Following the first volume of Remembering the Kanji, the present work takes up the pronunciation of characters and provides students with helpful tools for memorizing them. Behind the notorious inconsistencies in the way the Japanese language has come to pronounce the characters it received from China lie several coherent patterns. Identifying these patterns and arranging them in logical order can reduce dramatically the amount of time spent in the brute memorization of sounds unrelated to written forms. Many of the "primitive elements," or building blocks, used in the drawing of the characters also serve to indicate the "Chinese reading" that particular kanji use, chiefly in compound terms. By learning one of the kanji that uses such a "signal primitive," one can learn the entire group at the same time. In this way. Remembering the Kanji 2 lays out the varieties of phonetic patterns and offers helpful hints for learning readings, which might otherwise appear completely random, in an efficient and rational way. A parallel system of pronouncing the kanji, their "Japanese readings," uses native Japanese words assigned to particular Chinese characters. Although these are more easily learned because of the association of the meaning to a single word, Heisig creates a kind of phonetic alphabet of single-syllable words, each connected to a simple Japanese word, and shows how they can be combined to help memorize particularly troublesome vocabulary. Unlike Volume 1, which proceeds step-by-step in a series of lessons, Volume 2 is organized in such as way that one can study individual chapters or use it as a reference for pronunciation problems as they arise. Individual frames cross-referencethe kanji to alternate readings and to the frame in Volume 1 in which the meaning and writing of the kanji was first introduced.

From absolute beginners dreading the thought of acquiring literacy in Japanese to more advanced students looking for some relief to the constant frustration of forgetting how to remember the kanji, once you have cracked the covers of these books you will never be able to look at the kanji with the same eyes again.

Volume 2 (4th ed.) updated to include the 196 kanja approved in 2010 for general use.

V. 1. A complete course on how not to forget the meaning and writing of Japanese characters.

Following the first volume of Remembering the Kanji, the present work provides students with helpful tools for learning the pronunciation of the kanji. Behind the notorious inconsistencies in the way the Japanese language has come to pronounce the characters it received from China lie several coherent patterns. Identifying these patterns and arranging them in logical order can reduce dramatically the amount of time spent in the brute memorization of sounds unrelated to written forms. Many of the “primitive elements,” or building blocks, used in the drawing of the characters also serve to indicate the “Chinese reading” that particular kanji use, chiefly in compound terms. By learning one of the kanji that uses such a “signal primitive,” one can learn the entire group at the same time. In this way, Remembering the Kanji 2 lays out the varieties of phonetic pattern and offers helpful hints for learning readings, that might otherwise appear completely random, in an efficient and rational way. Individual frames cross-reference the kanji to alternate readings and to the frame in volume 1 in which the meaning and writing of the kanji was first introduced. A parallel system of pronouncing the kanji, their “Japanese readings,” uses native Japanese words assigned to particular Chinese characters. Although these are more easily learned because of the association of the meaning to a single word, the author creates a kind of phonetic alphabet of single syllable words, each connected to a simple Japanese word, and shows how they can be combined to help memorize particularly troublesome vocabulary. The 4th edition has been updated to include the 196 new kanji approved by the government in 2010 as “general-use” kanji.

The method that has helped thousands--Read Japanese Kanji Today provides readers with a quick and simple method to learn kanji characters. Far from being a complex and mysterious script, Japanese writing is actually a simple and fascinating pictographic and ideographic system, easily understood and mastered. With the approach used in this easy-to-read, entertaining kanji book you'll soon be able to recognize and read over 400 kanji, whether or not you have any knowledge of Japanese grammar or the spoken Japanese language. The 400+ kanji characters stick in your mind thanks to an engaging text and illustrations that show the historical development and meaning of each character. The description of each kanji explains its origins and development, its modern uses, and how it is pronounced. Many examples of everyday usage are included. This new, expanded edition has added: Pronunciations Readings Vocabulary Stroke Order Practice Boxes Use Read Japanese Kanji Today to learn kanji quickly and painlessly!

At long last the approach that has helped thousands of learners memorize Japanese kanji has been adapted to help students with Chinese characters. Book 1 of Remembering Simplified Hanzi covers the writing and meaning of the 1,000 most commonly used characters in the simplified Chinese writing system, plus another 500 that are best learned at an early stage. (Book 2 adds another 1,500 characters for a total of 3,000.) Of critical importance to the approach found in these pages is the systematic arranging of characters in an order best suited to memorization. In the Chinese writing system, strokes and simple components are nested within relatively simple characters, which can, in turn, serve as parts of more complicated characters and so on. Taking advantage of this allows a logical ordering, making it possible for students to approach most new characters with prior knowledge that can greatly facilitate the learning process. Guidance and detailed instructions are provided along the way. Students are taught to employ "imaginative memory" to associate each character’s component parts, or "primitive elements," with one another and with a key word that has been carefully selected to represent an important meaning of the character. This is accomplished through the creation of a "story" that engagingly ties the primitive elements and key word together. In this way, the collections of dots, strokes, and components that make up the characters are associated in memorable fashion, dramatically shortening the time required for learning and helping to prevent characters from slipping out of memory.

Kanji ABCsimplifies the task of memorizing the 1,945 Joyo Kanji using a unique method that reveals the structure and the pictures that make up the kanji by dividing complex kanji into graphemes.

This comprehensive book helps you learn the 92 basic Kana characters and 2,136 standard Kanji characters. Complete, compact and authoritative--this Japanese language book provides all the information needed to learn kanji and kana, including the 92 basic hiragana and katakana phonetic symbols (known collectively as Japanese Kana) and the 2,136 standard Joyo Kanji characters that every Japanese person learns in school. This new and completely revised edition reflects recent changes made to the official Joyo kanji list by the Japanese government. The kana and kanji are presented in an easy and systematic way that helps you learn them quickly and retain what you have learned and improve your mastery of the Japanese language. The ability to read Japanese and write Japanese is an essential skill for any student and will build on their previous knowledge and improve their overall capacity to learn Japanese. A concise index allows you to look up the Kanji in three different ways (so the book also serves as a Japanese Kanji dictionary) and extra spaces are provided to allow you to practice writing Japanese. Japanese Kanji and Kana contains: All 2,136 official Joyo kanji with readings and definitions. Characters are graded by their JLPT examination levels. Up to 5 useful vocabulary compounds for each kanji. Brush and pen cursive forms as well as printed forms. 19 tables summarizing key information about the characters. Kanji lookup indexes by radicals, stroke counts and readings.