Remembering the Hiragana: A Complete Course on How to Teach Yourself the Japanese Syllabary in 3 Hours

by James W. Heisig

Book by Heisig, James W.

Genres: Language, Japanese Literature, Nonfiction, Japan, Reference, Textbooks

Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really surprised how good this book was. I tied learning the kana a number of times, by brute force memorization, and it never really worked out that well. I started this book on a Monday, and finished both volumes by that Friday where, on a quiz, I'm getting 90% or higher on remembering these. The images he tries to form in your mind are very helpful, and I like how stuff builds off each other (for example, Fu　フ　Nu ヌ　Wa ワ　Su ス　U ウ　Wo ヲ are presented together because they look similar. Fu is described as a "food bowl". Nu as a noodle falling out of the food bowl. Su as a Soup Bowl, with handles because it's hot. The idea of throwing these in groups is amazing helpful since it clusters what one needs to learn.

The only bad thing about this book is some Kana don't include ways of really visualizing it. It's something like "well, we had something like this, if you remember that, you'll remember this." This isn't really the most true, so I kinda wish that assumption wasn't made. Unfortunately, "Remember the Kanji" has a similar issue, but I'll get to that on that book's review once I finish with it.

I'm really amazed by this book, and am looking forward to my work in Remember the Kanji.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It does let you learn them pretty shockingly fast. If you aren't used to using your visual memory to memorise things (explained further in Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brown) by yourself, Heisig's own scheme will cut that prior reading/training for you. In fact, Heisig's visuals are by rights more consistent and easier than any you can come up with in the same period of time it takes to read this text.

Highly recommended.

[Niko Llewyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was only using this book to learn Katakana, and found the mnemonics unusable. They were the old school unnecessarily complicated sort. I returned this book and used wikibooks.org instead.

[Tadeusz Mollin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to have Heisig at your side when visiting Japan. I learned all the hiragana in one week!

[Javier Viruete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este manual, ter ayudara a aprender ambos Kana a traves de la memoria imaginativa. Te ofrecerán claves para recordar los trazos y asociarlos en tu memoria a potentes imágenes
Sinceramente, es una ayuda enorme para aprender a leer y escribir los katakana y hiragana. Si estas entrando en el estudio del japonés, no te lo pierdas y sigue sus instrucciones al pie de la letra.

不可欠

[Ahmad Hajja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though some of the imagery, supposedly easy to imagine, make sense some of the time, I found myself more often than not creating other ways to remember. I did learn the Kana, but I wouldn't say the method in this book made a lot of sense to me. I do hope that Remembering the Kanji makes more sense. The Katakana definitely gave me a harder time, so I'll end my short review with a phrase I coined that helped me remember the difference between Shi, Tsu, N, So, and No. Simply Shitsunsono (シツンソノ); has no meaning, but written correctly the movement of your hand should be fluid.

[Anca · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first part, learning the hiragana, was pretty useful. I managed to learn that syllabary in 4 days (without intense training, just the half hour per lesson).
The second part though was a different story. For the first 3 lessons there aren't any useful mnemonics and that's about half of the syllabary. I quit trying to learn the katakana with the Heisig method and learned the rest using other resources and setting up my own mnemonic devices.

[Jostalady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned it fast and even without ever using what I learned I still recall and recognize some.

[Karl Hallbjörnsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great method to learn kana, much easier than brute-forcing them like I tried to do at first.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful and well done. Some of the memory items for the characters are a total miss, but a few are so good they even overwrote the way I originally learned some that I already had down solid.

[Aída Alonso Peral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debido a que esto no es un libro para leérselo de un sentada porque está especializado para que estudies el alfabeto japonés, voy a poner mi valoración ahora porque sé que me está encantando. Hace un tiempo estaba con el gusanillo ese de aprender japonés y desde mi descubrimiento con este libro, no he parado.
¡Esto es una maravilla! Coges un gusto agradable con el libro que enseguida te sabes el alfabeto, ya bien metido en el cerebro con varias semanas. El autor pone ejemplos divertidos para que te acuerdes de la pronunciación y caligrafía, y además te enseña con muchos consejos muy buenos.
Para que os hagáis una idea de lo fantástico que es os cuento que se lo he dado a una niña de nueve años que tiene interés por el idioma y en casi tres semanas se le ha quedado grabado el hiragana. Ahora tiene el katana en proceso y en una semana ya se lo tiene sabido.
Es muy sencillo si tenéis algo de interés. Quedaréis como reyes ante vuestros amigos cuando os vean hablando japonés y escribiendo muy bien.
Lo recomiendo muchísimo para hacer un comienzo con el lenguaje del misterioso Japón. ¡No esperéis!

