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Kanji Pict-o-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics
by
Japanese written characters, or kanji, have their origin in a picture-language developed in ancient China. Over time this language evolved into stylized abstract forms that are hard to memorize. In Kanji Pict-o-Graphix, Michael Rowley offers a whole new set of contemporary visual and textual memory aids—mnemonics—that reveal the meanings of over 1,000 Japanese kanji. Fully
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Paperback, 216 pages
Published
July 1st 1998
by Stone Bridge Press
(first published June 1st 1992)
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Start your review of Kanji Pict-o-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics
See, this book is much better than the Kanji Starter books. For one, the pictures for the most part remain true to their meaning and do not venture off into more abstract areas to explain the kanji. If a kanji is made of dog and man, the picture will be of a dog and a man and have a little phrase or sentence explaining the meaning. Another reason this is better than the Kanji Starters is that it gives both the kun and the on readings while KS gives only the kun and then later expects you to know
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This is an excellent aid in the memorization of kanji characters. Each kanji in the book is grouped by subject rather than by dictionary order, making it easy for beginners to find the kanji they're looking for. The illustrations are helpful in giving an mnemonic device to better memorize it, and each kanji is also broken down into radicals, making it easier to see its composition.
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Sep 08, 2008
Kevin
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Japanese Language Students
Shelves:
japanese
This is a great book for building a pictoral-memory oriented base of review for Kanji.
For those who are skilled in drawing or copying drawings from books, or even those good with computer copy and pasting, this book is great to use as a guide for home made Flash Cards!
It's not complete, but is an excellent starter for those just learning Kanji. ...more
For those who are skilled in drawing or copying drawings from books, or even those good with computer copy and pasting, this book is great to use as a guide for home made Flash Cards!
It's not complete, but is an excellent starter for those just learning Kanji. ...more
This book is AWESOME and made me start liking kanjis as I could find the individual meanings of the complex kanjis and it made it so easy to remember. I definitely recommend this book to anyone studying Japanese kanjis.
Excellent book on Kanji and a glimpse into Japanese culture.
Makes Japanese people laugh hysterically. But quite effective.
Although the back cover boasts that this book can help you "Learn Kanji through Pictures", I would say that, on its own, Kanji Pict-O-Graphix cannot do that. There are only around 1000 kanji in the book, which is a lot less than the reccomended 2000 Jōyō kanji. The method of using radicals (the seperate components that form the kanji) and pictures to help you memorise a kanji can sometimes aid in helping you recognise the Kanji when you see it, however it does not teach you how to draw them, and
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While this book is supposed to teach you ways to actually remember the many complex and varied Kanji, I found that in my case it works better as a reference. I continually remembered the image on the page more than the definition, so I could just flip thru the book and find the kanji I was looking for really easily – a lot easier than with a traditional kanji dictionary.
Mnemonics tend to not work with me because I dedicate brain cells to remembering the mnemonic as is instead of what it’s suppo ...more
Mnemonics tend to not work with me because I dedicate brain cells to remembering the mnemonic as is instead of what it’s suppo ...more
Jul 05, 2009
Natalie
is currently reading it
This book and I will be together a long time. Kind of chaotic, but I find that the pictographic reference is easier for me as a visual artist to learn from than the obtusely verbal "Remembering the Kanji" series by Heisig. It's going to take me forever to get my Japanese up to the level of your typical high school student, much less PhD.
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Ohhhh, this book is cool. Just go look at it.
Wonderful.
Meraviglioso.
Meraviglioso.
Awesome way to learn the kanji!! <3 it!
Me encanta... Muy fácil de estimular mi memoria y aprenderme los Kanji más fácilmente
AWESOME!
its a tough book but interesting. Decent tool to learn kanji.
Drawings are very imaginative. If we can monitor the excelent drawing performance of the author with a book of verbs and a kanji dictionary we would have more advantage. It helps to remember some important kanji, but it is far from an etymologics based study. This was lacking in my reading. I think a dictionary builds on the acquisition of kanji (summarizing radicals, pronunciations and meanings) - would be more appropriate. But this experience was rewarding and worth as a good start.
