I have been learning Japanese for roughly 5 years. For the last three years, I have been seriously dedicating my time to this beautiful language and also searching for the best methods to learn. One of my favorite aspects about this language is the Kanjis! I want to be able to read Japanese literature (and of course the fantastic horror books) and to achieve this huge goal I need to learn vocabulary and as much Kanji as possible. Therefore, I tried different resources (I will make a blog post about other resources as well), some of which were effective while others were a waste of time. And all of this time I have been avoiding ''Remembering the Kanji'' by James Heisig, while many Japanese language learners have been recommending this book. Some might even call it the Kanji Bible. Yet, I was convinced that it would not work for me. Why? you might ask. Well, because I did not believe that it would be effective to dedicate so much time towards learning how to write the kanjis and their ''basic meaning'', without learning the readings. However, recently I caved and bought the damn book (primarily because I love buying books, but also because I was curious). And here is my honest review :)
Right now, I am in the middle of lesson 4 (the book contains 56 lessons), so it is still early in the game, but I already have some things to say. First of all, I was really hyped after reading the introduction of the book. I think it is always nice when the author shares his personal language learning journey (in this case, specifically for Japanese) and also explains how he came up with the idea of writing his book/method. James Heisig's personal journey is pretty convincing for his acclaimed method because it just sounds logical and easy. The introduction also provided a guideline for the book and I decided to follow it to get the most out of his method.
I think the Heisig method works because it is simple and easy to follow, yet it does rely on hard work and a long amount of time ( write write write! and make stories :) ). But, I think you cannot learn kanjis without those two aspects. So what does make his method special? I think that it is his persuasion in bringing the learners further than just recognizing and reading the kanjis. For a long time, I thought that being able to read in Japanese would be challenging enough and that writing would be almost impossible. However, after a couple of lessons from this book, I realized that writing these kanjis should be possible as well due to muscle memory.
End verdict: I recommend it! I will post more blogs about my kanji learning progress in the future, so keep an eye out for them. And I think that Heisig's book will be my main learning resource for now, together with Kanji Garden and lots of reading :)
Tips and tricks for using this book:
Do not skip the introduction! I do not say this often, but this introduction does matter! Heisig explains the book's rules and why it is so important to follow them. After reading the introduction is was almost convinced in his method, then the book did the rest.
If you still want to skip the introduction, then at least follow these rules;
Start from lesson 1 and use the book in its chronological order. Even if you know the first kanjis, still start with lesson 1.
Read the small text of each kanji and try to imagine the story in your mind.
Before continuing to the next kanji, write the kanji down in your notebook (or just on a separate piece of paper, whatever you prefer) with its basic meaning and some keywords for the story/ the primitives of which the kanji consists. Then write the kanji multiple times, you can decide how many times you need to do it and this may differ with every kanji. The ones you already know, you can write fewer times, but it is still important to write them out. This book is effective precisely because it teaches you how to write and makes you remember through muscle memory!
Do not stress about remembering the meanings of the primitives, you will see them very often, and eventually, the meanings will be stuck in your head. Just write it down once and keep on going, and spend more time on the kanjis.
It is important to stick to the basic meaning of the kanji, even if it's vague ( otherwise you might crash the learning system), however, you can still add your personal words/meanings or even better...stories!
My personal tip: annotate the book! Try to make the kanji personal for you, especially the more difficult ones. Revisit complex kanjis multiple times and try to develop your own story if the provided story does not work for you. Eventually, you have to do it later on in the book as well, because when you progress in the lessons, the stories will disappear and only the primitive components will be left.