Kanji are essential for using Japanese, but learning them takes months or years. The immensity of the task makes it essential to carefully consider various learning methods before committing oneself. This task has only got more difficult as the number of kanji study tools has proliferated.
Like many others, I struggled to navigate through conflicting recommendations from different camps favouring one method or another. I decided to explore the options as thoroughly as I could before deciding, and to share my conclusions for others who will face the same predicament in future. These reviews are the result of that process as well as studying 2000+ kanji over the course of nearly two years.
Whilst there are several different categories of kanji study tools, the most essential tool for foreign learners is a self-study manual that provides (1) a logical order for learning the kanji, (2) a clear explanation of kanji components and how each kanji is built from them, and (3) a system of interpretive & mnemonic aids for learning and remembering each kanji. There are many resources that fulfil these criteria for a limited number of kanji, but most of these only cover a fraction of the kanji you need. As these tools force you to switch to another system partway, I focus in this review on the comprehensive resources that fulfil all three of the above criteria whilst covering all of the 2,136 Joyo Kanji.
As this review only covers materials whose goal is to systematically guide you to learning and remembering the meanings of kanji, it excludes the splendid kanji dictionaries like those by Hadamitzky & Spahn, Halpern, etc. It also excludes practice books (books mainly consisting of exercises or grid sheets) and the many tools that cover a only fraction of the kanji you need. There are excellent materials in the above categories, but none can replace the kind of resource reviewed in the first section below.
Regardless of your preferred method, you should by all means revise what you study using Spaced Repetition System (SRS) software, which will relieve you from having to organise your own revising program, and will allow you to learn faster and better. I recommend Anki for anyone who is even moderately skilful at using customisable software, but there are simpler tools that are also free, including Memrise and Quizlet. User-generated SRS “decks”/”courses” for the Conning and Heisig systems are easily found online.
THE BIG THREE: Conning, Seeley & Henshall, Heisig
The first three resources listed below are the outstanding systematic guides for learning and remembering the meanings of kanji. Below them, I add supplementary sections on compact kanji reference books, printed flash cards, and pictograph-based learning systems. Within each category, I list items from most to least recommended.
The three books described in this first section were published over several decades, and it is no coincidence that the newest one represents a rather large improvement on the others. Given this gap in quality, it is impossible to present an equal balance of pros and cons for each resource, which in any event would defeat the purpose of a critical review. The comments below aim rather to assess each resource objectively, and through their comparison to illustrate the features that make kanji learning tools effective or ineffective. In order from newest to oldest, the three resources below also illustrate the evolution of kanji self-study tools over the past forty years.
The three books described in this first section were published over several decades, and it is no coincidence that the newest one represents a rather large improvement on the others. Given this gap in quality, it is impossible to present an equal balance of pros and cons for each resource, which in any event would defeat the purpose of a critical review. The comments below aim rather to assess each resource objectively, and through their comparison to illustrate the features that make kanji learning tools effective or ineffective. In order from newest to oldest, the three resources below also illustrate the evolution of kanji self-study tools over the past forty years.
Summary: The Kanji Learner’s Course (KLC) is the newest and best kanji learning system. Conning has essentially brought together the most effective qualities of several top-drawer kanji study tools, including Remembering the Kanji‘s insightful mnemonic approach & cumulative introduction of kanji components, the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary’s precise “core meanings” as illustrated by well chosen example words, and Essential Kanji’s practice of composing example words using only the kanji that have already been covered. He combines these features with several other innovations whilst organising the characters into an ideal learning sequence.
KLC teaches 2,300 kanji in a logical, building-block sequence. Each entry provides the kanji’s core meaning, summed up in a capitalised keyword as in the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, along with a note on how to remember the kanji. It also provides the kanji’s readings and, in some cases, a note on how to remember its on-yomi (Chinese-derived reading) from its “phonetic component”. Finally, it provides “didactic vocabulary” chosen to illustrate the kanji’s readings & meanings and to provide useful words you can begin to use straight away.
It is evident that Conning has endeavoured to incorporate the most outstanding features of existing tools (which he cites in his Introduction) and to surpass them in various ways. Of all the major kanji study resources, KLC clearly has the best learning progression, the most effective mnemonic system, the most thoughtful grouping of characters, the most thorough cross-referencing, and the most accurate and comprehensive meanings/keywords. It also has the most sophisticated system for illustrating meanings with sample words, and for differentiating similar characters.
Conning endeavours to train you to perceive kanji components as “concrete visual representations” whilst interpreting whole kanji with whatever method will make it easiest to recognise. In this “opportunistic” approach,
- Different strategies are appropriate to different kanji. Some are easy to remember as pictograms. Others are best approached by linking together the meanings of their component graphemes. Still others are best learned by considering their etymology, or by focusing attention on one of their distinctive features, or by applying some ad hoc method. For this reason, the first guiding principle of this course is that the way a character is learned should be adapted pragmatically to the particular qualities of the character.
Conning mostly avoids using etymologies as mnemonics (Seeley & Henshall is the best English-language source for etymologies). Yet he does take advantage of them on occasion, including using etymologies of our own English words to point out instructive parallels between kanji and their English analogues. For example, to make it easier for us to see the logical connection between the two core meanings of 巻 (“ROLL UP” and “VOLUME”), he notes
- When referring to a bound work, 巻 corresponds to the English “VOLUME,” which itself derives from the Latin word for “ROLL,” "volvere".
