Remembering the Hiragana

by James W. Heisig

Book Overview

At last a method to help you break through the apparently impenetrable barrier of learning to write the Japanese characters!Taking you step by step, piece by piece, through more than 2,000 kanji, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870407651
• ISBN13: 9780870407659
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A great book, but don't buy it

Using clever mnemonic devices, this book quickly teaches native English speakers to read and write the hiragana, one of the two Japanese syllabaries. (A syllabary is like an alphabet, only each symbol stands for a whole syllable.) I can't imagine a better way to learn the hiragana than this. But don't buy this book. It has been superseded by Heisig's "Remembering the Kana: The Hiragana / The Katakana," which is simply Heisig's hiragana and katakana books (both out of print) bound in one cover. To read and write Japanese, you have to learn both syllabaries (plus kanji, the Chinese characters adopted by the Japanese), so you might as well get the book that teaches both.

Never be confounded by a Sushi Menu again

Using various mnemonic devices, such as "memory theater" Heisig really achieves his stated claim. In 6, roughly 1/2 hour sessions, he will teach you how to recognize, pronounce, and write the hiragana, including plosive and voiced marks. I myself struggled to learn the Hiragana for months and only managed to master 4 or 5. After spending 3 days and 3 one hour sessions with this book (plus about an extra hour spent on review), I can recognize all of the hiragana. I've never spent better money. Thank you, James Heisig.

Very simple, easy way to remember Hiragana!

After just the first lesson, Mr. Heisig has helped me remember 9 hiragana characters in about 15 mins. The key is mnemonics (remembering by association). Instead of presenting the standard "dictionary" path to remembering, he starts off with easy symbols, and progressivly gets more difficult, but not hard. The cool part is that he isn't a language teacher, but just a regular person who, when the challenge was presented to him, found a really easy way to remember the hiragana, aimed at the regular person in a non-classroom setting. Being a young student (17) and with no places around that offer Japanese Education, this was a cheap, fast, and very easy way to learn Hiragana. I plan on buying the books on Katakana and Kanji very soon to further my writing/reading skills. I highly recommend this book! :)

Excellent Book for Learning Hiragana

Before I purchased this book, I was trying to learn Hiragana by simple memorization. Needless to say this was a long and difficult task, and I was only able to memorize about 12 in a week's time. This book not only helps you to remember the Hiragana, but to remember how to make the characters correctly. I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn Hiragana. I have not tried the author's titles on Katakana or Kanji (yet), but if they are as effective as this text, they are well worth your time and money.

Superlative; the best book for learning hiragana.

An unqualified triumph. As someone who struggled to learn the hiragana characters through "brute force," with attendant frustration and slow progress, I was amazed at how easy and effective this book made things. It doesn't coddle you, either--most Japanese books baldly assert "this is how the characters look, period. No deviation from them is permitted, nor will any ever be encountered." This is, of course, hogwash--variant forms of the characters run rampant. Heisig's book , however, admits this, and even shows you a handfull of different forms, from block print to flowing script. An excellent, indispensible book. Buy the katakana book, too--also well worth your time!