a.k.a. the Yasuke! Japanese H.A.C.C.Keyboard
OK. Today I am releasing something really cool.
Category: Kanji Revolution
Viva La Revolution!
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Here you can learn about the people and projects changing the way Kanji (and Japanese) are learned.
This book is not guaranteed to make you pretty
It’s not your genie
But it WILL change the way you do Kanji. period.
But how?
“Kanji Anonymous”
A proposed decentralized club for learning Japanese that anyone can set up anywhere.
Mission: to fill the world with Japanese schools.
In this incomplete but initial starter post, JapanTree is proud to present – the fruit of six years of effort – the world’s first kanji system to adapt the Heisig Method for use in the classroom.
THIS IS BIG.
As I push on with the revolution and dig up and shed light on all the people and websites promoting kanji mnemonics I keep finding more and more youtubers showing how mnemonics have worked for them.
I found this video today and I thought it was a good personal experience about how he started using the Heisig method to transition into reading kanji.
The other day I found Kanshudo another e-learning site working on an adaptation of Heisig’s “Remembering The Kanji.”
The website is pretty amazing with a beginner and intermediate course, flashcards, quizzes, vocab, and of course Kanji breakdown by component and mnemonics.
Here’s an excerpt from their about page:
Kanshudo is the fastest and most enjoyable way to learn and remember the Japanese kanji. Whatever your level of kanji ability, Kanshudo can help you improve, with games such as Kanji Match, assessment tools such as the Kanji Quiz, and study aids such as lessons, flashcards and favorites.
Kanshudo is also an invaluable daily reference tool, with a variety of sophisticated ways to look up kanji.
If you are just getting started with Japanese or the kanji, you can find everything you need to know to make your studies a success in our article How to master the kanji.
It’s great to see more people working on systems that build on Heisig’s RTK method.
While there are a lot resources out there (a short list) there is still so much more potential!
It’s time to take learning by Kanji mnemonics farther!
Please get involved in the Kanji mnemonics revolution!!
If you’ve used mnemonics to learn kanji please contribute a short video to JapanTree’s “Kanji Mnemonics Work!” collaborative youtube playlist
Or support the revolution by making a donation to Benfii/JapanTree
Use systems like Kanshudo kanji mnemonics and give encouragement and feedback
The revolution needs you
So the other day I found this high quality and thorough review of Heisig’s “Remembering The Kanji”
JapaneseReader.com – Remembering the Kanji, volume 1, by James W Heisig
I particularly liked:
I would love to see someone completely rework this system, and perhaps choose better keywords, and address some of the other problems I mentioned above. However, it still remains at this time, the most effective system for quickly gaining a solid repertoire of characters, and at the end of it, you really can read Japanese much more effectively. You obviously can’t read without effort and further study, but the difference in ability is well worth the 2 to 4 months you will have spent in study with RTK.
I too would love one day for the resources that different people have under development to improve Heisig’s RTK.
There are so many resources out there (a very short list) but its still a far cry from what I would love it to be.
RTK has been around for decades but besides some SRS systems few have really taken learning by Kanji mnemonics any farther.
And the few who have are mostly obscure. Sad.
There is a revolution taking place in the way people learn – AND (if I’m successful) teach – Kanji!
The methods are faster, smarter, …. lazier
My goal is
to merge mnemonics and context
to use neuroscience and tadoku
to push these kanji methods into the classroom
And to shine light on all of the projects and rebels making the revolution possible…