Conning obviously tries very hard to help users overcome the problem of differentiating among similar kanji. His solution involves
- [paying] specific attention—from the beginning—to the specific qualities that distinguish a kanji from similar ones. Wherever differentiation is an issue, you will learn to recognize the meaning of a kanji precisely in those features that set it apart from others with which it might be confused. This outcome is achieved not only through the use of explicit instructions, but also through meticulous cross-referencing and the arrangement of kanji in graphically related groupings. These features focus your attention on the contrastive attributes of each kanji as you learn it, and thus save you from having to relearn the kanji in a different way after you encounter confusingly similar kanji at a more advanced stage.
KLC introduces kanji in a more rationalised learning sequence than any other system. Following Heisig’s example in renouncing the system of kanji grades used in Japanese schools, Conning argues that
- for the adult learner, it makes more sense (a) to learn kanji graphemes step by step, so that one does not learn a complex kanji without first learning the component parts to be used in interpreting its meaning; and (b) to learn kanji in logical groupings based on similarities in graphical form (and sometimes meaning or reading), so that one can give significance to the features that distinguish one kanji from another, as one learns them. These graphical groupings also permit the learner to acquire kanji more seamlessly and efficiently than sequences that give no regard to such groups.
In addition to these considerations, Conning also attempts to introduce the kanji broadly in order of frequency. As a result, the KLC sequence “follows a rational pedagogy by introducing character components step by step and related kanji together, yet also introduces the most important characters early on and maintains a general correlation with frequency throughout.”
Because of the way KLC is organised, you progress quickly. First, as a true “course”, KLC introduces the information you need to know at the moment you need it. This means you don’t need to spend time on preliminary study of radicals or anything else; you can just dive right in with the first kanji and trust that KLC will teach you what you need to learn along the way. Moreover, KLC streamlines the learning process by teaching kanji in graphically related groups so that you can learn them in bunches, whilst also paying careful attention to the differences among similar characters. Finally, it integrates revising into the learning process itself, by the fact that all the kanji used in the vocabulary have been introduced before.
Like other kanji study tools, it has free, user-generated SRS decks that allow you revise efficiently on a computer or mobile device.
Along with the above strengths, KLC has several limitations and flaws that potential users should know about:
- KLC has no information about kana and assumes you can already read it. Some example words also assume basic knowledge of Japanese word endings.
- The Foreword praises the book for treating “graphemes” in a consistent manner. Whilst this mostly holds true, I found that the book deviated from the conventional grapheme meanings rather more frequently than the Foreword leads you to expect. The author justifies these deviations by suggesting they make the kanji easier to learn through some visual shortcut. But sometimes the benefit is not substantial enough to justify the loss in consistency. KLC does not match Remembering the Kanji’s level of consistency in its treatment of graphemes.
- For the above reason, KLC is not as effective as Remembering the Kanji for mastering the writing skill.
- The “didactic vocabulary” suffers considerably from the author’s decision to exclude any words in which the kanji in question stands alone as an independent word. For example, the very first kanji 日 can be used by itself to mean “sun” or “day”, with the reading ひ. The author apparently believes that listing this word is not necessary, because those meanings are given as part of the meanings of the character, as is the reading ひ. Yet the user has no way to know from the entry that 日 can be used independently with that reading, or exactly what that word would mean. Whilst the author does include most such independent words as part of longer phrases (such as 力を入れて), he does not give you a “pure” definition of such independent words on their own. He could address this problem by presenting meanings that correspond to particular kun-yomi (native Japanese readings), in the manner used by Hadamitzky & Spahn's Japanese Kanji & Kana (described in the next section).
- The font for the vocabulary readings is much too small, making it hard to distinguish ど from と, or で from て.
- The book is bulky and not travel-friendly. This problem would be mitigated if there were an e-book version, but apparently Kodansha has not published one yet. Why not?
- Is there any logical reason for the extra noughts at the beginning of the lower cross-reference numbers? The numbers would be easier to read without them.
- KLC has not developed its own online support community, in the manner of Remembering the Kanji’s “Kanji Koohii” forum. Lacking a dedicated community makes it harder to find user-created support tools, to get different ideas for mnemonics, or to get answers to questions.
Summary: Not suitable as one’s primary kanji text, but well worth purchasing for its wealth of information on kanji etymologies and the historical background of Chinese characters.
The information below is based primarily on the previous version of this book, A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters (GRJC), which is still the only version I have seen in bookstores. I have used GRJC extensively, but was only able to gather information about the new version (CGJK) from what I could find online. What I found seemed to indicate that the comments given here are likely to apply equally to the new edition in all or most cases.
This book has the most comprehensive etymologies of any of the kanji study books, and for me that one quality alone justifies purchasing it.
On the other hand it is not aptly titled, as it is more useful as a reference for the historical background of the characters than as a guide to remembering them. The authors’ attempt to apply etymologies as a way of remembering kanji meanings is mostly unsuccessful.
For one thing, etymologies are not very helpful when one is trying to learn the characters for the first time. For example it does not help one to learn about the scholarly debate regarding the derivation of the character for egg (卵), when it is easy enough to recognise the character as a picture of eggs.
Whilst interesting historically, etymologies are only occasionally useful for remembering kanji. As a result, though the book provides both an etymology and a mnemonic for each character, it only sometimes attempts to base the latter on the former. For example, it offers a long etymology for 款 (friendship; clause; engrave), carrying us through numerous difficult-to-see, handwritten archaic forms, and explanations as to how the character's meaning evolved over time. Yet it then gives us a mnemonic that is entirely unrelated to the information in the etymology: "Samurai shows lack of friendship". This only highlights the fact that at the learning stage, it would be preferable to ignore etymologies unless they help in some way with the more urgent task of learning and remembering the characters. Most users in fact will never have any use for this obscure etymological information.
