Japanese Kanji Made Easy: (JLPT Levels N5 - N2) Learn 1,000 Kanji and Kana the Fun and Easy Way (Online Audio Download Included

by Michael L. Kluemper

This highly-visual book introduces an effective new method to learn over 1,000 Japanese kanji characters using visual stimuli and pictographs. Learning the fundamental kanji characters used to write Japanese can be challenging, but this book is designed to speed up learning by presenting the 1,000 most common characters using a mnemonic approach. In a fun and accessible way to learn Japanese, each kanji is associated with memorable visual and verbal clues. For example, the Japanese character for person is superimposed over a sketch of a smiling man. The visual clue is "a person standing on two legs." By seeing the distinctive shape of the kanji, learners create a mental image of its meaning. Each character is presented as part of a group of characters which share similar traits. These groups use common root symbols known as radicals; they are also categorized by themes such as colors, numbers, animals, or body parts. Pronunciations, meanings and common vocabulary compounds are provided for each character in the group. Mnemonic clues are also given for the basic 92 hiragana and katakana phonetic symbols. The free audio download available online helps you learn pronunciation for all of the characters and vocabulary in this book. The introduction explains the basic history and structure of the kanji. Key feature of this Japanese kanji book Hiragana and katakana phonetic symbols Easy-to-remember drawings and stories for ALL characters Thousands of vocabulary words Online audio for pronunciation practice All audio content is accessible on tuttlepublishing.com/downloadable-con....

Genres: Language, Japanese Literature, Reference, Cultural

1151 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2015

About the author

Michael L. Kluemper began his study of Japanese language in 1987 as an art education student, initially to learn more about the people who created the ceramics in which he was so interested. Kluemper was a JET Program participant from 1990-93 in Akita-ken, and has been teaching about Japanese language and culture since that time. He has been teaching both Japanese language and visual arts at Jasper High School, Jasper, IN since 1999. Serving as a board member for the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers from 2001-08, Kluemper served as president, newsletter editor, and on national task forces for the implementation of a Japanese AP course, National Board Certification for teachers, and various advocacy campaigns. He has been involved in long-term planning committees for the council as well as ACTFL (The American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages), and was a member of the first AP Japanese Test Development Committee. He is a College Board Consultant for the AP Japanese program has presented on various issues from advocacy to aligning courses to standards at conferences across the country. Kluemper teaches Japanese at the high school level at Ballard High School in Louisville, KY.

Reviews

[Brendan Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without a doubt, www.kanjidamage.com is better. Kluemper touches on the radicals, but barely explains them and often outright ignores them in his mnemonics. And in terms of mnemonics, kanjidamage (I'll just use KJ from here on in) are just more descriptive, easier to remember, and he even tries to get the On- readings into it.

But it's hard to write a physical book that would be able to compare with the tools HTML/JS has to offer, I was thinking it's not even fair, but then neither is life!

Kluemper makes some attempt to put the Kanji into order, based on Color, The Body, Time, or even the Radicals. But it's not organized by any one way, and I constantly found Kanji with meanings and Radical that just didn't belong in a section, or should have been earlier. He provides some samples of the compound words, but is unable (for spaces reasons I'm sure) to make any reference or note to the other Kanji being used within the compound words.

Then there just is no explanation on the Kanji, how or when it's used, it's odd pronunciations, etc. You cannot "Learn" the Kanji from this book.

What this book has, however, is the Kanji made into pictures, which provide a visual reference. I feel like the proper use of this book is once you have learned various Kanji, how they're really used and what they mean (i.e., you basically can use them in a sentence) then this book becomes very useful to provide a picture-form of what you already know and thus make it less abstract and more concrete.

I might revisit this book over the next few years, for review. Also being more like a regular soft cover and not a giant text book makes it convenient when on the go. I don't think anyone should pick it up if this is what they plan on using to first start reading Japanese.

BUT, but but but... being that I might stare at a screen for 8 hours a day for my job, I can't always bring myself to stare at web site for 2 more hours studying on Kanjidamage.com -- it's the main reason I prefer real books over reading them on electronic media... some days I just can't look at a screen anymore.

Being kind of conflicted on this volume means I it gets 3 stars, should be 3 and a half, and could be a solid four stars if:
- it was rearranged
- some notation/hints/whatever was provided for the compound words, at the very least if the other kanji is in the book, there should be a page number!
- more then a a couple sentences were dedicated to the radicals - rather then the semi-arbitrary chapters it currently, it should be based on the radicals as a reading system.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Japanese Kanji Made Easy certainly offers a distinctive approach; however it's not going to suit everyone. I found some of the mnemonics confusing, and for me personally, it would be harder to memorise those than just to learn the kanji without all the additional 'clues'. That said, I think it will depend on your style of learning, and what doesn't work for me might be perfect for someone else. The layout of the book was big and bold, but I did feel some of the pictorial 'clues' to each kanji overshadowed the kanji itself, making it hard to read. Overall, I am giving this book two and a half stars, which I will round up to three. It wasn't suitable for my learning strategies, but it might be useful for others.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning Japanese

This was a good book on learning Kanji.

I did find that some of the drawings to try to illustrate what the kanji look like were a bit distracting and hard to see the actual characters.

Either way, I learned a lot.

I also have to say that a lot of them don't make real sense and are not easily understood, but I am trying! Plus, it is an old language, so sure. I just think that so many of the characters had next to no resemblance of the words they symbolize.

It is true, this book was pretty fun.

A bit overwhelming, but fun and good to learn.
Yes, I am on a slow trajectory of learning Japanese.
If you have any recommendations, please feel free to comment good resources!

4.2/5

[✨Jinglemarco✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating learning book. Makes learning Japanese fun.