Customer Reviews

Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A few months ago, I spoke with an Ivy League student who had gone to Japan a year before knowing no Japanese and came out fluent in spoken and written Japanese. When I asked how he learned all the Kanji in such an apparently efficient and effective manner, he pulled out this book and lauded it to the skies. You want this book. I am currently learning Japanese, so I know how all you Kanji learners feel. Whether you like learning Kanji or not (personally, I do), this book is probably perfect for your needs. This is true quite simply because this book has everything. It lists 2000 Kanji that it deems "essential," which are roughly the same Kanji as the Joyo Kanji that the Japanese Ministry of Education has deemed "essential" for reading Japanese (although this book was roughly based on the earlier Toyo Kanji set, from which the Joyo Kanji set was developed). Each Kanji is written in beautiful calligraphy and in what appears to be ballpoint pen, which shows one the beauty of each character while showing how the non-calligraphers of us should draw each Kanji. Stroke order is included, which is a MUST for learning Kanji. The On and Kun (compound/solitary or Chinese/native pronounciations, roughly) pronounciations are included (with all relvant pronounciations), words using the Kanji in question are listed, the English meanings of the Kanji for each reading are given, and the modern Chinese pronounciation and a mneumonic aid for many Kanji are also given. Superb. As if that was not enough, each Kanji only uses radicals and word examples covered in earlier Kanji, and each Kanji's secion could be conveniently cut out to make a great set of flash cards. Indecies of Kanji by reading, stroke number, and English meaning (for radicals, at least) are given, and they are GREAT. The introduction is also informative and interesting. The only book I've seen that can compare to this book is Halpern's Kanji Learner Dictionary, but both books have their advantages and disadvantages- while Halpern's book is more comprehensive, the order in which Kanji are presented seems to make it more of a reference work than a learner's book. This book cannot hurt you and is most definitely worth the money. I cannot vouch for its long-term effectiveness (yet), but it's working just fine now and I think I'll be able to in the future.

Wether for the casual learner or the dedicated student, this reference is excellent. It is an absolute must for anyone who needs a listing of Kanji. This book reads much like a dictionary, but is designed to teach as well as provide a valuable reference. I found the book to be very informative. The course described in the book is very practical and also leaves the reader to learn at their own pase. The calligraphy and writing in the book is of very high quality and with the stroke order marked on each and every character allows for easier learning of each of the 2000 Kanji presented.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a casual glance into Japanese or looking to travel to Japan someday and needs a firm grasp of the written language.

In a somewhat crowded market of Kanji resources, this book serves as an excellent learning tool and resource for 2,000 very useful Kanji. The book is organized according to level of difficulty, and introduces Kanji only based on elements that relate to a prior Kanji learned. A helpful index of readings (ON and kun) helps one identify quickly sound-loans and related Kanji with much ease. Critics of the book harp on the use of roomaji for the readings, but this is a minor quibble for what is otherwise a very worthy and useful tool for the student of Japanese.

I bought this book to take an indipendent study at my college. My plan was to study/learn 500 Kanji this semester. I am currently at about 120, and the book has been the most used item in the study. It does a very good job of teaching stroke order, written and typed writings of the kanji. The only problem is that because it only uses kanji the book has already taught in the vocabulary examples for the kanji the examples are a little odd sounding to a native speaker of Japanese. For example: the kanji for koe or voice gives the example of shounen no koegawari or the braking of voice. Where a more useful way to use the kanji would be to use it in ichikoe or a shout. It is just a little odd some times. As long as you have a way to check some of the deffinitions then this is a very good book. It is also very useful to have the back of the book to look up forgotten kanji. Good book, but a little odd in some parts.

This was one of the first books I bought on kanji (20 years ago) and, after trying many others, I'm loyal to it.

To clarify what it is not--it is not a kanji dictionary. If I want to know every compound a kanji appears in I look in Spahn and Hadamitsky. Nor is it a mnemonic approach like Heisig's or, to a lesser degree, Henshall's.

What it does do is layout the general use kanji in a small book (slightly larger than a US-sized paperback) with a layout which doubles as flashcards for study. The kanji are shown in three formats: brush-written, pencil-written, and typeset. Older variations of the kanji are provided. Examples of readings and compounds are provided, but they are not intended to be comprehensive. They do build on previously presented kanji.

Importantly (although it took me awhile to understand how crucial this is) both the radical and phonetic elements of each kanji are identified. One reason some of the mnemonic stories are so wild is because in the majority of kanji not every element means something. Usually part of the element gives a hint to the meaning and part of the element gives a hint to the Chinese reading.

If you look a kanji up in Appendix II, the all-cap entries are Chinese readings. Kanji with the same phonetic element are listed together, and kanji with the same element with a variation in reading are listed afterward. Other books like Kanji ABC will help you learn the importance of recognizing the phonetic element. After you realize that, Essential Kanji really does become essential.

If you're a beginner at Japanese, don't buy this book. You most likely won't understand a lot of the examples, and there is no point to know 100+ kanji and not have the ability to use them in sentences.

If you're past beginner stage, buy this book but be warned. As others have already stated, the pronunciations are giving in romaji. While this may not seem like a good idea, it is important if you intend to take any Japanese Proficiency tests, which will require that you are able to identify the correct kana equivalent to various kanji. Also, the example words given are often VERY obscure and often not even used. My current Japanese professor, who is a native of Japan and has a Ph.D. in Japanese Language, did not think that some of the examples were actual words. Third, the examples do not show how all pronunciations are used, so you are often required to look up words in a dictionary to find an example. This is very difficult when the kanji in question is not the first letter in the word. Lastly, the book gives EVERY pronunciation for each kanji. That might sound nice, but I have encountered some pronunciations that are so archaic it seems no Japanese person uses them now.

So, buy it for a well ordered introduction to kanji. It introduces the characters in an order which is beneficial for memorization and usually succeeds in keeping the simplest/building-block kanji at the beginning so one can determine how meanings are derived. Although, chi, blood, is number 300 something, while sara, plate, from which chi is derived, is 1891...weird, huh?

Honestly, I think it's a good learning tool, but you'll need some other books to fill in its gaps.

I use "Essential Kanji" to learn the correct stroke order for writing kanji. The skillfully rendered brush and pen written characters are invaluable, and the "english names of radicals" appendix is pure gold. HOWEVER, this book desperately needs to be rewritten without any ROMAJI. Romaji is a curse which should be reserved for "Instant Japanese" tourist guides and the like. The starting point for learning kanji must certainly be the hiragana and katakana symbols, a trivial task by comparison. To use romaji in such a book makes no sense at all.

Of all the books on Japanese I've bought this has to be the best purchase so far. It's a 3-IN-ONE! I bought this book because I was getting to the end of my first Kanji book (Let's Learn Kanji by Joyce Mitamura, another AWESOME purchase, btw...) and needed something to take me to the next level. While this book isn't as educational as Lets Learn More Kanji, no other book I've come across is as useful or provided more bang for your buck. This book can teach you stroke order, On and Kun readings and pronunciations. You can use it to test your knowledge of kanji, particles and radicals and you can also use it as a kanji dictionary. I've found it most useful as a kanji dictionary which you can use by looking up either the radical, any reading of the character or the stroke count. There are 1,945 Joyo Kanji (the Kanji that have been designated "for everyday use" by their educational ministry) since this book has 2,000 kanji it probably has every character you'll ever need in it. It's only 325 pages long and pretty compact so it travels well and can easily fit in any bag without feeling like you're carrying around mount Fuji unlike some dictionaries I've come across. If I have any complaints it's that there are usually only 2 examples per character. It would've been nice if there were more Jukugo (compound words with 2 or more kanji characters, but haveing said that the examples are usually very good ones and the words used seem to be pretty common so you're not scratching your head trying to figure out the example. All in all a great book for those looking for a all inclusive reference book.

If you are a serious kanji learner, meaning you want to know all the 2000 standard kanji and not just +- 200 for travelling purposes, you need this book.
Admitted, learning Kanji is a lot of work, but this book sure does help a lot. All the other reviewers summarised the good points of the book, but the one thing I'd like to point out is the fact that in the examples it uses only the kanji the learner already encounterd. This makes it a better book than Kodansha's. True, Kodansha gives a lot more examples for every kanji, but you don't remember a single one of them if they consist of 3 kanji you didn't learn yet. I'd say, teach yourself all 2000 kanji with this book, then go buy Kodansha for the extensive amount of examples they offer.
Daniël, The Netherlands

This is an excellent book for learning the essential 2000 kanji. It is devised in a way so that a learner can test himself by just cutting a piece of paper as it explains in the book and you can test yourself for various things (meaning, kanji itself, readings, etc.) On the left side of each page, there are 8 kanji written with a brush and numbered so that you can see the stroke order, and near that there is the same kanji written in pen. Sometimes, there are more than one ways to write a kanji (old way and new way) and they are all written in the normal pen form.
This book is also excellent for cross reference: you can look up a kanji by stroke order, reading (kun/on), and there is even an appendix for English names of radicals which is really handy to have. Overall, this is an excellent book, almost flawless, but the reason I didn't rate it 5 stars is that it lacks readings for some kanji...yes, I'm a bit stingy when it comes to this. An example is the word "fire". In the book they will tell you that it can be pronounced both Ka and hi, but they forget (or they don't consider relevant) that it can also be read "ho". There are also other kanji like this one, but not that many.
There is also another error I noticed: on the book's cover it shows many kanji, one of which is not present in the book. That Kanji is the symbol for comma-design, and it is read either 'ha', 'tomoe', 'tomo' or 'uzumaki'. You will probably encounter this kanji very rarely, but it is useful to notice things like this.
If you need to learn kanji, this is probably the best buy - I highly suggest it!