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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works... and works well!, October 3, 2007
This review is from: Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each (Manoa) (part 1) (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)
Although this is the only tool I've ever used for learning the kana, it definitely worked as advertised. I generally have a pretty weak memory, but the tricks used in this book allowed me to memorize and learn how to write the kana very quickly. Furthermore, because the book does not rely on simple brute-force memorization, I retained the information much better and was able to revisit it again after almost a year of not seeing it in just a few minutes. Finally, the memory techniques themselves have proved to be a valuable asset when memorizing other things.
Although 15$ may seem like a bit of a steep price for such a small volume, it is well worth the cost.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Answer For Struggling Learners, June 11, 2009
This review is from: Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each (Manoa) (part 1) (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)
Okay, so I've been self teaching myself Japanese over the last few years in small doses, mainly because it's difficult to focus on it over an extended period time. Most learning sources I have come across ignore this and just encourage further reading. Here, though, they don't, and it helps you understand the wonderful value of breaks.
I came across this when my friend told me about it after they had been looking for another book I've been using (Genki. Good luck finding it on English websites brand new. eBay tends to have them in sets) and they found this one. So I picked it up and immersed myself in lesson 1 and I haven't turned back.
There are two 3-hour courses, one for hirigana and one for katakana, and each of those courses is split into 30 minute lessons. While you can, obviously, ignore the warnings, it will tell you to take a minimum of a 30 minute break, though in the introduction it suggests doing just two lessons a day and finishing each course in 3 days.
What also makes this book interesting is it's linear yet unlinear design. In the book, the kana is listed in, as the book describes it, dictionary order. However, you do not follow straight through. Instead, it starts you with the last one in the book, N, then takes you back a fair amount to Ku, and so on.
This book not only helped me develop a fine knowledge and understanding of kana, but also simple study skills as a whole. For any struggling student of the language, pick this one up!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hiragana - excellent, Katakana - not so much, July 22, 2009
This review is from: Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each (Manoa) (part 1) (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)
I recently purchased Remembering the Kana as an introduction to the written Japanese language, and it has helped me a lot. I am almost done with the book now, and reading hiragana is becoming easier and easier every day. The hiragana lessons are very well done and are easily completed without having to go back and check much. Without much reviewing I believe I can say I remember all the hiragana.
However, the katakana lessons are not very good. It seems like Heisig was writing the book, and as he finished hiragana realised he needed to do the katakana part in half the time. Every new symbol you are introduced to comes with examples using previously learned katakana you have learned so far, but I've experienced on several occasions that the examples include katakana which I've never seen before but then are introduced later in the same lesson. There are also pages without practice lessons, and I'm really confused as it seems one symbol can be used for several things but I already learned this symbol and he never taught me this. Still it pops up in examples.
To be honest the katakana part seems like an afterthought, and not a well done one either.
I would very much recommend the book to anyone just starting out with Japanese, since the hiragana part I would assume as saved me a lot of time with learning these symbols. If you're only looking for an introduction to katakana though, I would honestly keep looking.
Frankly it's quite discouraging now going through the last katakana lessons because the stories are very very far-fetched and uses keywords I've never heard of in English so I have to make up my own, and the missing explanations of things and symbols popping up before I've learnt them makes for a struggling learning experience.
Edit: I now finished the book, and I still agree with what I wrote above. Still, I would like to change the review to four stars, since I don't think the poor parts of katakana should count as negative as I had them count, but it seems I can't change my rating. Oh well. Still very recommended.
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