In other cases, the book does attempt to incorporate the etymology into the mnemonic. But often this only has the effect of burdening the mnemonic with unnecessary complexity. For example, 己 (self) could perhaps be learnt easily enough as a backwards “S” for “self” (when you look yourself in the mirror, you see yourself backwards!). But this book attempts to account for the ancient meaning of the character, "twisting thread," resulting in one of its many nonsense mnemonics: "I myself follow the thread – what about you?"
Indeed, the authors’ memory aids are often as hard to make sense as the kanji themselves:
- 査 (investigate): "Furthermore, wood should be investigated"
- 尚 (furthermore, esteem): "Furthermore, facing away is a sign of esteem!"
- 弔 (mourn): "Mourn man crushed like stick by twisting snake"
- 縫 (stitch): "Sit cross-legged on moving telegraph pole, sewing with thread"
- 暮 (live, sunset, end): "Live to see sun set among big plants at end of day"
The last character listed above exemplifies the poor judgments made in writing the mnemonics. The authors explain that the element 莫 originally represented a sunset and came to mean “ending” and eventually “not”. The character 暮 combines 莫 with 日 (“sun/day”), providing a fairly obvious and intuitive way to remember the kanji’s meanings of “ sunset” and “end”. Unfortunately the authors choose to break up the meaningful component 莫 into the pieces “plants”, “day”, and “big”. This choice not only results in a confusing and quasi-nonsensical mnemonic with too many moving parts, but also misses an easy way of remembering the kanji from the etymology provided.
Similarly, the kanji 漠 (vague, vast, desert) – from 莫 (“not”) & 氵 (“water”) – offers a clear and easy-to-remember etymological mnemonic along the lines of “not-water: vast desert”. Instead the authors offer: “In vast desert, big plants need sun and water”. Again they disaggregate 莫, forcing us to memorise a scene based on four unrelated elements rather than two logically related ones. As a result, we must remember an unintuitive scene of a “vast desert” that contains “big plants” – in which sun and water are equally in need – rather than the much simpler and more sensible idea of a vast desert that lacks water.
Obviously not all of the book’s mnemonics are this far from ideal, but the ones above do seem to indicate that the authors’ attention was primarily focused on summarising the etymological scholarship rather than organising good mnemonics. The book's wealth of scholarly citations gives the impression that it was originally intended as a scholarly etymological compendium, but somehow ended up being marketed as a "complete guide" for kanji self-teaching.
The book includes all 2,136 Joyo Kanji, arranged in Ministry of Education order for Japanese schoolchildren, rather than in an order adapted for foreign learners already possessing a full command of their native language. Within the different grades, it lists kanji based on the gojuon (Japanese alphabetical) order of their readings. Hence the book makes no attempt to aid users by introducing kanji components in a cumulative way or organising kanji into logical groupings.
Three sample compounds are given for each character, but using characters from the entire book, including ones you haven't yet learnt, and provides no cross-reference numbers for looking up the other characters.
The book presents kanji readings only in romaji, which may be appealing for true beginners but has come to be seen as highly undesirable in contemporary Japanese pedagogy.
Of the books reviewed here, this one has by far the most in-depth description of the historical development of kanji. The authors begin right from the oracle bones and cover the various major scripts and reorganisations occurring through the ages. They also sketch the development of the Japanese writing system, including kana, and provide a useful description of the formational principles of Chinese characters. For these features, and above all for the meticulously researched etymological summaries for all 2,136 Joyo Kanji, this book deserves a place in the library of every serious student.
Summary: RTK is an original, insightful, and inspiring series supported by a strong online community and user-generated tools. However its methods are more creative than practical, and are ultimately not well suited to learners’ needs.
This is the most widely known system for learning kanji and also the most controversial. I was initially enthusiastic about Heisig’s system, but eventually soured on it. In summary, it is organised around its own internal requirements rather than being adapted to the demands of the Japanese language or your needs as a learner. It’s a stimulating but ultimately impractical method.
Of course, there’s a reason why the RTK system is so popular. It’s brilliant in several ways. Heisig arranges all the joyo kanji according to how he feels they can most easily be learnt and remembered by adult foreign learners, rather than according to the grading system used by the Ministry of Education for children’s learning (which plainly has a different set of priorities). The order he uses builds up the kanji piece by piece from basic components he calls “primitives”, so that you have the knowledge you need to write and interpret each kanji when you get to it.
Heisig assigns a single, unique “keyword” to each kanji (generally identical or similar to the kanji’s basic meaning, but sometimes deviating from it), and similarly assigns a unique and unchanging name to each primitive. His system for classifying the primitives is admirably comprehensive and precise. Page by page, he shows you how to create imaginative mnemonic stories through which you can associate each kanji’s combination of primitives with its keyword. For example, to remember the kanji 唱(chant), Heisig provides the following mnemonic:
- This one is easy! You have one "mouth" making no noise (the choirmaster) and two "mouths with wagging tongues" (the minimum for a chorus). So think of the keyword, chant, as monastery singing and this kanji is yours forever.
Your task is to use this technique to learn how to write each kanji, from memory, given only its corresponding keyword in English (or Spanish, French, etc. for the translated versions). RTK does a fine job of remaining almost completely faithful to the primitives’ names, helping you pick apart kanji building blocks more precisely and perceptively than you would be able to do on your own. Thanks to the logical progression and the consistent system of primitive names, RTK actually gives you a viable method for learning how to write every Joyo Kanji from memory, and many people have more or less succeeded in doing so, at least temporarily.
