Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters Vol. 1 4th Edition (Japanese Edition) (Paperback)

by James W. Heisig (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The aim of this book is to provide the student of Japanese with a simple method for correlating the writing and the meaning of Japanese characters in such a way as to make them both easy to remember. It is intended not only for the beginner, but also for the more advanced student looking for some relief from the constant frustration of how to write the kanji and some way to systematize what he or she already knows. The author begins with writing because--contrary to first impressions--it is in fact the simpler of the two. He abandons the traditional method of ordering the kanji according to their frequency of use and organizes them according to their component parts or "primitive elements." Assigning each of these parts a distinct meaning with its own distinct image, the student is led to harness the powers of "imaginative memory" to learn the various combinations that result. In addition, each kanji is given its own key word to represent the meaning, or one of the principal meanings, of that character. These key words provide the setting for a particular kanji's "story," whose protagonists are the primitive elements.

In this way, students are able to complete in a few short months a task that would otherwise take years. Armed with the same skills as Chinese or Korean students, who know the meaning and writing of the kanji but not their pronunciation in Japanese, they are now in a much better position to learn to read (which is treated in a separate volume). --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author
James W. Heisig is professor and permanent research fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Japan Publications Trading Company; 4 edition (August 2001)
• Language: Japanese
• ISBN-10: 4889960759
• ISBN-13: 978-4889960754
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #565,145 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

241 of 269 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "When Westerners Want to Get Serious about Literacy", February 11, 2004

By	Lani 'Lorenzo' Wiig (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews

I am a European-American who holds an M.A. from a Japanese national university (Hiroshima University) and a Professional Diploma in Foreign Language Education (Japanese) from the University of Hawaii - Manoa. I have lived for some 11 years in Japan as an adult and have taught Japanese at the secondary level in Hawaii and Oregon. Between 2001 and 2003, I assisted Mary Sisk Noguchi, author of the "Kanji Clinic" column in THE JAPAN TIMES, edit, rewrite and check facts in her columns. (The columns may be viewed at www.kanjiclinic.com.) I mention these credentials in order to give potential consumers of Jim Heisig's REMEMBERING THE KANJI, Volume I (aka 'RTK1'), a more informed basis for their impending purchase.

Amazon's customer reviews for RTK1 cover a broad spectrum ranging from near-total rejection to devoted acceptance. This is NOT a book that seems to attract many 3-star reviews. As you, the potential consumer of RTK1, debate whether to buy the book or not, I hope my little review will help push you over the edge into the "buy" mentality.

I have given this remarkable book a 5-star rating. RTK1 helps level the "kanji playing field." (Incidentally, you can easily discover if this is "THE KANJI BOOK FOR YOU" by going to google.com and inputting "heisig remembering kanji." Dr. Heisig has convenietly made available his well-reasoned, indeed, history-making introduction as well as downloadable stories for the first 250-or-so kanji that he teaches in his system. If you are 'turned on' by his introduction and his first 100 or so stories, then RTK1 is a good tool for you. You will need the book to build a strong memory foundation for the remaining 1750-or-so kanji used in standard written Japanese.)

Good luck. This book gives a solid foundation to serious students of written Japanese, and I dare say Chinese, too.

Oh, yes, almost forgot. The book is also available in French and Spanish.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will give back what you're willing to put in, January 13, 2005

By	P. Fisher (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm 18 years old, and I've graduated slightly earlier due to homeschooling. This evening I finished this book, the first in a series of three books designed to make me literate in the 2,000+ symbols used everyday in Japanese society. After seeing the results of the first book, I truly feel that I am on my way to Japanese literacy.

If you've read one of the many reviews, you probably understand that this book doesn't teach you a single pronunciation of a Japanese character, but rather you tag an English keyword on to all of the Japanese symbols treated in this book, leaving the pronunciation for later.

Why do this? If you aren't noticing quick results in your Japanese abilities, what's the point in learning it? It's true that every single word I've learned will be of no immediate benefit to me if I try to pick up a Japanese newspaper, article, etc. and try to read it. Many have the misconception that in order to "master" the Japanese written language, one must study and "master" the characters individually, and over a period of time, accumulate lots of characters in one's lexicon, therefore allowing the student to read lots of stuff (Makes sense, right?). But our minds don't think like that. (Assuming everybody reading this review is a native to a Roman character based alphabet, or something pretty close to this) We are not used to recognizing little squiggly lines, let alone understanding a concept and multiple pronunciations simply by looking at them. Yet each and every Japanese textbook you'll find on the market supports the idea of mastering each character individually, a method that might seem to be the ONLY method to bring immediate benefits, but requires lots of work and constant drilling of a character. This method is deemed (By the author) to be ineffective and a waste of time.

