Remembering the Kanji, by James Heisig – A Kanji Boy Review
Posted by on Thursday Feb 9, 2012 Under KanjiThis 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.