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Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each Bilingual Edition

by James W. Heisig (Author)

212 ratings

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Following on the phenomenal success of Remembering the Kanji, the author has prepared a companion volume for learning the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries of modern Japanese. In six short lessons of about twenty minutes, each of the two systems of "kana" writing are introduced in such a way that the absolute beginner can acquire fluency in writing in a fraction of the time normally devoted to the task.

Using the same basic self-taught method devised for learning the kanji, and in collaboration with Helmut Morsbach and Kazue Kurebayashi, the author breaks the shapes of the two syllabaries into their component parts and draws on what he calls "imaginative memory" to aid the student in reassembling them into images that fix the sound of each particular kana to its writing.

Now in its third edition, Remembering the Kana has helped tens of thousands of students of Japanese master the Hiragana and Katakana in a short amount of time . . . and have fun in the process.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James W. Heisig, is emeritus professor and research fellow of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, located on the campus of Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. His books, translations, and edited collections,which have appeared in 12 languages,currently number 78 volumes.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Hawaii Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 30, 2007
Edition ‏ : ‎ Bilingual
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0824831640
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0824831646
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 0.39 x 8.93 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #356,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #50 in Japanese Language Instruction (Books)
Customer Reviews:
212 ratings

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James W. Heisig

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James W. Heisig, is emeritus professor and research fellow of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, located on the campus of Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. His books, translations, and edited collections,which have appeared in 13 languages,currently number 83 volumes.

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Customers find the book's approach to learning kana very effective, with one mentioning memorizing the entire alphabet within hours. Moreover, the book is enjoyable to use and really works for its intended purpose. However, customers disagree on the value for money, with some finding it well worth the price while others consider it a waste of money. Additionally, the story complexity receives negative feedback, with customers finding them too complicated.

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Learning pace Effectiveness Enjoyment Value for money Story complexity

26 customers mention "Learning pace"23 positive3 negative

Customers find the book's approach to learning kana very effective, particularly for Hiragana, with one customer mentioning they memorized the entire alphabet within hours.

"Very helpful in properly writing Hiragana. A great supplement in learning Japanese." Read more

"What the book promises: to teach you hiragana and katakana in 3 hours each...." Read more

"...corny at times, but this has got to be the fastest, most direct way to learn Hiragana and Katakana! Well worth the price!" Read more

"...As expected. It worked very nice to remember Hiragana and Katakana, but since I am not a native english speaker it has a very limited use as Heisig..." Read more

5 customers mention "Effectiveness"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book effective.

"...I fully expect them to be as useful and effective as this one has been." Read more

"...Completely recommended and trust me...I have ADD...IT WORKS, IT REALLY WORKS!" Read more

"...This was very simple (30min study- 6 lessons each) but very effective as well...." Read more

"I was skeptical going in, but the book did what it claims. In less than a week I had the entirety of the hiragana down cold...." Read more

5 customers mention "Enjoyment"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable, with one mentioning that the little stories and memory tips are useful.

"...The little stories and memory tips are useful- some more so than others but for the most part, they do a good job of sticking an image in your mind...." Read more

"...breaking up the rote memorization and the writing style is light and enjoyable...." Read more

"...to learn the Kana or anyone who want to learn them in a quick and enjoyable way." Read more

"...He manages to make learning kana easy, fun, and most important of all, insightful in its respect for the historicity of the language." Read more

8 customers mention "Value for money"4 positive4 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's value for money, with some finding it well worth the price while others consider it a complete waste of money.

"...Well worth the price!" Read more

"...pattern of placing very high expectations on you, but very low expectations on itself, while making itself sound super brilliant: “Someone dared me,..." Read more

"...Who knows? But for me, I just don't think it's worth the price. If you can pick it up for cheap, go for it...." Read more

"...This is a complete waste of money." Read more

3 customers mention "Story complexity"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the stories in the book too complicated.

