Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters (Remembering the Kanji)

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Summary: Befriend the Kanji!
Review: Heisig's book is brilliant. It is the most effective method for learning to write and understand the meaning of kanji that I have encountered. The problem with other methods is that one is expected to learn too much at once: several on and kun readings, compounds in which the kanji occurs, stroke order etc... With Heisig's method one learns a key word related to the kanji's meaning and how to write the kanji. Generally the keywords chosen are excellent (interestingly, in most cases they are similar to definitions given in a chinese dictionary I have). Furthermore this book teaches you a method for learning the kanji that could presumably be extended to characters not included in the book. Thanks to Heisig for what is a very useful tool in learning Japanese.

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Summary: no free lunches...
Review: I have studied Japanese for several years and can now read over 2000 characters and write the majority of those...I appreciate Heiseg's positive attitude regarding Kanji learning, but the rapid pace of Kanji aquisition he profeses in the introduction is misleading. Many of my friends swear by this method, but so far none has mastered over half of the Kanji using this method. I'm agnostic as to the effectiveness, but repetiton and contextual learning ensure lasting recognition. By the way, for those serious about knowing over 2500 or so characters in the long term, I would recommend the "grouping" approach found in Pye's book. (Heisig's book III may be helpful reference to complement Pye in making your own grouped flash cards.) In the end the mnemonic device is overused in Heisig's series.

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Summary: This is the best book for learning Kanji!!
Review: I started learning Japanese when I was 15 in the University and they used the repetition method for learning Kanji, so then I decided not to learn Kanji. But when I came to Nagoya, I realized that I needed to know how to read Kanji so I tried with a lot of methods. But one friend recommended me this series of books. The first thing that I saw was that there wasn't compounds or Japanese pronunciations and that it gave just one meaning (Keyword), my friend saw that I was losing interest and he told me to read the introduction and then I begun studying with this method.

That was about two years ago and now, using this books as a base, I have passed the JLPT and the Kanken both at level 1.

I used the same method for learning the other 2903 kanji not included in this book in order to pass the Level one Kanken (you need to read and write 6000 Kanji to pass).I just have to say Thank you Heisig for making this series of books, you make learning Kanji so easy!!

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Summary: Genius with Flaws - don't solely rely on Heisig
Review: I want to ditto [e-mail]'s previous review, and add:

Particularly if you are living in Japan, and don't have full time to study, Heisig's system is frustrating. After Book One, (which at 1 hour a day takes about 1/2 year to get through) you know how to write "gall bladder" but can't read the sign in the local depaato that says "iriguchi". Also, many of the keywords are quite far from the kanji's true nuance (i.e., "nothingness" for "naku naru"). Contrary to Heisig's claim, the original keyword, (like the use of romanji), will forever color your understanding of correct Japanese. I.e., the criticism that kanji must be learned in context is to be taken seriously.

I do recommend buying Heisig's book because the imaginative memory system is brilliant and will inetivably aid your kanji study.

However, most important:

I don't recommend using any single author's system for learning the kanji, no matter how brilliant, fast, or self-contained it may seem. Instead, develop your own system based on your own personal learning style. As for me, that's a flash card system based on imaginative memory, pictographics, historical derevation (via. Henshall), sound associations and an ordering system based on the not-yet mentioned book by Habein & Mathias (The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji - EXCELLENT), and my daily encounters with the kanji. However, for you, I hope, the system will be different and your very own.

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Summary: Buy Heisig's book right away
Review: This book will not teach you how to read Japanese characters. Don't start with any false expectations. But it is the single most useful kanji learning tool that I have ever owned, and the colossal savings in the time it takes to learn the kanji more than makes up for the rather hefty price.

In the introduction to his book Heisig makes the claim that foreigners approach kanji studies from the wrong direction. They try to learn it the way that Japanese students do, learning to read and write the characters at the same time. This is much more efficient for native Japanese students, who already have the spoken language to build from, than for foreigners who are not yet fluent. So Heisig suggests that foreigners learn to write first, then read. This is in his introduction, and though I admit that the introduction is not the most lucid piece of writing in the world, he does know what he is talking about. Heisig teaches the writing of the kanji using a mnemonic system based on the primitives. Mnemonics may be a trick, but they are often a very useful trick. He has you learn a keyword for each kanji. The keyword is quite often only obscurely related to the major meaning. This is not a mistake. The words are chosen carefully to make the mnemonic system work better. Meaning comes later. Once you have made the - relatively - small investment of time to learn the writing of the characters you then have a rather firm basis to begin learning how to read them. It is possible, after having learned to write the characters, to tackle a reader of some kind with far more efficiency than could otherwise be expected. The transition is not completely painless, but in the end you have shaved years off of your learning time.

I had already studied the characters for a little while before starting with Heisig's system. I knew a couple hundred, and lost many of those if I stopped studying for any length of time.

Using Heisig's system I was able to learn how to write the two thousand basic characters in under two weeks. It would have been one if I hadn't had other things to do while learning the second thousand. I was then able to make much better progress in learning the readings. I learned the meanings and readings far faster than I had been able to before, and I had a framework to stick them to, so I no longer had retention problems.

I did not use the second book, and do not plan to, so I cannot say how while it complements the first. I started with a reader after finishing Heisig's first book. I doubt that this method will work best for everyone. But it will beat endless pencil and paper repetition for anyone.

And don't skip the introduction!