Remembering the Kana: The Hiragana

Rating:
Summary: Great resource for learning the kana
Review: This book introduces, in several short lessons, the full Japanese syllabaries of hiragana and katakana. Neither are actually difficult to learn on your own, with flash cards or any other method, but remembering them for a long time can't be guaranteed through rote memorization. Using Heisig's book, one recieves a full introduction to both syllabaries, mnemonic devices for remembering each one, and a couple review exercises. The book also includes brief explanations of contractions and accents. The only flaw I found was that some of the katakana explanations are extremely lacking, such as ones where the author compared the katakana extracted from kanji to the kanji themselves. A beginner student shouldn't be expected to know these details. I learned all the kana in about 5 hours spread over 2 days. After finishing this book, it might be a good idea to get a kana workbook or individual practice exercises to enforce memory and writing skills.

Rating:
Summary: 2 in 1
Review: This book is good and handy. Making it 2 in one is definately the reason I bought this book.



Rating:
Summary: 2 books in one
Review: This is really 2 books which are printed together: Remembering the hiragana and remembering the katakana.
The first of these is just amazing. The mnemonics were just brilliant, and I was able to learn to read and write all the hiragana characters in about three days.
The second is less impressive. While it is still a useful learning tool, many of the mnemonics are flawed. For example, several of them say things like "This character is easy to remember, it's just like the kanji for X" (If someone is trying to learn kana, is it realistic to expect them to already know kanji?), others say "This character is just like the equivalent hiragana, only with half of the lines missing." (While this is correct, and obvious if you already know the character in question, it does nothing at all to help you remember how to write it) and yet others say things like "Draw the hiragana, and then while your hand still remembers it, draw the katakana" .
Don't get me wrong, I do highly recommend this book, it's just a shame that they didn't take the time to make the second half as flawless as the first.

Rating:
Summary: Learn the Kana easily and quickly with this book!
Review: When I picked this book up I was somewhat worried about learning the kana. My brother, a fluent speaker of Japanese since childhood, had informed me that there is a lot more than just the basic kana to learn. While there are "only" 46 kana, this merely refers to the basic sounds available in Japanese. This does not include the variations (25) and combinations (33 in both kana plus an additional 19 in katakana to help with foreign sounds and onomatopoeia). Considering only ONE kana is the same in both sets (he - looking like and pronounced like a stack of hay), you are looking at 225+ symbols and combinations to remember. This presents a much more daunting task.

This book makes use of a learning method that would really only work to someone who is already a fluent speaker of English, and someone who can learn using a mnemonic method. This book might not be for everyone, but out of all my friends that I have suggested this book to, only 1 (out of probably 8 or 9 people) has had trouble using this method. It uses association to things which we, as native English speakers, will find familiar. In the example above, "he" (a stack of hay), helps both with remembering how to draw and say it. Granted, some of the mnemonics are very silly, but I found this helped me remember them and caused them to stick out in my mind. The katakana section relies a little less on mnemonics, for in many cases it is easier to associate the katakana symbol to its hiragana counterpart instead of to a new mnemonic.

The previous edition of this book (same ISBN, but the first edition of the combined books) barely touched on the combinations/diphthongs, and made learning those a separate affair. However, the new 2nd Edition (printed December 2003) does, and not only explains them, but has a chart with all of the examples and pronunciations. Now, with one book, you can learn to draw, read, and pronounce (including combinations/diphthongs) both sets of kana!

From start to finish, the book says it can teach you the kana in 3 hours for each syllabary. For me, this was true. For my own benefit and for fluency, I sit down and write them all out once a day as well and now I can read hiragana and katakana nearly as easily as I can with English. However, after the first couple days of doing that, I can already see that the repetition is unnecessary. You'll find that after the initial learning, and with some practice, the mnemonics will fade, and you'll just know the symbol, and will have saved you countless hours of boring repetition. This will also help you avoid Romaji as you learn to speak Japanese, because you will have a kana symbol to associate with sounds instead of thinking it up in English/Romaji. To sum up, buy this book!

Rating:
Summary: BUY THIS BOOK FIRST
Review: WOW!! I got this book yesterday and I already know all the hiragana. I could have already learned the katakana as well, but the book suggests waiting a day in between learning the two.
Heisig invents little stories that serve as mnemonic devices for remembering each of the kana. The stories are sometimes EXTREMELY far fetched. Bottom line: they work. I'm not an expert on Japanese language acquisition, just someone who wants to learn the language. I'm sure to a lot of people Heisig's method seems silly. All I know is after studying the book for a day I have an ACTIVE understanding of the kana. I can read and write them without any problems. The only downside of this book is that he doesn't include longer texts written in kana. [He does give at least three examples of words that use not only the character you're studying but also all the characters you've learned up to that point.] Buy this book and learn to read Japanese today!