"...if you don't utilize this book, not only because of the overcomplicated stories, but also because Heisig teaches you everything out of order...." Read more

"...These stories are far too complicated for the relatively straightforward task of learning kana...." Read more

"...The stories are odd. I also bought his Remembering the Kanji 1 and I pray that works better for me...." Read more

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J. C. Bullard
Very effective tool, does what it promises
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2017
Verified Purchase

What the book promises: to teach you hiragana and katakana in 3 hours each. Not pronunciation, not vocabulary, but how to recognize and write the symbols. It does.

The book delivers on this by using tried-and-true learning methods to get you to think about each symbol and to link the symbol to specific active visual images. It is entirely possible that this method might not work well for an auditory or kinesthetic learner, but if you are a visual learner then this method should work well for you. Occasionally I would hit cases where his imagery felt strained to me, but after a bit of careful consideration I had my own active images that resonated better with me and gave me strong mental hooks to use. For example, he extends the imagery for the character "Ha" to the character "Ho," while I found the "Ma" character to be a more-relatable base from which to build "Ho." Either way, it works, and I can now remember and reproduce all three characters consistently.

I've seen some complaints about the fact that the book has you jumping back and forth among the pages rather than going in sequence. I have not found this to be anything more than a very mild distraction, and I understand why the author did it this way: he even states that he put the kana in the book in dictionary order rather than in the order he teaches them so that once you know the dictionary order you can look up a specific kana later if you need to check something about it. And yes, he does also teach you the dictionary order as well. (Of course, I might never get the song, "Frere Jacques" back out of my head now!)

I'm using this in tandem with Rosetta Stone's Japanese Language program to help me learn the kana as I'm learning the language. I also have Heisig's Kanji books and will move on to them later. I fully expect them to be as useful and effective as this one has been.

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11 people found this helpful

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Brian Lin
Great memory tool for the Kana!
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2014
Verified Purchase
The non-linear 'adventure' type layout was unexpected but I like it. Kinda reminds me of those old 'choose your path' type books I read when I was little. The little stories and memory tips are useful- some more so than others but for the most part, they do a good job of sticking an image in your mind. One problem I personally have with both learning Chinese and Japanese was associating a sound with the character and the meaning. With English and many other Romance languages such as Spanish, you can just look at the word and get the pronunciation. Since this doesn't work without Romanized characters, the memory stories really help create that connection. I also liked some of the little features like how they included different fonts/typesets for the Kana at the bottom of the page- really helpful if you want to take your knowledge and apply it to street signs, advertisements, product packaging, websites, manga, etc.

As a supplement, I'd recommend getting the free flashcard app 'Anki' for your computer or phone. People have already made flashcard decks for this book (and plenty of other Japanese flash card sets as well) for you to download. At least for me, I really need a lot of review and constant memory jogging in order to keep all my Kana fresh so I'd highly recommend that (which is in no way affiliated with the book or me).

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4 people found this helpful

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Aaron
It works!
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
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I love studying languages, I ordered this book and the sister book Remembering the Kanji to get started with my study of Japanese. I have learned many writing systems throughout the years, it’s a little corny at times, but this has got to be the fastest, most direct way to learn Hiragana and Katakana! Well worth the price!

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A.Davis
helpful but not his best work.
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2015
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Honestly, I bought this book for a refresher... I don't like the methods used to teach you the kana in this guide.. it has you jumping from page to page. It turned me off.. if they want you to learn it a certain way he should've implemented it that way instead of having you jump all over the place a losing your space. I love the Kanji books though they're written better and you'll get a better understanding.

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One person found this helpful

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StrangerCoug
Very helpful indeed!
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2011
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I bought this book already knowing most of the hiragana (just blanking on a few here and there) yet having trouble with a good number of the katakana due to their similarities with each other. Now I have a way to keep them straight. One of the later katakana chapters covers a set of katakana that can be very problematic to the beginner for this reason, but gives you helpful keywords to remember them.

