Basic Kanji Book, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Chieko Kano (Author), Hiroko Takenaka (Author), Eriko Ishii (Author), Yuri Shimizu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1990 | ISBN-10: 4893580914 | ISBN-13: 978-4893580917

Basic Kanji Book Volume 1 This volume covers about 250 kanji and the second volume completes the 500 in the Basic series. These books are really textbooks just for learning kanji. Each lesson covers about 10 characters and begins with a section called "About the kanji" which gives interesting background on the kanji you are about to learn. Next comes writing and reading lessons for each kanji. Lastly, there is a longer reading section followed by a game or some quiz.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Bonjinsha (January 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4893580914
• ISBN-13: 978-4893580917
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Study & Teaching

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Basic Kanji Book: Effectively learn Kanji August 25, 2000

By sean gillespie

Format:Paperback

Basic Kanji Book was compiled by four Japanese editors (Chieko Kano, Yuri Shimizu, Hiroko Takenaka, and Eriko Ishii) for the purpose of teaching the first 500 most basic kanji. These 500 kanji are divided up into 22 separate lessons. Each lesson is thematically and grammatically organized for higher connection rate in the learning process. Lessons include Kanji for time, Kanji at the Zoo, Kanji for Adjectives, Kanji for Verbs, and many more. The text is written to the goal of preparing the student for higher levels of Kanji learning by laying out the foundations that lead to the understanding of its inner workings. Though the text is complete in itself for accomplishing many basic day-to-day tasks in written Japanese.

The teaching methodology includes stroke by stroke lessons, examples of each character in compound forms, both "on" and "kun" readings, practice blanks within the book to follow, transliteration of sentences from English to Japanese, various writing exercises, periodic reviews, practical examples of daily use for the characters within any given lesson, fun games to encourage learning, and helpful illustrations for learning mnemonics. Varied methodologies promote fuller language acquisition.

This book is written for the student that has a firm understanding of both Hiragana and Katakana though no prior knowledge of Kanji is necessary. The layout of this book promotes effective self-study though this book could also be effectively used as the primary classroom text for teaching Kanji.

In conclusion, few if any other Kanji learning books do as superb a job as this one in making an otherwise difficult task both easy and fun. Quite possibly this is the best Kanji book for high learning retention and practical use on the market.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE best Kanji Book! March 11, 2004

By M. Katayama

Format:Paperback

This is an excellent Kanji book! After trying several other Kanji learning books, this one stands out as the best by far! The book is organized exteremely well into sections and lessons. For every lesson there are about 10 different Kanji that you learn and each lesson has some kind of a theme to it. For example, one lesson may cover only numbers, another lesson will cover only animals, etc. There are also exercises at the end of each lesson so you can practice what you just learned. If I had to name one downside to this book, it would be that the answers to the exercises are not listed in the back of the book as they are in many practice books. But overall, I can't say enough good things about this book. It has helped me with my Kanji tremendously!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Found the book in Japan July 28, 2001

By Brian Denslow

Format:Paperback

I have been studying Japanese concurrent with Korean for the past few years. I picked up this book while I was in Japan because I wanted to learn all the Kanji that native Japanese speakers use in their writing. The book is perfect. There are exercises throughout each chapter that force you to use each character in context. Halfway through the book you find yourself reading a simple letter with quite a bit of Kanji in it. Do yourself a favor and at least learn Hiragana before you attempt to learn Kanji. It's also informative to know that the 1st volume teaches about 72 of the 80 characters that are testable when taking level 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.