Ebook Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters James W Heisig Books
Ebook Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters James W Heisig Books
Download As PDF : Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters James W Heisig Books
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 forgetting how to write the kanji, or for a way to systematize what he or she already knows.
The author begins with writing the kanji because―contrary to first impressions―it is in fact simpler than learning how to the pronounce them. By ordering the kanji according to their component parts or “primitive elements,†and then assigning each of these parts a distinct meaning with its own distinct image, the student is led to harness the powers of “imaginative memory†to learn the various combinations that make up the kanji. In addition, each kanji is given its own key word to represent the meaning, or one of the principal meanings, of that character. These key words provide the setting for a particular kanji’s “story,†whose protagonists are the primitive elements.
In this way, one is able to complete in a few short months a task that would otherwise take years. Armed with the same skills as Chinese or Korean students, who know the meaning and writing of the kanji but not their Japanese pronunciations, one is then in a much better position to learn the readings (which are treated in a separate volume).
Remembering the Kanji has helped tens of thousands of students advance towards literacy at their own pace, and to acquire a facility that traditional methods have long since given up on as all but impossible for those not raised with the kanji from childhood.
Ebook Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters James W Heisig Books
"As of right now, the 7th of May, 2015 The kindle version of this book is useless. The system is supposed to work by showing you an individual kanji character, giving you a key word, and then showing you the order of the stroke used to draw/write the character. The first one (One) is correct, but starting with the next one, instead of showing the stroke order (in other words, instead of showing the correct way to write each kanji character) ther are just a bunch of random kanji character that have nothing at all to do with the one you are learning. Since you are supposed to write each one as you learn it, this makes the book useless. I will add a couple pictures as examples. I'm sure it can be fixed, but I ordered this a couple days ago, and the version I was sent was the incorrect version.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Let me state that as far as the book itself goes, it looks like a fantastic book with a great system, and I am very happy to pay for it and use it. It is JUST the Kindle version that has a problem, NOT a problem with the book or the system itself.
If I receive a corrected version of the Kindle edition, I will come back and fix this review. If you are wanting to learn Japanese, I will suggest you get this book, but for now order the paperback."
Product details
|
Tags : Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters (8601400140734) James W. Heisig Books,James W. Heisig,Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters,University of Hawaii Press,0824835921,Chinese characters - Japan,Chinese characters;Japan;Textbooks.,Japanese language - English,Japanese language - Orthography and spelling,Japanese language;Orthography and spelling;Textbooks.,Japanese language;Textbooks for foreign speakers;English.,Alphabets Writing Systems,Asian,Chinese characters,English,FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY,FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY / Japanese,Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books,Japan,Japanese,Japanese language,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES / Alphabets Writing Systems,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES / Study Teaching,Language,Non-Fiction,Orthography and spelling,Scholarly/Graduate,Study Teaching,Textbooks,Textbooks (Various Levels),Textbooks for foreign speakers,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States,FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY / Japanese,Japanese,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES / Alphabets Writing Systems,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES / Study Teaching,Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books,Chinese characters,English,Japan,Japanese language,Orthography and spelling,Textbooks,Textbooks for foreign speakers,Foreign Language Study,Language
Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters James W Heisig Books Reviews :
Remembering the Kanji 1 A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters James W Heisig Books Reviews
- This book has been immensely valuable for my Japanese studies. This book teaches you how to write the Kanji, and that's valuable in the same way that learning how to write the alphabet is valuable for learning English. Theoretically, one could learn to read English without ever learning the English alphabet. You just memorize exactly how each word looks instead of memorizing its characters. For example instead of learning the word "on" as being spelled with the letter O and the letter N, you could learn it as a circle with a arch shape to its right.
Learning to read English that way would be crazy. But that's how a lot of people learn Japanese. And it's excruciating. The value of this book is that finishing it allows you to learn Japanese words more like how you would learn a new English word. It teaches you the Japanese alphabet.
This book seems to be controversial in Japanese learning circles. However I have never heard someone who has finished the book question its value. The criticism is usually levied by those who have never tried this method of learning. For example if you Google "Tae Kim Remembering the Kanji" you can find a critical review by Japanese learning guru Tae Kim (author of the excellent Tae Kim's Grammar Guide). You will notice that he doesn't mention the "learning the alphabet angle" that I did. I must say that he completely missed the point of why this book is valuable. If someone criticizes this approach to you, ask them if they've finished at least a quarter of the book. If they answer in the negative then don't take them seriously.
