James W. Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters"
“漢字 Kanji: A Japanese system of writing based on borrowed or modified Chinese characters.”
I first came to Japan in the winter of 2002 and I took to studying Japanese immediately, or more poignantly, I took to speaking Japanese immediately. I showed signs of progress, but knew that, without any literary skills, I was far from being on the road to true language mastery. When my mind drifted to the written word, I often asked myself “what is the best way to become literate in this language”? Is it to write, write, and re-write each kanji over again? Should one study the Chinese and Japanese readings of each kanji, and then move from there? Which Kanji should I study first? Should I simply read kanji in context and forge ahead? Among all of these questions—which is an entirely different issue in itself—I wondered: “How do native speakers raised in Japan internalize the 1,945 general-use kanji?”
Professor Laurence M. Wiig of Hiroshima University, answers the question: “The process involves starting Japanese first graders with the most readily grasped symbols such as 一 one, 二 two, 三 three, 犬 dog, 見 see, 木 tree and 森 forest. Some three and a half years later, by the end of fourth grade, Japanese children have mastered a total of 640 kanji including 200 kanji presented during the fourth grade such as 好 be fond of, 松 pine tree, and 胃 stomach.
During fifth and sixth grade they are introduced to easy kanji such as 机 desk and 句 phrase as well as complex (but frequently encountered) symbols like 警 police and 塾 cram school.
By the end of 4,380 days (365 days/year x 12 years = 4,380 days) of Japanese education, kanji literacy training is complete” (http://www.kanjiclinic.com/reviewheisigwiig.htm).
4,380 days? Not to mention, during this time, the students are writing love letters, seeing kanji hung up in classes, on posters, written on desks, arriving on paper in the mail, and doodled on notepads; in essence, during this time kanji works its way into all facets of daily life. So, of course, for a foreigner studying Japanese, such a method is obviously not an option.
This is where James Heisig’s book “Remembering the Kanji” comes in. The book covers the 1,945 jouyou kanji, giving the reader the ability to remember and write each kanji, but no idea how to read them. The book has as many critics as it does admirers, and has been around since the 1970s. Hesieg, a university professor at The Nanzan University Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan, is very well-known in the field of Japanese language study. In his book, Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters, Heisig likens the study of kanji to looking through a kaleidoscope. You hold it up to the light, trying to fix a particular pattern in your mind. After you do this for quite some time, thinking you have the pattern frozen in your memory, you close your eyes, tracing the pattern in your head. You check the pattern against the original image, and swear you’ve got it. Then someone walks by and jars your elbow. The pattern is lost, and in its place a new one appears. Your mind then, scrambles to remember what you had just memorized, but to no avail. The reason it is so difficult, according to Heisig, is because there is “simply nothing left in memory to grab ahold of. The kanji are like that” (Heisig 6).
So what is one to do? I, for one, have sure felt this way while studying kanji. The answer to this learning impasse is what Heisig calls “imaginative memory: the faculty to recall images created purely in the mind, with no actual or remembered visual stimuli behind them” (Heisig 7). What this does, in theory, is provide the student with the ability to recall kanji by using concrete images, instead of visual memory. “It may surprise the reader casually leafing through these pages,” says Heisig in the introduction, “not to find a single drawing or pictographic representation. This is fully consistent with what was said earlier about placing the stress on imaginative memory… the pictograph should be discovered by the student…” (Heisig, 10).
In essence, Heisig helps the student create a set of imaginative pneumonics (in this case, stories, or plots), starting with the first kanji in his book, which soon act as “primitive elements” that make up the more complex and higher-level kanji discovered later on. The book then, starting from the first simple kanji, helps the reader create a series of imaginative stories that create a base of images that can be later used to help piece together each kanji as the reader comes across them; it’s like creating a massive visual spiderweb where each image created in the learners mind is linked in some way and therefore can soon be used to create another image to learn each new kanji he or she comes across.
For example: About three-hundred kanji into the book, you learn that 高 means “tall” and you also learn that, when 高 is used as a primitive element (is found in the creation of a different kanji) above another kanji it loses the bottom five strokes. At this point, you also know that 子 means "child", 土 means “ground” and 太 means “fat”. So when you find 享, (made up of the kanji at the top, for “tall” and the kanji at the bottom for “child”) the story goes: “tall children grow up to make better football receivers” (Heisig 122). The meaning of this kanji being “Receive”. You then, visualize this little “story” and once it is in place, you move on to the next kanji, which happens to be 塾. The meaning of this seemingly complex kanji is “Cram School” but since you have the visual elements already in place, you can create a story easily enough to cement how this kanji is written, in your mind. Here it goes: on the top left is the kanji we just learned for “receive” or “tall children 享”, on the top right is the kanji for “fat 太” and the bottom is the kanji for “ground 土”. This is what Heisig writes to accompany the kanji in the book: “cram schools are after-hours educational institutions where kids can cram for coming examinations or drill what they missed during regular class hours. The exception are the tall children who are also fat and therefore need to be out there on the school grounds burning off calories (Heisig, 123). It is then up to the reader to create any sort of image (the more vivid and ridiculous, the better) that matches these primitive elements, and then move on from there.
