Remembering the Hiragana: A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours [Paperback]

James W. Heisig (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Japan Pubns (April 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870407651
• ISBN-13: 978-0870407659
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,785,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James W. Heisig is professor and permanent research fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, but don't buy it, August 12, 2001

By 

Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remembering the Hiragana: A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours (Paperback)

Using clever mnemonic devices, this book quickly teaches native English speakers to read and write the hiragana, one of the two Japanese syllabaries. (A syllabary is like an alphabet, only each symbol stands for a whole syllable.) I can't imagine a better way to learn the hiragana than this.

But don't buy this book. It has been superseded by Heisig's "Remembering the Kana: The Hiragana / The Katakana," which is simply Heisig's hiragana and katakana books (both out of print) bound in one cover. To read and write Japanese, you have to learn both syllabaries (plus kanji, the Chinese characters adopted by the Japanese), so you might as well get the book that teaches both.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for Learning Hiragana, December 21, 1999

By 

Steven Whitworth (Holbrook, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Remembering the Hiragana: A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours (Paperback)

Before I purchased this book, I was trying to learn Hiragana by simple memorization. Needless to say this was a long and difficult task, and I was only able to memorize about 12 in a week's time. This book not only helps you to remember the Hiragana, but to remember how to make the characters correctly. I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn Hiragana. I have not tried the author's titles on Katakana or Kanji (yet), but if they are as effective as this text, they are well worth your time and money.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very simple, easy way to remember Hiragana!, August 4, 2000

By 

Chad Freeman (Newburyport, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remembering the Hiragana: A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours (Paperback)

After just the first lesson, Mr. Heisig has helped me remember 9 hiragana characters in about 15 mins. The key is mnemonics (remembering by association). Instead of presenting the standard "dictionary" path to remembering, he starts off with easy symbols, and progressivly gets more difficult, but not hard. The cool part is that he isn't a language teacher, but just a regular person who, when the challenge was presented to him, found a really easy way to remember the hiragana, aimed at the regular person in a non-classroom setting. Being a young student (17) and with no places around that offer Japanese Education, this was a cheap, fast, and very easy way to learn Hiragana. I plan on buying the books on Katakana and Kanji very soon to further my writing/reading skills. I highly recommend this book! :)