Customer Reviews

Guide to Writing Kanji & Kana, Book 1: A Self-Study Workbook for Learning Japanese Characters

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have found this book to be of immense use in teaching myself the Japanese language. It provides ample practice space, guides for writing the characters, pronunciation and meanings, and a handful of compounds containing the given character. I practice in it every day!

This book is wonderful for the student who is learning on his/her own. My sensei also recommended it during my first college class. I started using it a year before I started any formal education in Japanese. Be sure to pick up the Handbook too! It provides 3 different dictionaries, two of which train you how to look up kanji in kanji dictionaries. Using the book will help the serious self-tought student and the ambitious classroom student to excell at writing. The only flaw is that it isn't that useful for learning to read, but there are other good texts out there for learning to read Japanese.

This, in combination with part 2, constitues a great way to learn towrite and recognise kana and kanji. The way each character is writtenis fully explained in stroke order and there is ample practicespace. One of the great features of this book is the way it presentsthe characters in combinations with other characters which also givesthe student a way to build vocabulary, and quite considerably if youis assiduous, I might add! What is more, the characters in theaforementioned vocabulary sections are presented in conjunction withcharacters you have met before! All characters are broken down introtheir separate elements too. There is an adequate index at the back ofeach book too. Visually, the book is good too. The large format makeslearning feel more comfortable. There is only one drawback I can findand that is that the kanji are not presented in sentences which canhelp you to glean context, but you can't have everything! The twovolume format allows you to decide whether you want to continue adeeper study of kanji... On the whole, an excellent book! I wouldrecommend this to serious kanji master wannabes!

A very good book, and I found it very useful!

We have to bear in mind that a book like this was written only with the intention of teaching one how to write the characters and not to read them, so there's really nothing much to complain about. But if it is true that the "jinmei-yo kanji" was not included as one reader pointed out, then that's a minus.

This book along with book cover all the Joyo Kanji which arerequired for many readings. This book is the best, I already knew mostall Kana, so it was a good review.. But before I used this book, Icould not recognize many characters. Your age doesn't matter.. no matter how young or old.. I am only 14, and starting out Learning The Japanese language!

A very good book, and I found it very useful!

We have to bear in mind that a book like this was written only with the intention of teaching one how to write the characters and not to read them, so there's really nothing much to complain about. But if it is true that the "jinmei-yo kanji" was not included as one reader pointed out, then that's a minus.

instead you should search for the handbook of kana and kanji written and published by the same company. I did the mistake of buying this one and it have got less useful in learning then the handbook have gotten to me. As this book is in 2 parts and doesn't contain the same amount of kanji(obvoiusly as it's 2 volumes) and doesn't explain in ca 30 pages about kanji as the handbook does this is a bad chooise. This book doesn't include the jinmei-yo kanji that are used for name either but the handbook does. The handbook have a better register.

And the best thing about the Handbook is that it: COST LESS I say it again "THE HANDBOOK COST LESS" then this book

This book is a bad buy belive me. the only the book does have is some small aquares to practice in as you can do the same thing on a colleige block you will not need the squares provided by this book and the squares is to few in number anyway.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK!