This is the first book that I really encountered when starting out learning Japanese, and I have been grateful to Mr. Heisig ever since. This is the book that fueled and deepened my passion for the Kanji. I cannot recommend it enough.

So, I want to give a brief run down of what the book is about and how it can help you achieve your Kanji learning dreams.

The book is not your typical kanji learning book, and what I mean by a “typical kanji learning book” is a book that tries to throw all the kanji information at you at once.

1. onyomi reading

2. kunyomi reading

3. number of strokes

4. bushu radical

5. bushu radical name

6. meaning

7. examples of the character in various compounds

8. stroke order

9. etymology ? (not usually, but why not!)

Why not is because that is WAY too much information. It will send your brain into over drive. In other words you haven’t got a cat in hells chance of memorizing all this information about just 1 kanji (in one sitting anyway) nevermind 2000+.

OK, so cut it down, and that is what Heisig does. You will learn how to write the kanji from one English keyword. so the only “new” piece of information that you get as you work through all of the general use characters is the actual kanji themselves. This makes the Kanji much easier to approach and allows for a quick and enjoyable way for you to get super familiarized with all the characters. Which is actually what this is about, making the characters and Japanese in general a lot more familiar, you will no longer feel out of depth when look at a page of Japanese text.

The book took me about 7 – 8 months to complete, but you could do it faster if you put your mind to it. Heisig himself went through all of the joyo characters in about a month or so.

There is a website called “reviewing the kanji” which I would strongly recommend you take a look at, if not for the excellent reviewing system they have, for the awesome kanji learning community they have over there.

Thanks for reading.

A video detailing the etymology of the Chinese character/ Kanji 雨.

Thanks for watching, please leave a comment below.

-KB

Looking to work in 3D from now on. Trying to improve all aspects of my videos.

Merry Christmas

-KB

When it comes to Kanji having powerful images is essential to recall, so it is in this area that I would like to focus my first real post about how to learn and become fully functional using the Kanji.

In this post I will assume that you know all about James Heisig and the wonderful book that he wrote, titled Remembering the Kanji. This book is great, but looking back on it now I feel that it can be improved upon in a number of ways. Here’s how. While the book of course draws attention to write memorable stories, or stories that work for you?, I think going into exactly what we should be doing during the initial encounter (story creating phase) would be a good idea. This is actually as much for my own personal study as it is for anyone who might be reading.

How We Memorize

First of all a quick look at how we memorize things might be in order. While we can remember a tune off by heart through listening to it again and again, this is perhaps not the most efficient way of memorizing. Also what it is that we memorize can be confusing as well. Most of us would be quite happy to say, that what we memorize is “information”, but this is not the case. When we recall things we use a link. For example when you try and remember the name of a person that you met just last week, you are trying to get from the person’s face to the name you are in fact trying to remember the link to the persons name.

Vivid Links For Kanji

So, to remember effectively we need powerfully vivid links. When we work through the RTK book, we are linking from the English keyword to the Kanji. The more vivid the link (story in the case of RTK), the easier it is to recall. For those wanting to move on from RTK and into the practical uses for the characters (actually using them in your daily life); linking from the actual Japanese word to the Kanji would be the next natural step.

Here is the tecnique that I currently use for memorizing Kanji. It’s not perfect, I am always looking for ways to improve how I go about things.

Kanji Boy Techniques

So here is a quick example of a Japanese story for that “word to Kanji” link.

「知」　－物事をよく?知?っていると、答えが「口から矢のようにはやく出てくる」でしょう。

This is actually from the true etymology of the character taken from the 楽しい漢字教室 by 石井勲. Highly recommended.

Or… if you prefer you can do it in English, as the main part is actually just the “visualizing” of this in your head, it is practically the same. But I would recommend the Japanese method as it is actually killing two birds with one stone.

矢- 口 arrow and mouth. ＝ “When you truly “know” something, the answer will fly from your mouth as swift as an arrow.”

Remember above all else, not just to remember the story, but to actually create this scene in your head. Really visualize the arrow or words flying out of your or someone else’s mouth when they “know” something. Make the images large, 3D (voluminous), colorful and lastly; detailed.

That’s all I have time for at the moment, but if you have any questions or comments about this post or any other post for that matter site please feel free to leave a comment.

KB.