[Ben Walter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Used this as a base for learning the Kana properly and it's a really overrated book. Mnemonics and Memory techniques are clearly the way to go for kanji/kana memorization but this book uses infuriatingly forgettable images also it's structured in a nonsensical order as that's the only way for Heisig to make his repeated images make sense. I found far better success and i recommend making your own mnemonics or googling about for other ones and then ordering them in a memory palace (check out art of memory website). A memory town system would be good to learn as you'll need to learn Kanji as well.

Overall I think Heisigs success is simply the success of mnemonics over rote learning and this does serve as a decent introduction to that as a technique (which is something you MUST learn if you want to get good at Japanese- along with SRS memorization) however it feels dated and the mnemonics are forgettable and based on American English pronunciations which don't really make much sense. Otter for あ only makes sense if you're an american and pronounce it differently (ahtter>ohtter).

you'd do better looking up mnemonics and making them yourself. Good luck! :)

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this and Duolingo to teach myself some Japanese (having three writing systems just seems excessive, guys). For the most part this book is really helpful, although it's set up a bit like a choose your own adventure story, with lots of flipping back and forth between different pages. There are some really useful devices to help you remember each symbol... and a few that are utterly insane:

"The sound 'a' calls to mind a playful little otter, swimming on his back in the middle of a pond whose banks are picketed on all sides by no parking signs. On his tummy are a stack of daggers, which he is tossing one by one at the signs, clapping his paws with glee each time he hits a bullseye."

Can you imagine that?? If you can, I guarantee what you're picturing looks bloody nothing like the symbol for 'a'. Although it is so nuts that it's hard to forget, which is maybe the point.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Needlessly detailed and confusing. I never did understand why it was presented in a way that constantly required flipping pages back and forth. I had originally learned these from a YouTube channel and picked it up at the library for a little review and reinforcement. My advice would be to watch the Japanese Pod 101 YouTube channels to pick the kana up pretty easily and in a much more logical order (with mnemonics that are much more memorable than these). You really don't need to learn how these evolved from the original Chinese unless you are particularly interested.

[AnnanFay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty useless unless you use North American pronunciation. Keywords and stories break very easily because of the bad word choices. For example "SOCK" for "sa" sound. Which is useless if you think sock, mock, shock and dock all rhyme.

[Eamon Domhnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

really well written short stories, which help you remember how the symbol looks. The author uses the so called "primitives", simple images, which he puts in order to form the easy to remember story. That goes for the Hiragana, the Katakana and the Kanji book Heisig wrote. All of them brilliant.

[Roberto Carrasco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tenía muchas ganas de que me gustara, pero las reglas para memorizar son ridículas y un sinsentido (¿Enanitos haciendo surf sobre una ola de wasabi?) Casi que es más fácil estudiarlas de memoria y punto. Cualquier app de hiragana ayuda más.

[Capybara · Rating 5 out of 5]

really well written short stories, which help you remember how the symbol looks. The author uses the so called "primitives", simple images, which he puts in order to form the easy to remember story. That goes for the Hiragana, the Katakana and the Kanji book Heisig wrote. All of them brilliant.

[Nikolaus Trixner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It didn't help me remember all of the Kana in a few hours, but it helped me remember more Kana than I knew before.

[Davo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo mejor para aprender en poco tiempo de manera muy efectiva dos de los alfabetos nipones

[Mircah Foxwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. I was struggling it’s trying to learn Hiragana, but an hour with this book, and I was well on my way. Totally recommend!

