Heisig: Remembering the Kanji

Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters
People regard the Heisig method with either glowing praise or vitriolic scathing. Why? The converts (I'm one of them) know that the method works (but you have to put in the hours). I think the critics (a) haven't bothered to actually sit down and give the method a go (b) can't deal with the fact that using one's imaginative memory, however childish it may appear, works astoundingly well.

The critics' other usual comment is that the book doesn't teach the readings. Guess what? Neither does "Making Out in Japanese". Why not? Because that isn't the aim of the book ( RTK's subheading is "A complete course on how not to forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese characters").  Heisig has created a system, which if followed, will enable you to write all 2000 Joyo kanji from memory, and know what those kanji mean. (Remembering the Kanji Volume II systemises the learning of the readings.)

Heisig's approach involves breaking down the kanji into basic elements which he calls primitives  (the most common combinations of strokes) and assigning to each primitive an image.  In this way he creates a kind of alphabet or library of images. Then every kanji is allocated a keyword representing its basic meaning. Finally the student's task is to create a composite ideogram using the primitive meanings and the kanji key-word. This mental picture should be vivid and graphic - something which sticks in the mind - so the stranger the image the better.

For example, the primitive 口 is 'mouth'. The primitive 貝　is  'shellfish'. When you encounter the kanji 員 (keyword "employee") you notice it is composed of the primitives for mouth and shellfish. The image Heisig provides is off an office of employees walking around with shellfish clasped on their mouths so as to stop them idly chatting. The sheer weirdness of this image makes it hard to forget, so everytime you think of  the keyword "employee" - BAM! you recall  the strange office image and note that "employee" is composed of the elements "mouth" and "shellfish".

The method does take time - Heisig reckons working full time you can remember all 2000 in 4-6 weeks. Given that most people have jobs and could maybe only allocate 2 hours a day you are looking at 4-6 months. And though that is a heavy slog, the prize is that at the end you will be able to write all 2000 of the beasts. How many people do you know who can do that?

Comments

[Melissa Fedak]

I recommend this method, even though I didn't use this book. I just did it on my own with the materials I had

First I went through and gave meanings to all the standard radicals, sometimes the real meanings. Then, I went through a kanji book consecutively. For each kanji, I would use the meanings of the radicals it was made of and make up a story/image to arrive at the meaning of the full kanji. If there was a new element not in my radicals list, I'd make up a meaning for it and add it to my Master List of radicals (It almost always showed up again.)

I went through my book in sections by radical. Although this means you learn both common and obscure kanji at the same time, it comes in useful in strange places. (I was able to decipher the kanji for "cedar" on a sign so me and a friend stopped to see Japan's Largest Cedar.)

If two radicals are very similar-looking, I always made sure to make the meaning completely different so I could not mix them up. (For example, a box with a line down the middle is Binoculars for me but a box with two lines down the middle, I made the Eyes of God.)

What helped me a lot was drawing a picture of the meaning. I have a notebook full of kanji next to pictures combining all the meanings of the radicals. Sometimes, you come up with really strange or obscure pictures, but those are the memorable ones. Repetition is usually necessary, but it sticks in your head a lot deeper. Not to mention it's fun! I actually looked forward to free time in my schedule so I could make up new stories/images for kanji.

Even after just a couple months, my reading skills improved dramatically. And I can now glance for barely a moment at a complex/weird kanji and write it down in full without looking back. (Ah, Water that is Wrapped Around a Snake? Must be a Bubble.)