The problem with this approach is that this skill has almost no practical value today and is a massive chore to maintain even for those living in Japan, since there are so few opportunities to write kanji by hand today.
What must be understood is that the RTK system prioritises the writing skill at the expense of more important concerns. The first volume deliberately excludes readings and words, instructing you to ignore these until after you have mastered the writing skill (readings are left for Vol. 2, which also includes no words). This means that after you complete Vol. 1 you still can’t pronounce the kanji, can’t type them, know no words, and have no idea how the kanji actually work in practice. You also don’t have an accurate sense of the meaning of many kanji, since what you have learnt is simply to associate the kanji with an English name (chosen partly on factors internal to Heisig’s system), rather than the actual meanings and functions of the kanji in Japanese words.
Even from a purely mnemonic standpoint, RTK suffers for prioritising the writing skill. As Heisig assumes your objective is to be able to conjure up each character without seeing it, he has you associate English concepts with the component primitives of the corresponding kanji via a series of increasingly complex mnemonic stories. For this system to work, you must rigidly apply a set of made-up names assigned to the primitives. Even though we can use each kanji’s distinguishing features to easily recognise and read it when we see it, Heisig’s assumption that our goal is to write the kanji without seeing it burdens us with an extra layer of complex mnemonic stories that in my view make kanji harder to learn than they should be.
For example, consider the kanji 微 (delicate), 徴 (indications) and 懲 (penal). These kanji are hard to distinguish from each other (especially the middle one from the outer two), but are easily distinguished from all other kanji needed for Japanese. Hence for the purpose of reading these kanji (as opposed to writing them) we only need to worry about distinguishing them from each other (as opposed to memorising how to write them from scratch). Whilst one can readily recognise these characters' distinct meanings by simply focusing on identifying their distinct elements, RTK gives you the task of composing your own original mnemonic stories from the primitive names:
- 微 (delicate): "Line…mountain…ceiling…human legs…taskmaster"
- 徴 (indications): "Line…mountain…king…taskmaster"
- 懲 (penal): "Indications…heart"
RTK does not provide mnemonics for the above characters, but simply lists the names of their primitives. In fact it only provides mnemonics for about half the characters in the book (mostly the simpler ones). For the complex characters, where the job of creating effective mnemonic stories gets difficult, the book falls silent.
Most of the character entries after #500 or so provide only the character, its stroke count, a keyword summing up its meaning, and the names of the character's component primitives. Whilst there is no doubt some value in allowing learners to make their own mnemonics, it does not seem ideal that all of us intending to learn Japanese should have to take the time to author our own book of kanji mnemonics, especially as we would not exactly know what we are doing. It seems to me that this time-consuming do-it-yourself process is precisely what we hope to avoid in buying a mnemonics book. Though Heisig insists that he is helping us by leaving most mnemonics blank, I do not find it particularly helpful to be given no other assistance than a list of primitive names, such as
- 微 (delicate): "Line…mountain…ceiling…human legs…taskmaster"
- 衡 (equilibrium) means "Boulevard…bound up…brains…St. Bernard dog"
Fortunately, RTK’s online community at kanji-koohii dotcom has addressed this problem, at least partially, by sharing mnemonics and voting on them. This gives you a good solution to the problem of the blank entries, which is to simply pick out the mnemonics you like best and assemble them into your own version of the course. Although the crowd mnemonics are still made unnecessarily complex by the nature of the Heisig method, there are some very effective ones to be found.
What any learner should understand is that RTK is not designed as an efficient way to learn to read kanji; rather, it is designed as a way to memorise the writing of 2000+ kanji. For that specific purpose, it is the most effective method in existence. The trouble is that this approach causes you to sacrifice all the really useful things you need to learn for the sake of acquiring what amounts to an eccentric parlour trick. If you are satisfied with just being able to read characters, you can reach your goal more easily by simply associating the meaning of each kanji with some unique feature within it, or its unique combination of components.
Obviously RTK is far preferable to nothing at all, and people who have studied with RTK are quick to point out the benefits they obtained from it. My point is simply that their time would have been more advantageously spent with an approach focused on recognition and learning kanji in the context of real words.
To return to my general criticism, the main problem with RTK is that it is organised around its own internal requirements rather than being adapted to the demands of the Japanese language or your needs as a learner. This problem manifests itself in several ways:
- RTK does not teach you the kanji in the order in which you need them. Whilst it is important to teach kanji in a logical, building-block order rather than in an order based on school grades or simple frequency, these goals can be attained without teaching kanji in such an impractical order. By its second chapter RTK is already teaching you obscure kanji that you will rarely encounter in real life, and it postpones some very basic kanji until near the end of the course. Consequently, you must complete the entire course of 2000+ kanji before engaging in any real study or use of the written language. UPDATE BASED ON READER FEEDBACK: RTK users have created alternative learning progressions that are more practical. For details, check over at the kanji koohii forum.
- RTK does not teach you kanji in sensible groups that would make learning more efficient. Sometimes there does not seem to be any particular reason why certain kanji are taught in the same lesson; other times they are grouped according to a series of themes entirely internal to the book. These themes make the book seem like it’s following a sensible order, but in fact have nothing to do with your actual needs as a learner. UPDATE: (Same as previous bullet).
- As RTK postpones readings for the second volume, it naturally does not include any sample words. Sample vocabulary serve the important purpose of deepening your understanding of the kanji in question, and of the other kanji contained the compounds. Without sample words, you have no way to use the kanji or grasp how it is used.
- Just as Vol. 1 does with meanings, Vol. 2 attempts to teach readings in isolation from real words. Although Vol. 2 presents some useful groups to note, it still seems more effective to learn kanji readings with real words. Kanji are only infrequently used with their on-yomi reading as independent words, and even in those instances it would be better to learn those as independent words as opposed to focusing on the reading itself.
