Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters

by James W. Heisig

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824835921
• ISBN13: 9780824835927
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Fastest way to learn all 2000

PROS · The method Heisig uses, creating and memorizing a cute little story involving the parts of a Kanji, is probably the most efficient out there. Pictographs and rote learning are the other two methods I'm aware of. These will work, but will take much longer. I know of no other book on the market that uses Heisig's method. · This book, plus vol. 2, is organized for learning all 2000+ basic Kanji as quickly as possible. Other books have you "master" characters in smaller numbers. There are many short cuts that can be made when all 2000+ are handled at once, so if it's your goal to learn all of them, Heisig is more efficient. For the above reasons, I highly recommend using this book for learning the Kanji, and give Heisig five stars. But the book is far from perfect. I hope the following information will not dissuade you from buying Heisig, but help you use the book. CONS · Typos and mistakes are a part of all language books, for some reason. I'm sure I've missed some, but here are a few. Some descriptions contain wrong keywords for primitives (981,1321,1418,1714,1836,1840). Sometimes Heisig creates a new keyword for a kanji when it is used as a primitive, but doesn't tell us (1271,1573,1720). Kanji 1480 has the right description, but is drawn wrong. Kanji 1733 uses primitive "rice" instead of the expected "grains of rice". Kanji 1999 contains a new primitive, but it is called out as if it has already been established. There are two kanji with the keyword "storehouse" (589,850). In the description of kanji 58 he states that "olden times" is not used as a primitive in any other kanji, but it is in 910. · Heisig may have finished learning the material in this book in 4 to 6 weeks. If he did, I'm guessing he is at the very top as far as memory goes. That would require 8 to 10 hours per day. Even if one has the schedule to study kanji full time, the point of diminishing returns for most is probably closer to 2 or 3 hours per day. For the average person, finishing this book in 6 months would be ambitious, and one year more likely. FYI - I'm an average learner, and it took me 300 hours in 30 weeks. · There are some warning phrases throughout the book that you are better off just ignoring. Examples are "don't confuse kanji A with kanji B", "I know I said never to do this in a story, but..." · Using "big" words for key words. Sometimes this is merited to distinguish kanji with like meanings, but other times I felt like I was getting unnecessary practice with my English dictionary. TIPS · Use adult themes in your stories. · If the price seems too high, try some auction sites. · My study program. This is what I did in my 300 hours. On a macro-scale (30 weeks, approximately 10 hrs/week) Weeks 1-5: learn 1-500 Week 6: review 1-500 Weeks 7-11: learn 501-1000 Weeks 12-13: review 1-1000 Weeks 14-18: learn 1001-1500 Weeks 19-21: review 1-1500 Weeks 22-26: learn 1501-2042 Weeks 27-30: review 1-2042 On a weekly scale Learn weeks: learn 20 per day, Monda

Will give back what you're willing to put in

I'm 18 years old, and I've graduated slightly earlier due to homeschooling. This evening I finished this book, the first in a series of three books designed to make me literate in the 2,000+ symbols used everyday in Japanese society. After seeing the results of the first book, I truly feel that I am on my way to Japanese literacy. If you've read one of the many reviews, you probably understand that this book doesn't teach you a single pronunciation of a Japanese character, but rather you tag an English keyword on to all of the Japanese symbols treated in this book, leaving the pronunciation for later. Why do this? If you aren't noticing quick results in your Japanese abilities, what's the point in learning it? It's true that every single word I've learned will be of no immediate benefit to me if I try to pick up a Japanese newspaper, article, etc. and try to read it. Many have the misconception that in order to "master" the Japanese written language, one must study and "master" the characters individually, and over a period of time, accumulate lots of characters in one's lexicon, therefore allowing the student to read lots of stuff (Makes sense, right?). But our minds don't think like that. (Assuming everybody reading this review is a native to a Roman character based alphabet, or something pretty close to this) We are not used to recognizing little squiggly lines, let alone understanding a concept and multiple pronunciations simply by looking at them. Yet each and every Japanese textbook you'll find on the market supports the idea of mastering each character individually, a method that might seem to be the ONLY method to bring immediate benefits, but requires lots of work and constant drilling of a character. This method is deemed (By the author) to be ineffective and a waste of time. So what does this book do for our situation? Rather than assuming that we can make the connection between a jumble of lines and the meaning of a character (Which every text book somehow assumes we can do), the kanji are broken down into smaller fragments, and each are tagged with a word that represents an idea, concept, thing, etc., that we are familiar with, such as a hill, the sun, or a baseball bat. Adding these various building blocks together, you form new concepts, and in turn, new characters. True, most these "building blocks" probably don't have a relationship whatsoever with any sort of root meaning, but this isn't the point. The point is to take something you aren't familiar with (Lots of lines), and to make them familiar to you (An image, a picture in your mind). Using these familiar images, you guide yourself from the tagged English word to the Kanji (Or the other way around). No, you will not be able to pronounce any of them when you're finished with this book. But you will be able to identify and tell the difference between even the smallest of nuances. You will look at kanji in a completely different way. I can't speak for other