Whew! It may seem complex, but remember this kanji appears nearly 300 into the book and isn't taught in the japanese system until the fifth or sixth grade. Heisig gives you a method to remember it in less than two weeks. If you check the book out on your own, you'll realize how simple the method really is. After taking a look at what is involved in remembering the kanji, it becomes apparent very early on that the order of learning the kanji is incredibly important, as Heisig says, “the method is simplicity itself” (heisig 9). And this is where Heisig pedagogy shines and fails: It shines in that it is laid out wonderfully, helping the student maneuver through the thousands of kanji in a way where each “primitive element” is learned then called upon to remember the new ones. Yet, it fails in the eyes of many of its critics as it requires the readery to go through the entire book, one-kanji-by-one-kanji, regardless of how frequently each character appears in every day reading.
Heisig himself acknowledges this characteristic of his book: “The method presented here needs to be learned step by step, lest one find oneself forced later to retreat to the first stages and start over. 20 or 25 characters per day would not be excessive for someone who has only a couple hours to give to study” (Heisig, 10).
Among the biggest arguments against this book, besides the one outlined above, is that it does not give the reader any skills in actually reading Japanese. But, one must keep in mind that this is not Heisig's intent; it's purpose is to give the learner of Japanese a massive set of tools to break apart any new kanji that comes his or her way--to be able to recall and write each kanji based on a personal image already created, then go on to learning each kanji's various forms of reading from there.
This is a a method which tests dedication, routine, and creativity. But, it is indeed simple—it just takes time and patience. Therefore, if you’re studying for the JLPT, it may require more time than you have. I took the 二級 (Level Two) exam last December, not passing due to insuficient reading skills. I now have another year before I can take it, and therefore I have made the decision to give myself a proper base to learn and remember each kanji as I come across them in my studies. I have spent countless hours studying kanji, and although I have retained scores of them, I only can recall each character passively, lending me no ability to actively write or remember them. If I run across a kanji in a body of text, I have a good chance of remembering it, but even that can be a tad sketchy. And so, if you are like me, where you are learning on your own, have a strong visual memory, and have spent countless days studying kanji only to have them vanish in your head all the while feeling as though there has to be a better way for you, this book is probably your best choice.
I am currently studying 30 kanji a day while also continuing ahead with in-context kanji reading--the traditional way. The thirty kanji a day is a bit fast-paced, and I may knock it down to 25 so I can fit in a proper amount of reviewing. But, if you have some time and dedication, (which I do have at the moment, living in the boonies of Japan) you can definitely get through this book well enough (three months being reasonable). Each kanji that I do come across now during my own reading, becomes locked in my memory (visual memory, as Heisig would say) which gives me the skill to recall them actively at a later point.
There are as many critics of the book as there are admirers. I just look at this book as an investment… if you are thinking about studying the language for years to come, want to be armed with a set of skills to tackle any kanji that comes your way, need something more than just the visual kanji to anchor them in your memory, and have the time and dedication to stick with the book from the beginning to the end, then Hesig's Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters very well may be for you (you can download it in its full form here).
References:
Heisig. W James. Remembering the Kanji I: A complete Course on how not to forget the meaning and writing of Japanese Characters. 1977. Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo: Japan. Japan Publications trading Co. Ltd.
Some pertinent links to check out:
- 50,000 kanji exist.
- 1,945 of these kanji are known as “jouyou Kanji” which were “established as the standard by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1946” and which represent a sixteen year-old’s fluency in the literary world. (Heisig 8).
- The Japanese writing system also uses hiragana, katakana, and sometimes romaji (Roman Alphabet letters). These characters are distinct from, though commonly used in combination with, kanji. Furigana are also added sometimes.
- Nearly each character has a Japanese as well as Chinese reading, which changes depending upon the combination of two or more kanji that is being used to form a word.
