The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering 2300 Characters

This book has a really long introduction. You need to read it to understand how to use the book. I marked the pages where it explained the elements of each entry, because I got lost fast without having that info handy. When I first began using it, I was frustrated because the entries aren't grouped around a theme like I expected. But that isn't a big deal, because it is organized, and it includes ways to help you remember the meanings of the kanji, and gives information on look-alike kanji. I'm finding this book tremendously helpful in my journey towards Japanese literacy.

I know Japanese up to the lower intermediate level (three college classes; ~1,000 words), and I really wanted to continue learning the language on my own, with a preliminary goal of reading shounen manga in their native tongue. Alas, every English speaker learning Japanese knows the huge hurdle that kanji represent when it comes to reading. I needed a method to pick up kanji effectively, so after reading the reviews and book descriptions, I selected this book because it was highly rated and, most importantly, because it includes all of the 2300 basic kanji (most books only include several hundred up to a thousand, requiring you to inconveniently jump ship to another book when you finish).I've been using this book for just over a month, having made a New Year's resolution to learn 4 kanji per day, a goal I set using the book's layout of 4 kanji per page. This will allow me to begin my dive into native materials before the year's end. I have found that compared to my experience studying kanji from textbooks (e.g. Genki, Tobira), Kodansha offers a much more intuitive experience. The basic Japanese textbooks just throw kanji at you and tell you to memorize them. They do not explain radicals, which can really simplify the learning and association process; they do not use visual mnemonics or etymological backgrounds; and they do not introduce kanji in an order conducive to learning. As two examples of many, Genki teaches the character for "road" (道) without ever first explaining the character for "head/neck" (首); or, Genki teaches the character for mother (母), without telling you that this represents breasts (turned sideways)...trying forgetting the character now! This isn't to fault the textbooks, as such explanations are beyond their scope; it's merely to point out the textbooks are a rather ineffective way to learn all of the kanji, particularly complicated ones.Kodansha, fortunately, uses a multi-dimensional approach focused on one thing: making the kanji stick in your mind. Depending on what is useful for an individual kanji, the book explains the kanji's meaning using the appropriate and salient selection of radicals, visual mnemonics, or etymological backgrounds, or any combination thereof. I like that this book (unlike others) does not force awkward or ill-fitting visual mnemonics or complicated and obscure etymological backgrounds on kanji where it doesn't work; the book uses only what relatively simple learning aid makes the most sense for each individual kanji. Furthermore, the book introduces kanji in a building block order, allowing you to utilize what you have already learned to simplify the learning of new kanji. For example, kanji are often introduced as combinations of kanji you have already studied; as conceptually related groups tied around a similar radical or idea; or as contrasting groups where similar appearing kanji with different meanings are compared by the stroke to emphasize what makes them visually different, explaining how to interpret that visual difference to underscore the different meanings. It achieves this without becoming dull and repetitive.Each kanji includes several, typically 3-6, example words. The example words are strategically selected to use kanji previously covered in the book, which helps reinforce what you have studied. Per the book's own recommendation, I find it most effective to learn each kanji in the context of the example words (instead of just associating the sounds to the single kanji), selecting 2-3 vocabulary that cover at least two (where two or more exist) of the kanji's pronunciations. As suggested, I write the new words at least 10 times each, reading aloud (or in my head) as I write, associating sound to character. Sometimes the words will be familiar -- you knew the word, just not how to write it. Sometimes, the word is new, so you increase your vocabulary. Using this method, I have not only expanded my kanji knowledge base, I have expanded my vocabulary. Additionally, each day, before I begin to study my 4 new kanji, I return to the previous day's kanji to write them, and then I will select 2-5 kanji (often ones I struggled with) from even earlier pages. Over the past month or so, I have comfortably learned ~150 kanji (I up to kanji #188, but already knew some of the kanji introduced).The book's main negative is its lack of context: it does not use example sentences for the words. I understand, however, that this is a space issue (the tome would be enormous were this included for all 2300 kanji), and furthermore, this is a kanji book, not a vocabulary or grammar book. And it succeeds at teaching kanji quite well. Particularly for new verbs, I use a dictionary to get an idea of the verb's usage. With a quick search on my phone's Japanese dictionary app, I do not even have to close the book while I look up example sentences when needed. Thus, I do not feel inconvenienced by the lack of examples.Granted, this is the first book of its kind that I have purchased, but I am convinced that there is not another book on the market to beat it for teaching non-native speakers kanji quickly and effectively.

Before this, I've used a couple of other methods such as WaniKani, RTK, and have been frustrated by them for one reason or another. And this book is working for me!How I use the book :I study 1 page (4 kanji and 6 associated vocab) every weekday and on weekends I spend time reviewing what I've learned the past week. I start by reviewing the Kanji I learned the last two days(8 kanji) and making sure I remember and am familiar with them. This generally takes about 10 minutes or less. Then I start by writing the the new kanji using the green book and getting the stroke pattern correct. Then I read over the mnemonic and look at any previous kanji or radical the explanation mentions. I really try to grasp the mnemonic in my head, and try to "visualize" the story. I repeat this for the 4 new kanji I am learning that day. This usually takes about 15 - 20 minutes. After this, I take the important vocabulary provided in the book and add that into an Anki deck and study the words. I never learn more than 6-7 words a day, so 6-7 vocab + 4 kanji is enough for me per day, as I also study Genki vocab and grammar. I generally spend about 45 minutes on Kanji each day, and never exceed an hour. I feel that this has helped prevent burnout.Anki is your best friend. There are a few anki decks available for this course, just use that if you are too lazy to make your own deck. Japanese is not an easy language to learn, and Kanji is the area where most learners give up due to the sheer number. As long as you are in it for the long haul, this book will work for you. It's not quick, it does not promise you things other courses do, but it will work if you are determined.Pros :- Mnemonics that work. The stories that the author provides for each of the Kanji are amazing and really help with memorizing and recalling the Kanji. It's strange how well this method works.- Order of the Kanji is amazing. Kanji that look similar are grouped together. The author makes sure to introduce you to the components of each Kanji before introducing the compound kanji.- Provides useful vocabulary words and circles the important ones. I personally find this very useful, as I only study the important vocab as I will surely pick up other vocab "in the wild".- The graded readers are a huge help. Each of the graded readers only introduces kanji you've learned before , this has not only helped me review the kanji and vocab, but it has also helped me become better at reading Japanese.Cons :- If you are aiming for some tests such as JLPT or are looking to learn in a specific order, this book may not be for you. The goal of the book is to teach you all the useful kanji, in an order that gets you there in the quickest and most efficient manner.- Introduction in the books is quite long, and is very tedious. I just ignored it after a few pages and have found my own way of studying that works for me.Overall, if you are serious about studying Kanji and aren't in a rush to meet some arbitrary deadline or goal, this book is the best resource you will ever find. It will help you learn Kanji, vocab, and meanings. Pair this with a great grammar book such as Genki, Tobira, Tae Kim and as long as you are consistent, you will see progress!