- As mentioned above, the kanji keywords are often not comprehensive or accurate. The following are some examples of characters where RTK provides meanings that work well within its system but do not accurately represent the character’s basic meaning or meanings:
- 省: focus
- 肌: texture
- 氷: icicle
- 況: but of course
- 向: yonder
- 介: jammed in
- 微: delicate
- As RTK aims to train you to write kanji from English keywords, it follows a policy of assigning a unique keyword to each kanji so as to avoid confusion. This has the unfortunate consequence of distorting some meanings when two kanji really should have the same keyword. More importantly, it means that RTK defines too narrowly the hundreds of kanji that have multiple basic meanings and therefore ought to have more than one keyword (amongst the kanji shown above, 徴 and 省 are such examples).
This review would not be complete without mentioning several additional strengths of RTK, in addition to the important advantages mentioned at the top:
- The author is an excellent writer and RTK is a pleasure to read.
- The author has a rich vocabulary & imagination, and a poet’s capacity for interpretation. Reading the way he interprets and remembers characters will inspire you as you think up your own mnemonics!
- A very strong feature of the book is the strong online community over at kanji koohii dotcom, which collectively has created many support resources available free to anyone.
To summarise, RTK, while ingenious, essentially inserts you in a bubble in which you are primarily oriented toward succeeding at RTK itself (i.e., trying to memorise how to write as many kanji as possible) rather than succeeding in the real language. As suggested above, this problem can be mitigated by engaging with more advanced learners at kanji koohii dot com and learning from their experience and the supplementary tools they have created.
COMPACT KANJI REFERENCE BOOKS
These books are not in the same category as the three described above, in that they don’t provide a systematic method for learning kanji. On the other hand, they have some features that make them useful reference tools for kanji study.
Japanese Kanji & Kana: A Complete Guide to the Japanese Writing System
Wolfgang Hadamitzky & Mark Spahn
Summary: A strong overall introduction to Japanese writing, with lovely calligraphic kanji forms and a solid selection of sample words for each kanji.
The authors have created a series of kanji reference tools, including a large kanji dictionary for library reference rooms (The Kanji Dictionary), and a portable kanji dictionary (The Learner’s Kanji Dictionary – highly recommended!). The volume reviewed here is aimed at providing a general introduction to the Japanese writing system, including entries for each kanji with their meanings & readings, as well as sample compounds. Readings are unfortunately listed in romaji, which is ill advised as explained above.
The kanji are introduced roughly in order of importance, and related kanji are grouped together to a limited extent. The progression is imperfect in that complex kanji are sometimes presented before their subcomponents, which can lead you to misinterpret the kanji the first time you learn it, and have to loop back later to correct your mistake.
For example, you learn 郡 (county) very early on (#193), before you have learnt 君 (ruler - i.e. sovereign), which doesn’t come up until #807. Since 君 is not amongst the radicals introduced in the book's introductory tables, you have no way to know that it exists as a unit with its own meaning, and thus are left to make up a mnemonic breaking 郡 down into three parts rather than two. Yet once you get to #807 君 (ruler), you realise that it’s easier to remember #193 郡 (county) by taking advantage of the holistic unit 君, whose meaning is logically related to county. This means you have to go back to create a new mnemonic for #193, not least because the way you originally interpreted the two parts of 君 would have had nothing to do with ruler.
The other problem with the progression is that does an inadequate job of grouping kanji that should be studied together. The authors do pursue this objective to some extent, but they mostly sacrifice it to their priority of introducing characters in order of how frequently they are used. Sometimes they break up a logical group of characters for no apparent reason, such as when they separate #193 郡 (county) from its kin #807 君 (ruler) and #808 群 (flock), even though #193 is an infrequently used character.
As there is no cross-referencing or guidance as to how to remember the kanji and relate them to others, you are left to figure out these groupings and relationships on your own by trial and error. Indeed you have no way to be sure you haven’t bollixed things up until you have already mastered the entire Joyo list by trial and error.
The sample words are well chosen, and the definitions are well done. Both qualities reflect the excellence of the authors’ source dictionary. Invaluably, the sample words are made up only of kanji that have been introduced before.
Kanji are presented in a beautiful and expressive calligraphic form that make each kanji a joy to learn.
The authors provide an excellent and extensive introduction to Japanese writing, making this volume a solid overall introduction to kana and kanji. I recommend this volume over O’Neill (described below) due above all to its excellent overview of Japanese writing and the superior scope and quality of its sample words.
Essential Kanji: 2.000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged for Learning and Reference
P.G. O'Neill
Summary: Limited, but good as a compact & inexpensive reference for examples of brush and pen forms.
O’Neill presents 2000 kanji in a building-block order, listing their meanings as well as their on & kun readings and even their modern Chinese readings (for those who are interested!). Unfortunately the readings are listed in romaji.
He also lists a couple of compounds for each character, consisting only of the kanji that have been introduced before.
The problem with the compounds is that they are too few for really getting a grasp of the character, and many are highly obscure. Obviously the author was not always free to insert the most useful compounds, because he could not include any from later in the progression. However Hadamitzky & Spahn also follow this rule and manage to include very sensible sample words for the most part. They show that this problem can be solved if the progression is arranged correctly.
My favourite aspect of this course is the presentation of brush and pen characters, alongside the standard printed characters. These images are useful to refer to for writing practice.
O’Neill is more compact, portable, and inexpensive than Hadamitzky & Spahn.
