Kanji A-day Practice Pad (Tuttle Practice Pads)

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic way to learn kanji
Review: I bought this pad on the recommendation of the previous reviews for it (see above) and I can honestly say I wasn't disappointed. For each day, it displays stroke order, Japanese and Chinese readings and then examples of words in which the new character can be used. The succession of new characters is also very well-chosen; the author seems to have made sure that you don't have to learn 20-stroke beasts too early on! It'd be great if he devised a Volume II, as this pad seems to be the most painless way to learn kanji if you don't think you're quite ready for the radicals and components etc.

Rating:
Summary: Great Way to Kill a Few Minutes A Day
Review: I would not recommend this be the way one learns Japanese (I don't agree that you could understand 70% of a Japanese novel, you need to know around 2000 to be considered literate). What I can say is that this is a great way to spend a few minutes a day practicing a Kanji's stroke order and basic meaning. What you might not retain (thank goodness for the little booklet) are the readings of the Kanji, especially since you only get a couple of example words, not really any reading practice.

The best use of this will come with suplimenting with an actual Learn Kanji text; I found that this pad serves best as a reinforcement to learning Kanji from other texts. Awesome way to spend the time waiting for the old computer to boot up!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent idea whose time has come.
Review: Mr. Keirstead's Kanji-A-Day Practice Pad serves as a constant reminder that ANY task can be accomplished if you tackle it one step at a time, one day at a time. Well sure enough, by studying just ONE kanji character a day, after a year, I could pick up a standard Japanese novel and understand at least 70% of the novel with little or no difficulty. If you are new to Japanese, I recommend you obtain the Kana-A-Day Practice Pad as a primer to the Kanji-A-Day Practice Pad