Product Description

This concise guide aims to teach the user how to read 300 basic characters through their pictorial representation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #324267 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and very useful book.
A friend of mine recommended this book to me before I went out to Japan for six months, and it was a BOON!

It starts with the simplest Kanji (characters), and clearly explains their origins and meanings. Then it shows how these 'elemental' characters are built up into more complex characters, with more complex meanings. After getting through the book I found that I could understand lots of common Kanji in Japan, even though I wasn't actually 'reading' them. It was a bit more like seeing road signs - you understand them 'directly' without any sound entering your mind at all.

If you also get a simple book on the spoken language, and also learn the two phonetic alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana - not too difficult to learn), you'll find you can get along surprisingly well in Japan.

This was all twenty years ago, but I remember going through this book so fondly that I've just ordered a copy to go through again!

Read Japanese Today
`Read Japanese Today' is a short, but brilliant, start to learning how to read Japanese. The descriptions of each word are very clear and as the author describes how the words are formed and also the roots of each word, you can visually see how the shape came about and so remember them easier. I found this to be interesting in it's own right, good for beginners to whet their appetite and learn the structure of Japanese writing in an accessible way and invaluable in learning to read Japanese overall. Worth considering.

A must for any student of Japanese
I had read rave reviews for this little book and so I felt I had to get a copy and see what all of the fuss was about.

My initial reaction was one of disappointment as this the both the format and the writing style of this book is quite unlike any other textbook I have ever come across - However, once I began reading it I realised that this is precisely its strength !

Once I had settled down into a regular pattern of reading a few pages of this book I realised that I was suddenly increasing my knowledge and recognising basic Kanji with ease.

The small size of this book makes it the perfect companion for your daily commute or any other journey and belies the wealth of information that it contains - all of which is conveyed in a light and informal manner that makes learning the basic Kanji easy and enjoyable.

I have only a few very minor critisms:-

Firstly, the lack of index (although a free index has been written by another "fan" of this book and can be obtained online free of charge)

Secondly, the small size of the book means that there is no "stroke order" of the Kanji included. However the primary "Raison d'etre" of this book is remembering / recognizing the Kanji rather than the actual art of writing.

Finally, there are a couple of pages where the typesetting / layout appears to be slightly bizarre - but this does not adversely affect the content.

Therefore in summary, if you are seeking a good introductary aid to remembering the first 300 (or so)Kanji - then buy this book, read (and re-read)a few pages each day, and you will not be disappointed.

A superb little book that should be in the collection of all students of the Japanese language.