously valuable in providing just enough insight into where each character came from to make it stick in the mind. If we were to learn the basic Kanji the way Japanese school children do (as has been suggested) we should be prepared to spend 9 years. A Guide to Remembering has a place in the library of any student of Japanese.

An excellent reference and learning aid (for some)

This book gives a paragraph-sized summary of the origins of each of the 1945 basic kanji (selected by the Japanese Ministry of Education for general use and taught in grades 1-6). Where the etymology is not helpful, Henshall invents (or recounts) some mnemonic tricks.The etymology I find fascinating and helpful, but that's the kind of thing that varies a lot between individuals.Where the etymology is misleading, the mnemonics Henshall invents (or recounts) sometimes work for me, sometimes not. But it's a tough job, and I think batting .500 here (for any one individual reader) is an excellent performance.Taking a step back, Henshall's book offers an interesting mix of visual and verbal clues, and it won't always work for anyone. But if you're academically minded (or a history buff, or an avid reader), you'll probably get a lot of use out of this.The Tuttle flash cards would probably be a good complement to this book.

Simply The Best!

My bookshelves are bent with Kanji learning books, disctionaries, computer software, word-tanks, electronic dictionaries, but this is the best!Some people criticise it for not having stroke orders or enough compounds. I think this is (mis)judging it as a dictionarywhich it is not.This book is a memory aid. I've found it a very powerful one. By all means buy a dictionary as well (I've loads of them!), when it comes to memorizing this is tops.Buy a copy. I'm on to my second copy it is so good.Good luck with your studies.