Japanese Kanji & Kana: A Complete Guide to the Japanese Writing System
Wolfgang Hadamitzky & Mark Spahn
Summary: A strong overall introduction to Japanese writing, with lovely calligraphic kanji forms and a solid selection of sample words for each kanji.
The authors have created a series of kanji reference tools, including a large kanji dictionary for library reference rooms (The Kanji Dictionary), and a portable kanji dictionary (The Learner’s Kanji Dictionary – highly recommended!). The volume reviewed here is aimed at providing a general introduction to the Japanese writing system, including entries for each kanji with their meanings & readings, as well as sample compounds. Readings are unfortunately listed in romaji, which is ill advised as explained above.
The kanji are introduced roughly in order of importance, and related kanji are grouped together to a limited extent. The progression is imperfect in that complex kanji are sometimes presented before their subcomponents, which can lead you to misinterpret the kanji the first time you learn it, and have to loop back later to correct your mistake.
For example, you learn 郡 (county) very early on (#193), before you have learnt 君 (ruler - i.e. sovereign), which doesn’t come up until #807. Since 君 is not amongst the radicals introduced in the book's introductory tables, you have no way to know that it exists as a unit with its own meaning, and thus are left to make up a mnemonic breaking 郡 down into three parts rather than two. Yet once you get to #807 君 (ruler), you realise that it’s easier to remember #193 郡 (county) by taking advantage of the holistic unit 君, whose meaning is logically related to county. This means you have to go back to create a new mnemonic for #193, not least because the way you originally interpreted the two parts of 君 would have had nothing to do with ruler.
The other problem with the progression is that does an inadequate job of grouping kanji that should be studied together. The authors do pursue this objective to some extent, but they mostly sacrifice it to their priority of introducing characters in order of how frequently they are used. Sometimes they break up a logical group of characters for no apparent reason, such as when they separate #193 郡 (county) from its kin #807 君 (ruler) and #808 群 (flock), even though #193 is an infrequently used character.
As there is no cross-referencing or guidance as to how to remember the kanji and relate them to others, you are left to figure out these groupings and relationships on your own by trial and error. Indeed you have no way to be sure you haven’t bollixed things up until you have already mastered the entire Joyo list by trial and error.
The sample words are well chosen, and the definitions are well done. Both qualities reflect the excellence of the authors’ source dictionary. Invaluably, the sample words are made up only of kanji that have been introduced before.
Kanji are presented in a beautiful and expressive calligraphic form that make each kanji a joy to learn.
The authors provide an excellent and extensive introduction to Japanese writing, making this volume a solid overall introduction to kana and kanji. I recommend this volume over O’Neill (described below) due above all to its excellent overview of Japanese writing and the superior scope and quality of its sample words.
Essential Kanji: 2.000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged for Learning and Reference
P.G. O'Neill
Summary: Limited, but good as a compact & inexpensive reference for examples of brush and pen forms.
O’Neill presents 2000 kanji in a building-block order, listing their meanings as well as their on & kun readings and even their modern Chinese readings (for those who are interested!). Unfortunately the readings are listed in romaji.
He also lists a couple of compounds for each character, consisting only of the kanji that have been introduced before.
The problem with the compounds is that they are too few for really getting a grasp of the character, and many are highly obscure. Obviously the author was not always free to insert the most useful compounds, because he could not include any from later in the progression. However Hadamitzky & Spahn also follow this rule and manage to include very sensible sample words for the most part. They show that this problem can be solved if the progression is arranged correctly.
My favourite aspect of this course is the presentation of brush and pen characters, alongside the standard printed characters. These images are useful to refer to for writing practice.
O’Neill is more compact, portable, and inexpensive than Hadamitzky & Spahn.
PRINTED FLASH CARDS
Summary: Printed flash cards are expensive and mostly obsolete, but can be fun to use.
Frankly, with today’s automated SRS tools, there’s little reason to use physical flash cards. The automated tools optimise your revising frequency according to the “revise it just before you are likely to forget it” principle. They are also faster and more convenient to use than physical cards, and track your progress for you. They’re also free, whereas printed flash cards are bloody expensive given the cost and bulk of hundreds of separate printed cards.
However some people may prefer the experience of using physical flash cards, which can be more pleasant than spending still more hours staring at their mobile! For those people I would tentatively recommend the following product:
Japanese Kanji Flashcards (3-box set) ($112.69)
White Rabbit Press
I say "tentatively" because I have not used these or any other kanji flash cards. I recommend White Rabbit simply because (a) I am impressed with the layout, (b) the 3-box set covers most of the Joyo Kanji, (c) each card includes as many as six sample words, and (d) the sample words seem to be well chosen. Also (e) White Rabbit introduces look-alike kanji where appropriate, and (f) lists readings only in kana (a good thing).
These cards are not a replacement for a kanji “course” that introduces kanji components step by step in a logical order and with guidance on how to remember each character. The card decks do not introduce the kanji in an effective order for learning. The boxes are divided by JLPT level, but within that they're simply organised by radicals and stroke numbers, and there are no mnemonics or explanations on how to interpret or remember the characters.
Moreover, these cards define each kanji in terms of long lists of words, without summing these up into a “core meaning”. This makes it hard to try to recall the kanji meanings before you flip to the back, unless you do the job of identifying a single keyword for yourself. Indeed this is a significant problem for any resource designed to help you remember kanji meanings.
Yet a handsome flashcard set like this one can be a fun addition to one’s toolset, or a nice gift to spark someone’s interest in kanji. White Rabbit’s set stands out for its strong selection of sample vocabulary, quality paper & printing, and smart layout. It is the opposite of cheap, but is made with loving care by a small press. Order direct to support this shop and cut out the corporate distributor.
