Customer Reviews

Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each (Manoa) (part 1) (Japanese Edition)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

while this is the first and only Kana guide I've ever used, I have to say it is great - simply because it worked.
Some of the mnemonics don't connect well to the corresponding Kana-glyph.
But considering the fact that the mnemonics work so well for the vast majority, what does it hurt to learn a few through rote memorization.

I've made a few attempts at learning the kana the traditional brute-force way, but the task was just too tedious and boring.

Finally a friend of mine handed me this book and told me to give it another try... and it actually worked. The descriptions for each character were entertaining enough so I didn't feel bored by the learning process, and memorable enough that I didn't have to struggle to remember them.

I'm a convert now, and Remembering the Kanji is on top of my Amazon wish list :)

This book is a really cute... if not sometimes corny little ditty that walks you through the entire Japanese syllabary by offering ways to remember the characters (i.e. mnemotics) - - for example, it gives you funny things to remember them as... While admittedly the descriptions at times are quite, as mentioned *corny*... kind of Alice In Wonderland meets the land of awful puns, and other times, simply right above my head, I've got to say... its a really good idea.

I should mention that years ago when I first went to learn Japanese, I had a problem: All the letters looked the same or seemed like scribble. - - If, at present, you find yourself in this situation, I definitely say GET THIS BOOK... it'll save you time, and teach you to appreciate their shapes.

As for me... I've been living in Japan for years - - never formerly studied Japanese, but can speak and read a little... problem is I suffer from Kana Dyslexia at times... for example, I know most, but suddenly I mix a few up and the panic leads me to not be able to understand some ridiculously simple words... ergo, I got this book to formerly tackle the entire syllabary - - and at the same time, have a book that might address the fact that although my memory per-se isn't so bad (not the greatest, but still not that bad), my attention span is virtually non-existent, hence sabotaging my ability to pay attention to things long enough to learn it - - The author's page turning methodology definitely serves that purpose (instead of reading through the book from front to back, the kana are laid out in order, but you skip around to tackle them from "easiest" to "most difficult" as he builds upon his pictographic imagery.)

In conclusion... if you have trouble with conventional text books for whatever reason and need something to help you out, I say: give this book a try... on the other hand, if you are a really serious cut and dry type of person, or have a good enough memory that you don't really need mnemotic aids... move on.

note: one criticism - - I wish the book were written in a way that when you turned the page you didn't see the English right away - - kinda sabotages a chance for self testing, doesn't it?

Still a great book...!

Definitely looking forward to getting his REMEMBERING THE KANJI book, that's for sure !

This book is exceptional! I thought it was going to be an extremely daunting task, learning all of the kana. But this book breaks it down into easy-to-comprehend lessons and before you know it, you know them like a pro! It only took me a couple of hours to learn all of them, literally.

My advice: if you're learning Japanese and on the fence about this book, don't be. Buy it. It's worth every penny, I promise you!

I was able to learn all of the Kana quite easily with the help of this excellent book. I was surprised how quickly I was able to pick up on the Kana, even only studying a little each day. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to start learning to write Japanese.

Also, the book is great as a reference as it lists all the Hiragana and Katakana in dictionary order. It also includes a complete table of all Kana as well as diphthongs in the back.

I didn't find this book as helpful as most others have. (I did better with an iPhone app which uses mnemonics and drawings.) The stories are odd.

I also bought his Remembering the Kanji and I pray that works better for me.

I am about 5 lessons in, tomorrow I finish my last one. In the first lesson I used the image the author would put to a hiragana to help you remember it, if it was an easy image to remember, so out of the nine I only put an image to four. Those four I remembered easily and the other five I had to write and read over and over to get; it was exhausting and hard to say the least. So in Lesson 2 I tried something new; instead of not using the imagery provided I made up my own, the author uses the boomerang, and the word 'maypole', these were hard for me to pick up because I couldn't see a boomerang or a 'maypole', also some of the images she gives you are really complicated and long, so I started to make up my own images to go with the hiragana, and in the last three lessons I have memorized the hiragana really fast. So yes this book is good, but if your having a hard time with the images the author tries to put to a hiragana, make your own (example: I thought the boomerang looked more like a fish, so I made up an image that involved a fish).