Re: FYI: Kanji 1-6 books: These are fun and easy to read in Japanese

From: Ｓｒｉｎ・Ｔｕａｒ (SrinTuar_at_example.net)
Date: 11/21/04 

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 03:32:49 GMT

thirdrock wrote:
> -- -- -- -- -- --
> A structured method introduces kanji in order by complexity and
> components, reveals connections between the different radicals and
> basically gives the learner the ablity to break down a kanji and
> analyze it, rather than be forced to deal with it as a whole shape.
> -- -- -- -- -- --
>
> That was the angle I was looking for. Do you mean the henshall and
> heisig, in addition to using mneumonics, introduce the kanji in the way
> you describe above?

To be specific: I first encountered the concept when I noticed henshall
mnemonics on Jim's site. It seemed like a logical Idea, so I went
looking for a more comprehensive course in that style. I eventualy
broke down and bought a heisig book, and it was pretty good.

The things about it that I didnt like were some inaccuracies in
stroke order diagrams and the overly heavy emphasis on visual
mnemonics, which is why I manually typed in over 2000 sentence
style mnemonic sentences which suited me better. (rather than
being visual they are more like mini-poems. If you want them I
can share them, havent gotten around to it yet)

Anyway, honestly I havent found what I consider to be a perfect
kanji course for native English speakers. But I can highly
recommend whatever heisig or henshall wrote to get you on the right
track. Just find whatever seems to make them stick in your head
them best, and supplement them with a heavy dose of manga, anime,
or whatever motivates you to study the language. If you want to
talk about specifics post on a message board like one of these:

http://www.japanese-online.com/forum/index.htm
http://forum.jeffevans.org/
http://forum.japantoday.com/Learning_Japanese/forumid_10/tt.htm

(Im 常連 on all those, there may be others as well)

(I wouldnt spend to much time posting serious discussion here
on slj unless you are in the market for humorous riposte's or
political banter... :p )

Anyway: it is certainly possible for us to learn kanji efficiently,
especially if you dont head down the rote path of pain.

がんばれよ

Relevant Pages

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