I keep very meticulous records of how I study Japanese and they show that it took me a little over 150 hours to finish this book. This number is still climbing (but slowly) because I review the book sometimes. While I was actively studying, I fastidiously used Anki flashcards to review the material (Anki is a free and open-source flashcard program). This was very good (and necessary) for my retention, however it demanded a ton of time and could seem very tedious. When you're using Anki on very big flashcard decks (like the decks for this book) you must do your flashcard reviews every day, you never get a day off. If you do take a day off, you must do twice as many reviews the next day. If you take a week off, well, good luck ever catching back up.
Now, the negative. Heisig sure knows how to learn the Kanji, but there are some holes in how he's going to teach you how to learn the Kanji.
1. Ambiguous or unusual keywords. Each Kanji in the book is linked to an English keyword that you need to learn to associate that kanji with. Unfortunately some English words have more than one meaning and you're not sure which Heisig intended. There are also some words that you're just not likely to know. For example one keyword is "godown". What's that, you ask? Well according to Google results it's "In India and East Asia, a warehouse, especially one at a dockside." Who woulda thunk it! This makes the Kanji harder to remember even after you go and look up the keyword, because it's not a word that's natural to you.
All English keywords in the book should be defined. Heisig does define some that he thinks might be ambiguous, however I found that for the most part, he disambiguated words that I wouldn't have had trouble with anyway, but didn't disambiguate the words that I did have trouble with. He should also strive to keep exotic keywords like "godown" out.
Note that this only really becomes a problem about half way through the book when it stops giving you stories for every Kanji.
2. Lack of cross-referencing for primitives. Each kanji in the book (except for the most "primitive" ones) is a combination of other kanji (or even non-kanji) that you have already learned (called primitives). And the primitives that make up each kanji is listed in its entry. However, there are no page numbers for you to be able to refer back to the primitives. As you continue through the book this becomes a bigger and bigger hole.
3. Puzzling errors. I noticed a number of them that made the book seem sloppy. For example a certain Kanji is listed as number 2 billion and something, even though there are *only* 2200 kanji in the book (thank god). These errors aren't a huge deal it's just not what I would expect in a carefully prepared book. - As of right now, the 7th of May, 2015 The kindle version of this book is useless. The system is supposed to work by showing you an individual kanji character, giving you a key word, and then showing you the order of the stroke used to draw/write the character. The first one (One) is correct, but starting with the next one, instead of showing the stroke order (in other words, instead of showing the correct way to write each kanji character) ther are just a bunch of random kanji character that have nothing at all to do with the one you are learning. Since you are supposed to write each one as you learn it, this makes the book useless. I will add a couple pictures as examples. I'm sure it can be fixed, but I ordered this a couple days ago, and the version I was sent was the incorrect version.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Let me state that as far as the book itself goes, it looks like a fantastic book with a great system, and I am very happy to pay for it and use it. It is JUST the version that has a problem, NOT a problem with the book or the system itself.
If I receive a corrected version of the edition, I will come back and fix this review. If you are wanting to learn Japanese, I will suggest you get this book, but for now order the paperback. - This should be the first book you buy to learn Kanji. Everything else will frustrate and disappoint. Here the Kanji are constructed from basic parts like building a Lego construction. You first learn the basic components. Only later do you snap them together to create more complex shapes. The order that the author introduces new characters lends itself to true understanding, not just memorization. I have 3-4 other books gathering dust because the order the characters are introduced relies on memorization instead of comprehension. You cannot memorize 2,000 Kanji; you can comprehend 2,000 Kanji. If you love etymology, you will love this book. I can not recommend this book highly enough. Does not include instruction on pronunciation or grammar.
- 5 stars for content, 1 for stroke order gibberish and terrible color choices in kindle version. Don't buy the kindle version until they fix this. Have had to look up all stroke orders online because of this. I may end up picking up a physical copy just so I can more easily refer to stroke order.
Also whoever thought blood red background with occasional blue text was a good color scheme for an educational text is a terrible person.
Edit I looked at on my iphone and a friend's ipad and the stroke orders are perfect on there. WTF kindle?
Comments
Post a Comment