素敵です！
Книга про японську ієрогліфічну писемність для візуалів-відчайдухів.
Книга про японську ієрогліфічну писемність для візуалів-відчайдухів.
Jul 08, 2008
Santosh
added it
read
Curioso, inventivo; excelente. Sólo para aprendices de la lengua japonesa.
Jan 13, 2009
Nomeeqa2009
added it
jjjj
tl;dr For serious learners, use WaniKani. For others who are curious, could be worth a glance.
Not tl;dr:
Keep in mind, this review is coming from someone who uses WaniKani, so I might be.../very/ biased, haha.
I've had this book sitting around for years, and only occasionally glanced through it. It wasn't until just now, as I was cleaning out my bookshelf that I decided to see if it was worth keeping or to donate. The short of it is: I'll be donating it.
For an absolute beginner, I can see this boo ...more
Not tl;dr:
Keep in mind, this review is coming from someone who uses WaniKani, so I might be.../very/ biased, haha.
I've had this book sitting around for years, and only occasionally glanced through it. It wasn't until just now, as I was cleaning out my bookshelf that I decided to see if it was worth keeping or to donate. The short of it is: I'll be donating it.
For an absolute beginner, I can see this boo ...more
Couldn't have learned kanji without it! I recommend it to all Japanese language students.
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When you are trying to learn Japanese, the easy part is to learn the hiragana and katakana (two sets of forty-six syllables and their variants). The kanji (complex symbols that evolved from Chinese pictograms), however, are much harder to memorize (and I am not talking about drawing them properly, but simply to recognize them from one another!). They say that you need a minimum of 2000 kanji in your “vocabulary” in order to be able to read the Japanese newspaper! Obviously, you need good tricks
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I purchased this book as a sort of visual mnemonic to learn kanji, but if you are seriously studying the language, it probably isn't as helpful as it could be. It doesn't have any stroke order information so that you could draw the characters yourself. There is no better way to learn kanji than to write it. I also felt a lot of the images were stretches. I would never remember some of them. I didn't retain a lot from using this book, but perhaps it would make an interesting coffee table referenc
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kadang nampak maksa tapi memudahkan mengingat karakter visual aksara kanji dengan memiripkannya denga benda sehari-hari.
seperti aksara 川 yang artinya "sungai" diterangkan dengan menggambarkannya sebagai tiga garis aliran air. demikian pula aksara 止 yang artinya berhenti diterangkan dengan gambar pak polisi sedang menghentikan jalan di depannya (ini dijadikan gambar sampul buku ini).
begitulah kamus visual ini disusun untuk proses belajar yang mrnyengkan! ...more
seperti aksara 川 yang artinya "sungai" diterangkan dengan menggambarkannya sebagai tiga garis aliran air. demikian pula aksara 止 yang artinya berhenti diterangkan dengan gambar pak polisi sedang menghentikan jalan di depannya (ini dijadikan gambar sampul buku ini).
begitulah kamus visual ini disusun untuk proses belajar yang mrnyengkan! ...more
it not bad, not sure it the pictures really makes them easier to remember or not but the characters where nicely organized and explained. i liked that they explain radicals as well as the complete kanji. the only thing i missed was the use of the kanji in a sentence or examples of words that where written with the kanjis. a good book to start out with
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If you're interested in the beauty and meaning of Japanese kanji, please add me as contact.
While living in Japan, I wrote two illustrated books, ‘Kanji Pictographix’ and ‘Kana Pictographix.’ Returning to the States, I taught information design at Art Center and digital imaging at The American Film Institute.
CreativeKi.com is my design studio for the design books, mobile apps, wine labels and packa ...more
While living in Japan, I wrote two illustrated books, ‘Kanji Pictographix’ and ‘Kana Pictographix.’ Returning to the States, I taught information design at Art Center and digital imaging at The American Film Institute.
CreativeKi.com is my design studio for the design books, mobile apps, wine labels and packa ...more
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