Frankly, with today’s automated SRS tools, there’s little reason to use physical flash cards. The automated tools optimise your revising frequency according to the “revise it just before you are likely to forget it” principle. They are also faster and more convenient to use than physical cards, and track your progress for you. They’re also free, whereas printed flash cards are bloody expensive given the cost and bulk of hundreds of separate printed cards.
However some people may prefer the experience of using physical flash cards, which can be more pleasant than spending still more hours staring at their mobile! For those people I would tentatively recommend the following product:
Japanese Kanji Flashcards (3-box set) ($112.69)
White Rabbit Press
I say "tentatively" because I have not used these or any other kanji flash cards. I recommend White Rabbit simply because (a) I am impressed with the layout, (b) the 3-box set covers most of the Joyo Kanji, (c) each card includes as many as six sample words, and (d) the sample words seem to be well chosen. Also (e) White Rabbit introduces look-alike kanji where appropriate, and (f) lists readings only in kana (a good thing).
These cards are not a replacement for a kanji “course” that introduces kanji components step by step in a logical order and with guidance on how to remember each character. The card decks do not introduce the kanji in an effective order for learning. The boxes are divided by JLPT level, but within that they're simply organised by radicals and stroke numbers, and there are no mnemonics or explanations on how to interpret or remember the characters.
Moreover, these cards define each kanji in terms of long lists of words, without summing these up into a “core meaning”. This makes it hard to try to recall the kanji meanings before you flip to the back, unless you do the job of identifying a single keyword for yourself. Indeed this is a significant problem for any resource designed to help you remember kanji meanings.
Yet a handsome flashcard set like this one can be a fun addition to one’s toolset, or a nice gift to spark someone’s interest in kanji. White Rabbit’s set stands out for its strong selection of sample vocabulary, quality paper & printing, and smart layout. It is the opposite of cheap, but is made with loving care by a small press. Order direct to support this shop and cut out the corporate distributor.
PICTOGRAPH-BASED LEARNING SYSTEMS
Summary: Avoid these books like the plague!!
There is a category of books that try to teach Chinese characters as pictographs, even though only a small fraction of the characters can be learnt properly that way. The most famous is Chineasy, created for Chinese learners by Shaolan Hsueh with artwork by Noma Bar. Chineasy shot to fame after a 2013 TED talk by Hsueh and a front-page feature in the Wall Street Journal, selling untold numbers of copies to unsuspecting neophytes who had no way to know how unoriginal Hsueh’s approach was, how little it could help them beyond a small number of clearly pictographic characters, and how easy it would have been for them to recognise these pictographs on their own without the benefit of Bar’s drawings. Chineasy has been aptly called "a coffee table book".
The Chineasy approach is represented on the kanji shelf by, among others, Michael Rowley’s Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, Noriko Kurosawa Williams’s The Key to Kanji: A Visual History of 1100 Characters, and Michael Kluemper’s Japanese Kanji Made Easy: Learn 1000 Kanji and Kana the Fun and Easy Way. One problem with these books, as suggested above, is that this approach cannot be used effectively beyond the relatively small number of truly pictographic kanji, as shown by the fact that none of these books makes it much past the halfway point of the 2,136 Joyo Kanji.
The other problem with this approach is that turning every kanji into an explicit picture doesn’t really help you, because that’s not what you’re actually going to see when you try to read Japanese. Where a kanji does depict something, you need to learn to see its meaning in its regular printed form, rather than in these books’ overly explicit illustrations, which are true to life but not true to the kanji themselves. Hence for learning purposes, a textual description of such a picture is actually better than a graphic illustration. By offering what amounts to a visual crutch, these books hinder you from learning to close the circle of association within your own mind.
The Key To Kanji: A Visual History of 1100 Characters
Noriko Kurosawa Williams
Of the three pictograph-method books listed here, this one offers the most value. Whilst it lacks the artistic quality of Rowley, it includes better information and more useful kanji entries. For example it covers some of the historical development of kanji and the origins of each character. But it suffers from the problem of trying to make you see every kanji as a pictograph, when so few of them really represent pictures of anything.
It also has limited value as a self-studying tool, as it doesn’t teach the characters in a cumulative or systematic way and does not give you a proper order for studying them. The book’s main purpose is as a supplementary reference tool, yet it’s not easy to find the kanji you’re looking for.
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix
Michael Rowley
This book only covers a little over half the Joyo kanji, but even that number was only attained by exhuming some disused characters Rowley found "visually interesting," such as 柮 and 嫐, and by including a number of kanji for which regular logical mnemonics are given without a "pict-o-graphic". As Rowley concedes in his introduction, "several common kanji have been excluded because frankly I couldn't come up with a satisfactory visual or textual mnemonic."
Perhaps most strangely, Rowley does not seem to have decided whether the learner should use a pictographic or a logical mnemonic, so he provides both. The two are not designed somehow to complement each other, but are given as separate, often contradictory approaches. For example, the character for fence (柵) is represented as a tree with a fence next to it, accompanied by the mnemonic phrase "I read a book on making fences." That is, whilst the mnemonic phrase preserves the conventional meaning “book” for 冊, the drawing turns it into a fence. Likewise, in the character for shelf (棚) Rowley renders 朋 as bookshelves, but in the mnemonic phrase reverts to the meaning “moon/month” for 月: "It took two months to build these wooden shelves." So you are being asked to see 朋 as two months and as two bookshelves, in the same character.