[Josele · Rating 5 out of 5]

El mejor método existente para dominar los silabarios y aprender el idioma de forma autodidacta.

[Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is sensible and taught me new ways of seeing both syllabaries. I like the connection to kanji. I need the most help with Katakana, and this is very useful in that regard.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good for learning the hiragana, the katakana section feels a bit phoned in and unhelpful.

[Sweetmongoose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not very far into my study of Japanese and I feel incredibly lucky to have found this book in a used bookstore. I had been trying without much time put into it yet or much method to learn the Hirigana. I could certainly recite them if they were in their proper order - but that was about it. This book has a steep claim. I followed the instructions and did in fact do the course is a little over 3 hours, spread over several days (a key point, important to follow). However, I added 2 hours of reviewing to that. I feel that I certainly have got a foundation with them now. There are many that I need to review over and over - but also, I am an older learner, so maybe that's part of the reason - a younger person might remember more quickly. Some of his images and key words work better than others; also - my Japanese tutor gives different pronunciation for some of the hiragana - nevertheless - I really admire this book and it has helped me immensely! I will keep referring to it as I continue on with my studies.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally recommend learning both hiragana and katakana at the very start of your Japanese studies. This book makes it easier to initially remember the different kana through the use of mnemonics. Then, as you work through your other Japanese study material, your knowledge will be greatly reinforced and solidified. If you're really focused for a few hours, you can get through both hiragana and katakana in a day even (don't do it all at once though... work on it in little chunks throughout the day). I think I took a weekend. Or, you can take a week, or a month. Learning the kana doesn't take that much effort and is well worth whatever effort you do put in. Romaji is an entirely unnecessary crutch that should be avoided. I find it kind of wasteful to only buy a book to just use once for a short while, so I borrowed it from the library.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not saying this book taught me nothing but I'm not anywhere close to having learnt the hiragana in 3 hours. He's definitely onto something with mnemonics and visualising a little scene for each of the hiragana but the stories he uses are so convoluted that I found them impossible to follow so I'd recommend making up your own. Some of the symbols instantly reminded me of things and I found it difficult to see what he was seeing instead. Also the 'keywords' which help with the pronunciation are often pronounced very differently in the book's American English to my YORKSHIRE English. I'm sure some people will find this book useful; but as he internet now exists, and didn't when this book came out in 1987 I would say get on youtube etc. for some help in learning the alphabet, and there's even apps available for your phone.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressively effective teaching of the hiragana. I liked the author's memorization techniques, which involve creating mental pictures that reference both the shape and the sound of the hiragana. About half of his mental pictures didn't click for me so I ended up creating my own, and this worked out just fine because I was still using his technique.

One thing to note is the claim of teaching oneself the hiragana in 3 hours. I followed the time instructions, and I truly did learn the hiragana in about 3 hours, spread out over a couple days. However, I also practiced off the clock, and since completing the book I have practiced a lot to keep the information imprinted in my memory. I think that this is key: the book will teach you the hiragana in 3 hours, but to truly know it you will need to practice practice practice.

[Bopsterjazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book knowing a few hiragana and zero katakana. I came out with a lot more knowledge of each, but I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered them. As an introduction, I think this is an excellent resource, but you will need to supplement it with other things to cement your knowledge.

I’ve seen quite a few people knock this book for the formatting (which follows a dictionary order) and the stories. Personally, I found flipping back and forth fun. It felt like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, but in nonfiction form. The stories are “meh” there were definitely a lot that didn’t resonate with me, but I made up my own which I feel really helped them stick a lot better.

Overall, I’d recommend this if you have very little knowledge of the kana and you want to familiarize yourself with them, but do keep in mind that it shouldn’t be your only resource.

[Yoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The remarkable thing about this book is that it really works: I used it back in college to teach myself the hiragana in more or less 3 hours (split into 6 lessons of 30 minutes each), and last month I used it again to reteach myself (I had forgotten the hiragana through disuse). This is solely the hiragana, not the language itself, but it is effective and fun, using quirky mnemonics to fix each kana in your mind. I also used the katakana book to good effect, and am about to embark on Heisig's Remembering the Kanji 1.