Review of Read Japanese Today by Hans van der Veen

This little book introduces about 300 kanji and is fun to read. It gives origins if helpful to remember them, or gives other mnemonics if the origins wouldn't help. Those mnemonics are in general very plausible and I found them a great help in recognizing the kanji.

For example: the character for used in (English) 'name' was explained thus: In Chinese towns you had to shout your name when you wanted to enter the town at night. Therefore the character is composed of the character for 'mouth' and the character for 'evening'

The book does NOT teach you to write, but if you have to start on kanji it provides a very nice way to do so. Maybe it is not so 'scientific' as other methods, but at least it gave me the courage to start.

☆ See all reviews by Hans van der Veen.