Basic Kanji Book, Vol. 1

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Summary: Basic Kanji Book, Vol. 1 & 2 by Kano, Chieko
Review: The best workbooks for learning Kanji! The books focus on writing and the use of kanji in common Japanese words. It's a very practical approach and makes use of two of the senses for retention, tactile and sight. They are an excellent start for the enthusiastic Japanese student.

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Summary: One of the best Kanji learning books I have read.
Review: This book stands out from other Kanji books for a few very good reasons. The Kanji are grouped into units, and each unit is about a specific theme, such as Kanji for human relationships, or nouns made from two Kanji. The book only uses Kana for readings, which is good for becoming better at reading Japanese.

There are also a ton of reading exercises and writing drills. The book itself uses a lot of Japanese. All of the unit titles are written in Japanese, and near the end of the book instructions are also written in Japanese. This book contains 251 kanji covered in 22 lessons, and also has a nice little index for looking them up based on their reading.

I can't say enough good things about this book, and the only real problem is that you have to buy both volumes 1 and 2 to learn all 500 kanji.

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Summary: THE best Kanji Book!
Review: This is an excellent Kanji book! After trying several other Kanji learning books, this one stands out as the best by far! The book is organized exteremely well into sections and lessons. For every lesson there are about 10 different Kanji that you learn and each lesson has some kind of a theme to it. For example, one lesson may cover only numbers, another lesson will cover only animals, etc. There are also exercises at the end of each lesson so you can practice what you just learned. If I had to name one downside to this book, it would be that the answers to the exercises are not listed in the back of the book as they are in many practice books. But overall, I can't say enough good things about this book. It has helped me with my Kanji tremendously!

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Summary: Part 2 of a great series!
Review: This is part 2 of the Basic Kanji Book, and contains 249 characters, bringing the total for the two books up to 500. This volume is even better than the first because the Kanji are more advanced, and there is a minimal amount of English. All of the instructions are written in Japanese, and the only English you see is when they are translating new words.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of having to know how to read a lot of Japanese in order to be able to understand this book, make sure you get volume 1 and work through that. Otherwise you might have a hard time getting the most out of this book.

This is the best book you can get for learning how to read, write, and understand Kanji. It also teaches you how to read train schedules, how to use a Kanji to Japanese dictionary, and how to fill in a form.

Once you are done with this book, you'll find yourself understanding a lot more about Japanese and Kanji.