Linguistics : Kanji Pict-O-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics: Over 1000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics (Zzz)

Kanji Pict-O-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics: Over 1000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics (Zzz)

EUR 12,41


How does one learn kanji, the characters of written Japanese? The traditional approach is rote memorization. Japanese children write each kanji hundreds of times at their desks, and eventually they are acquired. Michael Rowley offers a different way, a mnemonic-association approach that provides a hook on which to hang the meaning and retrieve it easily when the kanji comes into view. The concept is simple: each character is represented under the word or concept it stands for (such as turf, bamboo, eat, or duty), followed by the pronunciations of the word in Chinese and Japanese, and a drawing that captures the meaning and resembles the character enough so that it ll come to mind whenever the kanji is seen. Organized thematically in chapters such as Power, Places, Tools, The World, Food, People, and The Body, Rowley s book lets you learn the root symbols before teaching the words that add to them for further meanings. For example, the character for water is a splatter of three dashes that Rowley pictures as three splashing water drops. Later, you see that steam, float, boil, dirt, and bathe all build on the water character. For steam, there s the water character plus a series of lines that Rowley exaggerates to resemble swirling, vapory tendrils, and the association helps. Building on units of memory and relationship, recall is aided considerably by the simple yet evocative drawings. Rowley even manages to help with the hiragana and katakana syllabaries, providing appealing pictures that look a bit like the letters in question and begin with the same sounds. So the na letter looks like a knot, nu resembles Rowley s drawing of noodles held by chopsticks, and it s easier to remember which symbol means te when you picture a telephone pole. It s hard to do Rowley s book justice with words, since the visual element is what makes it tick. He does a wonderful job, blending insight, imagination, and drawing technique, in a book that far surpasses the old rote method, making kanji learning both appealing and accessible. --Stephanie Gold

A New Twist - As an intermediate supplement, it s perfect! This book is a wonderful help of explaining the radicals the kanji are made up of.. so when you run across it again, it will be easier to learn. It s helpful in use alongside a more traditional academic course - it lightens it up and gives a fresh perspective!

Highly reccomended, great visual & written mnemonics - I have bought lots of Kanji books and this is one of my favorites. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to learn to read the Kanji characters. The visual and written mnemonics really helped me remember the characters. The book is broken down by subjects, some include the world, food, body, people and animals. For each word the Kanji character, reference #, English meaning and visual/text mnemonic are show. On and Kun readings, as well as the schematic of elements are also included. There is a Kanji index in the back.My only wishes were that it had the romaji translation and contained information on how to write the characters.

also useful for Japanese - Not only for non-Japanese but also for Japanse, Kanji is somthing strange, hard to understand and interesting. Many dictionary called Kanwa-Jiten (kanji dictionary) have been published in Japan, but they don t have a good idea of displaing such Kanji s attractiveness. This book has done the great thing.

Good for the coffee table or bathroom! - An enjoyable, well presented book, though more for entertainment than a serious study aid.If you really want to learn Kanji then try Ken Henshall s Remebering the Japanese Characters. Kodansha s Let s Learn Kanji/Let s Learn More Kanji are really helpful too.

READ THIS REVIEW -- University of Florida Student - Please read this review. I say this only because I would like to recommend this book to anyone who is beginning Japanese and needs to memorize the cumbersome Hiragana and Katakana characters. This is, bar none, the easiest way to mnemonically retain both the characters and their sounds, period! All it takes is half an hour of trying to read any Japanese text while flipping back through Rowley s book and his ingenious pictures will begin appearing right before your eyes, instilling instant gratification of a sense of progress. However, Rowley s main focus is on Kanji, which he does just a magnificent a job of illucidating and entrenching their definitions upon anyone who reads this text. I would suggest to any student, including those who do not need any knowledge of Kanji, to give this text a try for the sheer brilliance in which Rowley has takled these most formidable phonetic syllabaries, Hiragana and Katakana.




Kanji Pict-O-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics: Over 1000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics (Zzz)