I first came to Japan in the winter of 2002 and I took to studying Japanese immediately, or more poignantly, I took to speaking Japanese immediately. I showed signs of progress, but knew that, without any literary skills, I was far from being on the road to true language mastery. When my mind drifted to the written word, I often asked myself “what is the best way to become literate in this language”? Is it to write, write, and re-write each kanji over again? Should one study the Chinese and Japanese readings of each kanji, and then move from there? Which Kanji should I study first? Should I simply read kanji in context and forge ahead? Among all of these questions—which is an entirely different issue in itself—I wondered: “How do native speakers raised in Japan internalize the 1,945 general-use kanji?”
Professor Laurence M. Wiig of Hiroshima University, answers the question: “The process involves starting Japanese first graders with the most readily grasped symbols such as 一 one, 二 two, 三 three, 犬 dog, 見 see, 木 tree and 森 forest. Some three and a half years later, by the end of fourth grade, Japanese children have mastered a total of 640 kanji including 200 kanji presented during the fourth grade such as 好 be fond of, 松 pine tree, and 胃 stomach.
During fifth and sixth grade they are introduced to easy kanji such as 机 desk and 句 phrase as well as complex (but frequently encountered) symbols like 警 police and 塾 cram school.
By the end of 4,380 days (365 days/year x 12 years = 4,380 days) of Japanese education, kanji literacy training is complete” (http://www.kanjiclinic.com/reviewheisigwiig.htm).
4,380 days? Not to mention, during this time, the students are writing love letters, seeing kanji hung up in classes, on posters, written on desks, arriving on paper in the mail, and doodled on notepads; in essence, during this time kanji works its way into all facets of daily life. So, of course, for a foreigner studying Japanese, such a method is obviously not an option.
This is where James Heisig’s book “Remembering the Kanji” comes in. The book covers the 1,945 jouyou kanji, giving the reader the ability to remember and write each kanji, but no idea how to read them. The book has as many critics as it does admirers, and has been around since the 1970s. Hesieg, a university professor at The Nanzan University Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan, is very well-known in the field of Japanese language study. In his book, Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters, Heisig likens the study of kanji to looking through a kaleidoscope. You hold it up to the light, trying to fix a particular pattern in your mind. After you do this for quite some time, thinking you have the pattern frozen in your memory, you close your eyes, tracing the pattern in your head. You check the pattern against the original image, and swear you’ve got it. Then someone walks by and jars your elbow. The pattern is lost, and in its place a new one appears. Your mind then, scrambles to remember what you had just memorized, but to no avail. The reason it is so difficult, according to Heisig, is because there is “simply nothing left in memory to grab ahold of. The kanji are like that” (Heisig 6).
So what is one to do? I, for one, have sure felt this way while studying kanji. The answer to this learning impasse is what Heisig calls “imaginative memory: the faculty to recall images created purely in the mind, with no actual or remembered visual stimuli behind them” (Heisig 7). What this does, in theory, is provide the student with the ability to recall kanji by using concrete images, instead of visual memory. “It may surprise the reader casually leafing through these pages,” says Heisig in the introduction, “not to find a single drawing or pictographic representation. This is fully consistent with what was said earlier about placing the stress on imaginative memory… the pictograph should be discovered by the student…” (Heisig, 10).
In essence, Heisig helps the student create a set of imaginative pneumonics (in this case, stories, or plots), starting with the first kanji in his book, which soon act as “primitive elements” that make up the more complex and higher-level kanji discovered later on. The book then, starting from the first simple kanji, helps the reader create a series of imaginative stories that create a base of images that can be later used to help piece together each kanji as the reader comes across them; it’s like creating a massive visual spiderweb where each image created in the learners mind is linked in some way and therefore can soon be used to create another image to learn each new kanji he or she comes across.
For example: About three-hundred kanji into the book, you learn that 高 means “tall” and you also learn that, when 高 is used as a primitive element (is found in the creation of a different kanji) above another kanji it loses the bottom five strokes. At this point, you also know that 子 means "child", 土 means “ground” and 太 means “fat”. So when you find 享, (made up of the kanji at the top, for “tall” and the kanji at the bottom for “child”) the story goes: “tall children grow up to make better football receivers” (Heisig 122). The meaning of this kanji being “Receive”. You then, visualize this little “story” and once it is in place, you move on to the next kanji, which happens to be 塾. The meaning of this seemingly complex kanji is “Cram School” but since you have the visual elements already in place, you can create a story easily enough to cement how this kanji is written, in your mind. Here it goes: on the top left is the kanji we just learned for “receive” or “tall children 享”, on the top right is the kanji for “fat 太” and the bottom is the kanji for “ground 土”. This is what Heisig writes to accompany the kanji in the book: “cram schools are after-hours educational institutions where kids can cram for coming examinations or drill what they missed during regular class hours. The exception are the tall children who are also fat and therefore need to be out there on the school grounds burning off calories (Heisig, 123). It is then up to the reader to create any sort of image (the more vivid and ridiculous, the better) that matches these primitive elements, and then move on from there.
