The best intro I know -- and can imagine -- is Read Japanese Today! by Len Walsh. The author takes you from one kanji to another similar one to another, building new ones and using them for still other new ones.
For example, once you learn 木 (tree -- you can see it, right?), you can get 林 (the name "Hayashi"; woods) and 森 (forest). Emphasize the bottom and you get root: 本. Add a human figure and you can have 休 (rest or vacation -- someone leaning against a tree?) and 体 (body -- the root of a person, perhaps).
For all of me, getting a story to explain the kanji is the only easy way to remember it.
Walsh only gets about the first 400 kanji, though. 400 down, 1600 to go... who'll help you remember the rest?
There are two main sources I know. One is Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig. Many on the reddit subgroup LearnJapanese seem to be enthusiastic for it. It provides fanciful stories that help you remember kanji. For example, it associates 寸 ("sun," a unit of measurement) with "adhere," which it doesn't really mean, so you can tell yourself stories about kanji that contain it, for example, 付, person + adhere, to mean "glue." OK, it's often a stretch, no matter who's explaining it.
But to me, it's sometimes needlessly a stretch. For example, Heisig lists 体 (body, as above) as 亻person + 本 book, OK, 本 does mean both root (as above) and book (the root of learning?), but... person + book → body? Huh? (At this point he's throwing large numbers of kanji at you at once, no longer talking you through the connections. The point is speed, I think -- but I fear getting confused with "huh?"-inducing explanations.)
The other source I know is A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters by Kenneth Henshall. For him, as with Walsh above, person + root -> body. Each kanji has his best attempt to explain it historically, followed by his suggestion as to how to remember it. Admittedly often his explanations are as fanciful as Heisig's, but at least we give it a good try.
One drawback to Henshall is that he orders his kanji by elementary school grade level rather than by themes like 木 or 寸 or whatever. So I find myself skipping around to get similar characters to learn together. Edit 5/30: This is why I find myself using Kanji Portraits to get clumps of kanji to learn, and use Henshall if a) Kanji Portraits's stories aren't mnemonic enough; b) when Kanji Portrait doesn't cover a character; and c) when I want to finish up with a particular grade level. More on this in a later post.
I'm still cooking along pretty well I think; I've got nearly 1/3 of the full 2000 done. But I use more than just a textbook. That's for next time.
But to me, it's sometimes needlessly a stretch. For example, Heisig lists 体 (body, as above) as 亻person + 本 book, OK, 本 does mean both root (as above) and book (the root of learning?), but... person + book → body? Huh? (At this point he's throwing large numbers of kanji at you at once, no longer talking you through the connections. The point is speed, I think -- but I fear getting confused with "huh?"-inducing explanations.)
One drawback to Henshall is that he orders his kanji by elementary school grade level rather than by themes like 木 or 寸 or whatever. So I find myself skipping around to get similar characters to learn together. Edit 5/30: This is why I find myself using Kanji Portraits to get clumps of kanji to learn, and use Henshall if a) Kanji Portraits's stories aren't mnemonic enough; b) when Kanji Portrait doesn't cover a character; and c) when I want to finish up with a particular grade level. More on this in a later post.
I'm still cooking along pretty well I think; I've got nearly 1/3 of the full 2000 done. But I use more than just a textbook. That's for next time.
Etimologically, 体 is not 人 + 本 since it's a graphic simplification of 體
ReplyDeleteYou're right, of course. But there's no way I'm getting into the distinctions and progressions between oracle bone style, bronzeware style, ten/seal, kyuji, and shinji, in something for raw beginners (like me).
ReplyDeleteOther raw beginners, if you're curious, an explanation of Anonymous's comment is at https://kanjiportraits.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/the-kanji-%E6%9C%A8%E4%BC%91%E6%9C%AC%E4%BD%93%E6%9C%AB%E6%8A%B9%E6%9C%B1%E6%A0%AA-%E3%81%8D%E3%81%B8%E3%82%931/ -- yes, cut-and-paste that into your browser's URL field -- as item 4.