Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig

[dougbrowne]

Hey guys I have a question about the book Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig. It comes in three volumes, what does it teach in each volume? I ordered volume 1. from person I remember hearing that in bol 1 of doesn't teach readings but only meanings. If that's true, what do the teach in 2 and 3?

Thanks for your help.

[Nyororin]

Ack ack ack

Avoid this book....

I posted a long time ago about why it is NOT a good learning aid, but can`t locate the exact post. It teaches you meanings of individual kanji, completely out of context and very out of date... It also screws up the way you split up the character into radicals, and drives me crazy with it`s fake etymology.

I really REALLY dislike that series of books. It`s only good if you want to be able to pick out random characters and say "Oh yeah, that one all by itself means such-and-such, but who knows what it means in a word or in modern context as it`s never used alone!"

[SHAD0W]

Id have to agree, learning a kanji without knowing its reading is pretty pointless in my opinion.

What happens when you come to write something for example?

I recomend
Basic Kanji Book: v. 1: Chieko Kano, Yuri Shimizu, Hiroko Takenaka: Amazon.co.uk: Books

[noodle]

How bizzare... A Japanese friend bought this series for his English gf. He said it was an excellent series for people that really want to learn the language, rather than learning how to communicate. Lets face it, most people that speak a second language or third, only know how to get by, yet they still say that they speak the language. I was told by my friend that this series is total rubbish if and only if you're looking to communicate and get by.

I'm learning a little Mandarin right now, and my flatmate, he who is teaching me, is teaching me the characters before I learn the pronounciation. It seems to be a similar method to this book (except I don't learn hundreds or chars before I learn the pronounciation, I learn 10 to 20 chars at a time), and personally, I think it's working.

[Nyororin]

Unfortunately, if your friend says it is a good way to "really" know the language... Then they don`t really know the language themselves.

It uses fake etymology to teach odd little stories so that you link the character to a specific single meaning... About half of which isn`t even the common meaning, and about 10% of being a meaning that only applies in some exotic circumstance.

In my linguistics course - in Japan, in a Japanese university - it was used as an example of how NOT to teach, and an example of the horrors of someone writing something for appeal and ignoring all levels of accuracy. The etymology professors were literally choking and gagging at it, and some of the stories given were down right awful and occasionally racist.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Unfortunately, if your friend says it is a good way to "really" know the language... Then they don`t really know the language themselves.

I wouldn't be able to comment on that as I don't speak Japanese and it would be pretty silly of me to say to someone Japanese, "hey, you don't really know the Japanese language because someone told me the book you recommended was a load of *insert word*"

[SHAD0W]

Originally Posted by noodle

I wouldn't be able to comment on that as I don't speak Japanese and it would be pretty silly of me to say to someone Japanese, "hey, you don't really know the Japanese language because someone told me the book you recommended was a load of *insert word*"

Thats not what shes saying..

re-read the post and go figure, then come back.

nevermind, ill simplfy it for you..

its like telling a blind man the taxi he took this morning was yellow. he doesnt know what colour it was, it might have been black, it might have been a number of different colours with yellow being one of them. but he doesn't know, the blind man just has to take your word for it.

hiesieg's method works like that...

it shows 山　Mountain, instead of　山　 > やま　> mountain.

You can argue back all you like.. but if you were learning a language, would you wanna go in blind?

[noodle]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

Thats not what hes saying..

re-read the post and go figure, then come back.

nevermind, ill simplfy it for you..

its like telling a blind man the taxi he took this morning was yellow. he doesnt know what colour it was, he just has to take your word for it.

hiesieg works like that...

it shows 山　Mountain, instead of　山　 > やま　> mountain.

You can argue back all you like.. but if you were learning a language, would you wanna go in blind?

That makes absolutely no sense at all... Who says you need to learn the "pronounciation"/"spoken" at the same time? Chinese people generally find Japanese much easier to learn than a westerner. A chinese person can read most of the Kanji, I mean most, because some Kanji changed it's meaning from Chinese to Japanese. Being able to read and understand before you speak it isn't a handicap if you're aiming to "learn" the language.

I'm sure you didn't understand most of that, so let me give you an example.

A child looks at something and knows what it is. Later on, he learns what the word is for that something. Same principle. You look at a char and know what it is, later on, you learn how to say it!

[MMM]

Let's keep the tone civil, gentlemen.

[Tangram]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

hiesieg's method works like that...

it shows 山　Mountain, instead of　山　 > やま　> mountain.

You can argue back all you like.. but if you were learning a language, would you wanna go in blind?

I agree with this. And it really applies when the kanji is used for other words, which are fairly common

見る　=　see

OK, that's nice to know. But then, I'm going along and see:

見せる

Well, I can assume it has something to do with seeing, I guess. And...oh no...I don't even know the reading for 見. I can't even look it up!

And how would you go about typing the kanji if you don't know the readings? Copy and paste? When I learn a kanji, I learn it inside and out, not just one English meaning. I want to be able to actually know what it means in context when I read it. I want to be able to use it when I'm saying something. Etc.