Japanese
Kanji Books
Heisig – A guide to remembering the Kanji
An integrated course on learning the meaning and how to write all Jouyou (general use) kanji as well as a few extra. Heisigs theory is that the student must learn to recognize all kanjis before learning how to read them. On top of this, Heisig also believes that you are illiterate until you know the meaning of all ~2000 characters. This means that characters are not listed after how often they are used, but how easy they are to learn. Heisigs all-or-nothing approach also ensures that there is no cross-referencing throughout the book.
How-ever, students who do have the patience to go through the course will reap great rewards in the end, but very little half way through …
Pro’s
- Very good mnemonics – best available
- Very well-structured
- Is cross referenced by EDICT
Con’s
- No cross-referencing
- Difficult to integrate into other learning – it’s the Heisig way or the highway
- No readings or vocabulary.
- Some early introduced characters are rarely seen in ASP curriculum, while some of the last characters appear very often in ASP as well as common Japanese
More
- Online preview
- Buy at Amazon
Henshall – A guide to remembering Japanese characters
Covers the etymology of all Jouyou (General use) Kanji. Gives great insight into why characters actually mean what they do today. All characters are accompanied with a small mnemonic device to help the reader. The book is set up as a reference tool and can either be read cover-to-cover or simply referred to, whenever the student wants a deeper explanation of a character. It contains great cross-referencing.
Pro’s
- Best book for etymology
- Good cross-referencing
- Great referencing tool on Japanese characters
- Is cross referenced by EDICT
Con’s
- Only covers Jouyou characters. Some kanji contains elements that exist in their own right – having these non-general use characters appear under their own entry would have made the book better
- Sometimes similar elements in two different characters have different etymological roots, making for inconsistent mnemonics – We advise the reader to choose one definition and stick with that despite it being historically incorrect.
More
Bodnaryk – Kanji Mnemonics
Puts itself somewhere between the two books above. Bodnaryk has read up on the etymology, but his book presents an special order of learning, not completely dissimilar to what Heisig does. However, Bodnaryk gives the student readings of all characters as well as example words. The book also contains cross-referencing, so one can skip ahead to the characters that are contained in this weeks kanji list.
The book is organized into groups of kanji – usually 5 or 6 and the student is recommended to learn one new group a day and rest on weekends.
The book is self-published and can be difficult to get a hold on.
Pro’s
- Good structure
- Can be used as an independent study guide as well as a reference tool for the characters asked by a teacher or textbook to study
- Character elements have more consisting naming than their etymology allows Henshall to do.
Con’s
- Mnemonics not as good as Heisig
- Not cross-referenced by EDICT
More
- Online preview
- First 200 characters available online
- Buy online at the Japanshop
Websites
Kanji guides / references:
- Great ressource for etymological information on Chinese characters. A lot of Japanese characters haven’t changed from their original Chinese and are therefore available there as well
- A comprehensive, illustrated dictionary with etymologies, pictographs and definitions in English, displaying also Hiragana and Katakana. Though explanations are much more sparse than Henshall’s book, this site covers a lot more characters. Their newsletter contains more in-depth descriptions on about 5 characters a day. You need to sign up in order to use the search function
- At Kanjidamage.com “you can learn 1,700 kanji using Yo Mama jokes.” The tone of the site makes it seems very silly, but it is in fact a very well structured, organized and thorough guide to learning kanji using a similar approach as the recommended books. Characters are split into components that are given consistent meaning throughout the site. Moreover everything is cross referenced and everything has a mnemonic device attached to it. Example words and readings included.
It is free, thorough, complete and if you also find silly a plus, you’ve just wasted your time reading all of the above.
Online Dictionaries
- The most user-friendly website to offer EDICT. Very easy to search for words, kanji’s etc. Also contains great cross-references to other online ressources. Beware of the example sentences as they have not been proof-read and sometimes relates to different meanings of the same word
- The original online gateway to EDICT. Also the place to send in corrections or get in contact with the author
- Very comprehensive Japanese-english online dictionary with many professionally produced example sentences. Probably the only free resource not using EDICT
Dictionaries
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar is simply an indispensable book when learning Japanese. Besides from explaining separate grammar points, it offers a lot of general explanations about the quirks of the Japanese language. I also contains lots of example sentences that make it easier to understand the grammar explanations, which are often tricky.
It comes in a Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Version. The basic version covers more than what is needed at year 0.
Its really recommended to buy the book on Amazon since its good for reading in bed before you sleep or in the bus. Its surely much nicer than to read all 3 books by PDF.
Social sites
- The Japanese Facebook. By far the biggest social site in Japan. Sometimes registration requires a Japanese cellphone. Google for help if you are having trouble signing up.
- Write entries in Japanese and have other Japanese users proofread it and thus make new friends. In turn you are expected to help proof read other peoples entries and helping them learn a new language. Very effective, but remember to be friendly and help out others.
Other
- Inline word look-up for firefox