So what does this book do for our situation? Rather than assuming that we can make the connection between a jumble of lines and the meaning of a character (Which every text book somehow assumes we can do), the kanji are broken down into smaller fragments, and each are tagged with a word that represents an idea, concept, thing, etc., that we are familiar with, such as a hill, the sun, or a baseball bat. Adding these various building blocks together, you form new concepts, and in turn, new characters. True, most these "building blocks" probably don't have a relationship whatsoever with any sort of root meaning, but this isn't the point. The point is to take something you aren't familiar with (Lots of lines), and to make them familiar to you (An image, a picture in your mind). Using these familiar images, you guide yourself from the tagged English word to the Kanji (Or the other way around). No, you will not be able to pronounce any of them when you're finished with this book. But you will be able to identify and tell the difference between even the smallest of nuances. You will look at kanji in a completely different way.

I can't speak for others, but progressing through this course to it's completion was perhaps one of the toughest tests of self-discipline and concentration that I've done in my life. You don't simply "hop along for the ride" to understanding kanji. You will tread through this sea of characters until you've used up every bit of strength your imagination can muster. The only people I've talked to in real life (Not via e-mail) that have attempted this course have either not yet completed it, or have given up with it altogether. This isn't a "learn Japanese kanji in 4 minutes a day" sort-of course. This is a massive undertaking, and must be treated as such, lest the student fizzle out, like so many seem to have done. This is not a book for someone that wants to "get their feet wet" in the sea of kanji. Rather, it is for the serious student, one that is willing to make a commitment (And a big one, at that) towards literacy in Japanese. If this isn't your goal, then I suggest you find another book.

Before you stands a course that requires great stamina, determination and willpower to accomplish. The benefits might not sound like much, but by the time you've finished this course, you'll be on a new plateau of kanji understanding, one that can lead you to literacy. If you "Google" the words "James Heisig Kanji," you'll be able to find a "demo" of the first couple hundred kanji covered in the book. Give it a try. And depending on how much you're willing to work at it, you've either found for yourself a precious gem or another useless rock.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book, amazing author!, January 8, 2002

By	Michael Tocci (Sandia Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a bit past 1/3 the way through this book, and I am already totally amazed. In about 9 months, spending very little time each day, I've so far memorized about 800 kanji. My study of the Japanese language started in earnest about a year ago, when I learned the hiragana and katakana (using Heisig's other book, "Remembering the hiragana/katakana"). That went so well that I decided to buy this book and give it a try. I figured, "2100 kanji?! There's no way I'll ever remember them!" But I thought it would be worth giving it a try. Thanks to this book, I continue to amaze myself everyday with the ease with which I can remember how to read and write so many hundreds of kanji.

This book teaches absolutely nothing about the pronunciation of the kanji. That's left for later texts (I believe it's covered in Heisig's second volume, but I'm not sure). While studying this book, you will learn the primary meaning (key word), along with the correct method for writing, each of the 2100 or so Jouyou (basic) kanji. James Heisig has come up with not just a great method for memorizing the way to write the kanji, but also what I've found to be the perfect order for a native English-speaker to memorize them in. You don't learn them in the same order that a Japanese kid would, and that makes sense (unless you happen to be a Japanese kid). You start off learning little bits of pictographs (called 'primitives'), you learn basically what those primitives mean (in the etymological history, more or less), and then you put these primitives together, while making a little story about how those primitives come together to represent the key word. And I tell you, it really works. Even if you're not interested in mastering the Japanese language, it wouldn't hurt to run your brain through the exercise of reading this book. It helps a lot if you can study just 5 to 10 minutes a day, but even if you can't (and I often go for days, sometimes weeks, without practicing) you'll find that you can still remember everything after just a little bit of practice.

I started out using Heisig's flash cards (sold separately), and they're great. They even include pronunciations for all the kanji. The downside is that there are over 2000 of these cards! How do you shuffle or meaningfully use 2000 cards? I don't know. So I've pretty much stopped using them, and I've put all the keywords and kanji pictures into an MSExcel spreadsheet, and I can shuffle and practice them that way. I still use the cards to practice the latest 20 or so kanji I've learned, but you'll need to come up with some method for practicing all of them every once in awhile. Even a random number generator, along with a printed list of the keywords, would work in a pinch.

Basically, this book, plus a good dose of your concentration and just a bit of your time, will have you reading and writing kanji even if you never thought it would be possible.