Whew! It may seem complex, but remember this kanji appears nearly 300 into the book and isn't taught in the japanese system until the fifth or sixth grade. Heisig gives you a method to remember it in less than two weeks. If you check the book out on your own, you'll realize how simple the method really is. After taking a look at what is involved in remembering the kanji, it becomes apparent very early on that the order of learning the kanji is incredibly important, as Heisig says, “the method is simplicity itself” (heisig 9). And this is where Heisig pedagogy shines and fails: It shines in that it is laid out wonderfully, helping the student maneuver through the thousands of kanji in a way where each “primitive element” is learned then called upon to remember the new ones. Yet, it fails in the eyes of many of its critics as it requires the readery to go through the entire book, one-kanji-by-one-kanji, regardless of how frequently each character appears in every day reading.
Heisig himself acknowledges this characteristic of his book: “The method presented here needs to be learned step by step, lest one find oneself forced later to retreat to the first stages and start over. 20 or 25 characters per day would not be excessive for someone who has only a couple hours to give to study” (Heisig, 10).
Among the biggest arguments against this book, besides the one outlined above, is that it does not give the reader any skills in actually reading Japanese. But, one must keep in mind that this is not Heisig's intent; it's purpose is to give the learner of Japanese a massive set of tools to break apart any new kanji that comes his or her way--to be able to recall and write each kanji based on a personal image already created, then go on to learning each kanji's various forms of reading from there.
This is a a method which tests dedication, routine, and creativity. But, it is indeed simple—it just takes time and patience. Therefore, if you’re studying for the JLPT, it may require more time than you have. I took the 二級 (Level Two) exam last December, not passing due to insuficient reading skills. I now have another year before I can take it, and therefore I have made the decision to give myself a proper base to learn and remember each kanji as I come across them in my studies. I have spent countless hours studying kanji, and although I have retained scores of them, I only can recall each character passively, lending me no ability to actively write or remember them. If I run across a kanji in a body of text, I have a good chance of remembering it, but even that can be a tad sketchy. And so, if you are like me, where you are learning on your own, have a strong visual memory, and have spent countless days studying kanji only to have them vanish in your head all the while feeling as though there has to be a better way for you, this book is probably your best choice.
I am currently studying 30 kanji a day while also continuing ahead with in-context kanji reading--the traditional way. The thirty kanji a day is a bit fast-paced, and I may knock it down to 25 so I can fit in a proper amount of reviewing. But, if you have some time and dedication, (which I do have at the moment, living in the boonies of Japan) you can definitely get through this book well enough (three months being reasonable). Each kanji that I do come across now during my own reading, becomes locked in my memory (visual memory, as Heisig would say) which gives me the skill to recall them actively at a later point.
There are as many critics of the book as there are admirers. I just look at this book as an investment… if you are thinking about studying the language for years to come, want to be armed with a set of skills to tackle any kanji that comes your way, need something more than just the visual kanji to anchor them in your memory, and have the time and dedication to stick with the book from the beginning to the end, then Hesig's Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters very well may be for you (you can download it in its full form here).
References:
Heisig. W James. Remembering the Kanji I: A complete Course on how not to forget the meaning and writing of Japanese Characters. 1977. Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo: Japan. Japan Publications trading Co. Ltd.
Some pertinent links to check out:
- http://www.kanjiclinic.com/riverainterview.htm (A great interview with Heisig about his own personal kanji studying experience).
- http://www.omoshiroigame.com/_sgt/m1_1.htm (An interesting resource of online Japanese language learning games).
- http://www.kanjiclinic.com/index.html (The Kanji Clinic: a column of the Japan Times which publishes a lot of helpful Japanese studying resources among interesting food for thought)
- http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html (one of the best online Japanese grammar/kanji dictionaries out there)
- http://www.polarcloud.com/node/39 (for those of you already studying Remembering the Kanji Vol:1, here’s an online and printable set of flashcards, which are coordinated with the book, and appear in the proper order).
- http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/ (Studying for the JLPT and need a good set of flashcards without any romaji and which are geared towards the test itself? Go to White Rabbit Press
- http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/ (Rikaichan: A wonderful add-on to FireFox which enables you to simply hover your mouse over any kanji that appears on a website to learn its reading).
posted by Jamiesan at 3:16 PM
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