An additional flaw is that the kanji are not arranged in a sensible order. The second character you learn, 昌, ranks 1,262nd on the newspaper frequency list. Before finishing the first page you find 晃 (1,429th); two pages later, 暁 (1,924th) and 旦 (2,372nd in frequency; but #15 in Rowley's scheme). Clearly, Rowley has not followed an appropriate principle in arranging the characters, and is at pains to find kanji to fit into his system.
Moreover, he too often ignores the standard meaning of certain elements, such as when the "grass" element of 茎 (stalk) is drawn not as grass but as a large knife. This character can be more effectively remembered by using the standard etymology-based meanings of the components.
Japanese Kanji Made Easy: Learn 1000 Kanji and Kana the Fun and Easy Way
Michael Kluemper
I spent only a few minutes looking at this book, but judged it to be flawed in the same ways as Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, with more rudimentary artwork (as suggested above, less elaborate artwork is actually an advantage in the sense that it’s less likely to get in the way!). Like Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, it makes some poor choices regarding which kanji to include, and does not introduce the kanji in an effective sequence for learning. Its sample vocabulary is also very limited (only two words per kanji, among those I saw).
There is a category of books that try to teach Chinese characters as pictographs, even though only a small fraction of the characters can be learnt properly that way. The most famous is Chineasy, created for Chinese learners by Shaolan Hsueh with artwork by Noma Bar. Chineasy shot to fame after a 2013 TED talk by Hsueh and a front-page feature in the Wall Street Journal, selling untold numbers of copies to unsuspecting neophytes who had no way to know how unoriginal Hsueh’s approach was, how little it could help them beyond a small number of clearly pictographic characters, and how easy it would have been for them to recognise these pictographs on their own without the benefit of Bar’s drawings. Chineasy has been aptly called "a coffee table book".
The Chineasy approach is represented on the kanji shelf by, among others, Michael Rowley’s Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, Noriko Kurosawa Williams’s The Key to Kanji: A Visual History of 1100 Characters, and Michael Kluemper’s Japanese Kanji Made Easy: Learn 1000 Kanji and Kana the Fun and Easy Way. One problem with these books, as suggested above, is that this approach cannot be used effectively beyond the relatively small number of truly pictographic kanji, as shown by the fact that none of these books makes it much past the halfway point of the 2,136 Joyo Kanji.
The other problem with this approach is that turning every kanji into an explicit picture doesn’t really help you, because that’s not what you’re actually going to see when you try to read Japanese. Where a kanji does depict something, you need to learn to see its meaning in its regular printed form, rather than in these books’ overly explicit illustrations, which are true to life but not true to the kanji themselves. Hence for learning purposes, a textual description of such a picture is actually better than a graphic illustration. By offering what amounts to a visual crutch, these books hinder you from learning to close the circle of association within your own mind.
The Key To Kanji: A Visual History of 1100 Characters
Noriko Kurosawa Williams
Of the three pictograph-method books listed here, this one offers the most value. Whilst it lacks the artistic quality of Rowley, it includes better information and more useful kanji entries. For example it covers some of the historical development of kanji and the origins of each character. But it suffers from the problem of trying to make you see every kanji as a pictograph, when so few of them really represent pictures of anything.
It also has limited value as a self-studying tool, as it doesn’t teach the characters in a cumulative or systematic way and does not give you a proper order for studying them. The book’s main purpose is as a supplementary reference tool, yet it’s not easy to find the kanji you’re looking for.
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix
Michael Rowley
This book only covers a little over half the Joyo kanji, but even that number was only attained by exhuming some disused characters Rowley found "visually interesting," such as 柮 and 嫐, and by including a number of kanji for which regular logical mnemonics are given without a "pict-o-graphic". As Rowley concedes in his introduction, "several common kanji have been excluded because frankly I couldn't come up with a satisfactory visual or textual mnemonic."
Perhaps most strangely, Rowley does not seem to have decided whether the learner should use a pictographic or a logical mnemonic, so he provides both. The two are not designed somehow to complement each other, but are given as separate, often contradictory approaches. For example, the character for fence (柵) is represented as a tree with a fence next to it, accompanied by the mnemonic phrase "I read a book on making fences." That is, whilst the mnemonic phrase preserves the conventional meaning “book” for 冊, the drawing turns it into a fence. Likewise, in the character for shelf (棚) Rowley renders 朋 as bookshelves, but in the mnemonic phrase reverts to the meaning “moon/month” for 月: "It took two months to build these wooden shelves." So you are being asked to see 朋 as two months and as two bookshelves, in the same character.
An additional flaw is that the kanji are not arranged in a sensible order. The second character you learn, 昌, ranks 1,262nd on the newspaper frequency list. Before finishing the first page you find 晃 (1,429th); two pages later, 暁 (1,924th) and 旦 (2,372nd in frequency; but #15 in Rowley's scheme). Clearly, Rowley has not followed an appropriate principle in arranging the characters, and is at pains to find kanji to fit into his system.
Moreover, he too often ignores the standard meaning of certain elements, such as when the "grass" element of 茎 (stalk) is drawn not as grass but as a large knife. This character can be more effectively remembered by using the standard etymology-based meanings of the components.
Japanese Kanji Made Easy: Learn 1000 Kanji and Kana the Fun and Easy Way
Michael Kluemper
I spent only a few minutes looking at this book, but judged it to be flawed in the same ways as Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, with more rudimentary artwork (as suggested above, less elaborate artwork is actually an advantage in the sense that it’s less likely to get in the way!). Like Kanji Pict-O-Graphix, it makes some poor choices regarding which kanji to include, and does not introduce the kanji in an effective sequence for learning. Its sample vocabulary is also very limited (only two words per kanji, among those I saw).