Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reference book only - But good for that, May 17, 2003
For what it is, this is a good kanji book. The compact size makes it easy to carry around, and a whole lot of kanji are packed inside. The strokes are easily defined, and the unusual use of pen rather than calligraphy is appreciated.However, the book has some serious faults. First it is definitely not a "kanji learner." There is no workbook-style layout to trace the kanji stroke by stroke before writing alone. The strokes are outlined, but there is no room for practice. Second, aside from kanji, the book is almost entirely written in romaji, which is no help to learning Japanese and makes for more difficult searching of individual kanji. Third, there is no insight into kanji, no presentation of radicals, or anything to help a learner understand kanji. It presents each kanji as an individual character to be memorized. I would never recommend this as a sole kanji book, but it serves its purpose for reference and is a good tool overall.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable reference for learning and writing kanji, March 14, 1999
By A Customer
As a North American professional who lives and works in Japan, my progressing Japanese studies have recently included kanji. While learning these Chinese characters seemed daunting and complex at first, I found this guide incredibly helpful. The book contains the 881 "essential" kanji designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education, along with the 1,850 characters designated as "standard" for everyday use in the publishing world (this includes the 881 essential kanji). Phonetic writings, definitions and everyday vocabulary are also supplied. One of the book's most valuable features is that kanji are clearly presented as handwritten, stroke-by-stroke models. This fosters a grasp of kanji construction, while making it easier to identify characters found in books, magazines, newspapers and on printed signs. An added benefit of the handwritten models is that reading personal letters or other correspondence becomes easier. My only small complaint is with the "romanized" (romaji) readings provided for each kanji. Since I began my studies by learning the two Japanese syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), I always find that reading romaji is distracting and like taking a big step backwards, since it merely serves as a guide to pronunciation. Overall, I'd enthusiastically recommend this book as an essential reference guide for students of Japanese at any level. Also, if available, consider the paperback version--it's lighter, more compact and easier to flip through quickly.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Beginner's kanji book, February 12, 2003
I've studied Japanese for about 10 years, with 5 years spent in Japan. This book motivated me to focus on kanji from the beginning so that now I can read Japanese books and newspapers.This was the first book I ever used for Kanji. Thinking back now to those days in the library poring over it evokes much nostalgia. Every kanji is written with an ordinary pen, not a brush. Brushstrokes are useless for most of us who write with pens. This one excels in that you can copy the strokes precisely with a pen and with practice have your kanji looking as good as those in the book. My Japanese professor used to marvel at how beautifully I wrote for every assignment I handed in. I had used this book as a model for every kanji! By copying the beautiful characters in this book over and over, you will form good writing habits. It is essential that you follow a text such as this one from the beginning so that you know how important stroke order is for memorizing the more complex kanji you'll encounter later on. Once you learn the basic stroke order rules you will find the difficult kanji easy to remember too, as they are usually just an amalgamation of common radicals that you learn writing the easy kanji. This book is great for beginners who need to learn stroke order and for those who want to write more beautifully. It only contains the Joyo kanji (those taught in Japanese schools). If your remember them all you'll be able to read the kanji in the newspaper.
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