Impulsively bought a Kanji pictograph book (by Michael Rowley) while looking for Japanese novels to read, would it be of any use to me?

5 comments

1. Honestly, whatever book you find approachable to start. You can always add another one later if you find the first one isn’t doing it for you.

2. You just have to be reminded that this pictograph approach teach you how to memorize kanji but it’s not how the kanji were created in the first place.

3. Don’t learn kanji, learn words*. WaniKani is a great way to do it – they teach you kanji alongside related vocab. You can try the first 3 levels for free, and see if it’s for you. Here’s a vid that explains why I say “don’t learn kanji”: https://youtu.be/exkXaVYvb68

   If you’re gonna use a book, I’d recommend either Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course (KKLC) or Hendall. KKLC also has these excellent graded reading sets that are accessible from the beginning https://keystojapanese.com/klc-reader/

   In many ways, the KKLC + graded reader approach is probably ideal, since it has you reading accessible material (aka comprehensible input) from day 1

   I found the ordering in Hendall more interesting than KKLC, and it’s a bit more simplistic. They’ll both take you to the same place eventually.

   *Tho if you’re trying to learn writing specifically, then you’d have to learn kanji. I don’t recommend learning writing for now, unless you have a specific reason to.

4. Try the App Kanji Teacher. It‘s completely free and just a great way to get into Kanji.

5. I purchased that book when I started studying Japanese. At the time I didn’t find it particularly useful. But it might be great for some learners.

   In any case, the book is enjoyable and does a nice job highlighting how some people might start studying kanji. So try skimming through a few chapters and thinking about how one might imagine different characters.

   You will need different resources to move on to more deep kanji study.