A piece of advice to future buyers: When you're first learning how to do so, take your time writing the kana. If you rush the writing, it will be sloppy, especially for particularly complex kana (the hiragana A and the katakana NE gave me problems). My handwriting in English is better than some I've seen from people my age and older, but is still sloppy enough to require getting used to. That's what I get for writing quickly, I guess ;)

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3 people found this helpful

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David Read
It’s true! 3 hours to learn each of the 2 kana alphabets
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2023
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Follow the book exactly as the author outlines and you’ll have the reading and writing of Japanese syllabary down in 3 hours or less. I can’t imagine a more effective, quicker or more fun way to learn hiragana and katakana than this.

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bluxpretion
Love This Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2015
Verified Purchase

I love this book! I'd say I'm driven to learning Japanese, but this book makes it easier to jump right in; it's fun! Putting together imagery and stories to really get you Remembering the Kana! Not gonna lie, I was slightly skeptical at first…slllightly. I did my research about this book and read plenty of reviews carefully and I could not find a single hater or nay-sayer or anything like that - the reviews were only really positive, so that's what convinced me to give it a try! Let me tell you, this s*** works; you won't believe how well it works! Committing the effort, the discipline, the time and focus to this book, Remembering the Kana should be a breeze! James W. Heisig has already done all the research and most of the work for you!

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Henriqueta Cristina Saraiva dos Santos
Avaliação 5 estrelas
Reviewed in Spain on December 15, 2023
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Gostei

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Hilda Delgado
Muy bueno para empezar a aprender hiragana y katakana.
Reviewed in Mexico on August 13, 2018
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Metodo intetesante para aprender Kana

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Chathain
Une très bonne méthode pour maîtriser les syllabaires
Reviewed in France on October 10, 2009
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Dans le système d'écriture japonais, il existe les kanas, regroupant deux syllabaires qu'il faut maîtriser si on veut pouvoir lire la langue: les hiragana et katakana.
Heisig propose une méthode solide afin de les maîtriser et de ne pas les oublier : à chaque kana est proposé une histoire, une astuce afin de bien le mémoriser. Les kanas ne sont pas appris dans leur ordre alphabétique, ce qui facilite la révision, pouvant se faire dans cet ordre.

Le livre étant en anglais, il faut pouvoir lire la langue et pour ceux qui auraient du mal, avoir éventuellement un dictionnaire.
D'aucuns diront que certaines astuces sont ancrés dans la langue de Shakespeare, mais rien n'interdit de créer ses propres histoires ou de trouver ses propres astuces.
Plus qu'un livre imposant une méthode, il propose et rythme (découpage en leçons) l'apprentissage.

J'ai été séduite par cette méthode très pédagogique -la meilleure que j'ai trouvée, que ce soit dans la littérature ou sur le web- qui a très bien marché pour moi et je recommande fortement ce livre...

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Morríghan
Best book for learning the kana
Reviewed in Canada on January 17, 2025
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Of all of the books I've used for learning the kana over the years, this is the best one. (I study languages for fun, but I hate socialising, so I forget them often, but this book had me still remember much of the hiragana and katakana even 8 years after I stopped reading and writing in it.

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Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very effective tool, does what it promises

5.0 out of 5 stars Great memory tool for the Kana!

5.0 out of 5 stars It works!

4.0 out of 5 stars helpful but not his best work.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful indeed!

5.0 out of 5 stars It’s true! 3 hours to learn each of the 2 kana alphabets

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Love This Book

5.0 out of 5 stars Avaliação 5 estrelas

4.0 out of 5 stars Muy bueno para empezar a aprender hiragana y katakana.

5.0 out of 5 stars Une très bonne méthode pour maîtriser les syllabaires

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book for learning the kana

Very effective tool, does what it promises

Great memory tool for the Kana!

It works!

helpful but not his best work.

Very helpful indeed!

It’s true! 3 hours to learn each of the 2 kana alphabets

Love This Book

Avaliação 5 estrelas

Muy bueno para empezar a aprender hiragana y katakana.

Une très bonne méthode pour maîtriser les syllabaires

Best book for learning the kana