Henschal recommender misses the point

When you finish this book, you will not know how to read all of the thousands of words made up of the 2000 general use kanji in Japanese. That is not the point of this book. The point of this book is to lay the foundation for the other book Remembering the Kanji II, where you will become fluent in reading kanji ten times faster than by any other method.The problems people (read: foreigners to Japan) have with learning kanji are: attaching a meaning to a seemingly meaningless jumble of strokes, keeping similar kanji distinct in one's mind, and not forgetting them. This book is designed as preparation for the actual task of reading the kanji, by addressing these three problems.By attaching a meaning to the kanji and parts of the kanji, this makes the kanji clearer. It's like the differenence between recognizing a tree shown on your television screen, and remembering the exact pattern of that white noise snow you get when there's no signal. Attaching these meanings also helps make these kanji stand out. A single stroke is easy to miss, but the difference between "arrow" and "fiesta" is very clear. And because the kanji are presented as clear objects that have meaning, you're as likely to forget them as you are to forget that a tree is a tree.I've been studying Japanese for 8 years, I live in Japan, and I'm married to a Japanese. Yet I was only able to read several hundred kanji, and could write far less than that. I started Remembering the Kanji a month ago, and I can already write 450 by English keyword without making a single mistake.It will take me a few more months to finish this book, and then surely a few months more reviewing RtK2. But that's nothing compared to the eight years of futility I have already spent. I'm sure that if I had used this book eight years ago, I would have become completely fluent in Japanese a long time ago.If this book doesn't get you excited about learning kanji, nothing will.

What a great book!

My father is Japanese (but I grew up in Oregon) and I grew up continuously struggling with Kanji. Using Heisig's book, I learned more Kanji after two months of using this book --learning at a fairly moderate pace-- than I did by struggling through five years at a Japanese elementary school!I especially like the way Heisig takes great pains to teach you how to learn new characters on your own, once you have moved beyond the 2,000-odd characters which are treated in this book. In perfectly graduated steps, he weans you off of stroke-order diagrams and his memnonic stories; Before you know it, learning a new Kanji on your own in a matter of seconds will become second-nature to you. Best of all, if you follow his instructions religiously --especially at first, when you are tempted to stray back to your old "I'll write it a thousand times until I 'recognize' it" method-- you will be amazed at your long-term retention rate. Once, I put the book away for a few months and was able to start right back where I left off, without having to review, or relearn characters!This book is well-written, concise, and fun to use. No more excuses, buy it and start reading Japanese today!

My Kanji Reading, Writing & Comprehension Took Off!

This is not a gimmick book. I'm doing research for my thesis on kanji learning and I am finding a lot of information indicating why this book / method is so effective. It uses mnemonics, which to some already makes it suspect as just another gimmick, but mnemonics used properly are great aides to learning. This has been empirically proven in literature on memory and learning. Keep an open mind and follow the instructions in the book to the letter. I think the problem with people who've told me that the book didn't work very well for them was because they didn't follow the instructions. It's a different way of learning, but many are not comfortable with trying a way different from those ways that they have been taught to learn since childhood. Thus, they don't use a key element of the method, which is visualization. Most of us can always remember a face but not necessarily a name. This is in a nutshell how the visualization works and a key reason why the Heisig method is so effective. If you want to keep trying to learn kanji the way Japanese children do, DON'T READ THIS BOOK, and set aside 20 years to learn kanji because that's about how many you'll need to master it using the traditional methods.Someone said that the Henschell Book is better. Although the Henschell book is well written, it is for the serious scholar not those of us who just want to learn kanji for practical and functional use. If you're a struggling kanji learner, I challenge you to try this book and see if you don't get amazing results! Another good book to read, if you just want to read (not write)basic kanji that you will need when in Japan is called "Read Japanese Today!" Good Luck!