250 Essential Kanji Volume 1: For Everyday Use

Thank you for the offer of the product and I work on it all way through.

This book teaches precisely that which it purports, everyday kanji. When recently preparing for a holiday in Japan I realised that knowing at least a little kanji would be a boon. This book teaches the kanji you are likely to encounter day-to-day in Japan. The usage examples given often help you learn how to read common signage or place names. There was not a character that I learned from this book that I did not encounter in my short time in Japan. I highly recommend it to anyone who already knows kana and is planning to visit Japan.

This series of two volumes contends with "Basic Kanji Book vols 1 & 2" as perhaps the best introduction to kanji. Both series introduce 500 high frequency kanji and associated vocabulary. If you are in Japan or will be there soon then this one may be more useful as it has a greater emphasis on practical vocabulary (signs, menus etc). The down side is that it doesn't present the kanji in as logical an order as does "Basic kanji book". Consequently, I think that for people who can take a longer term view then "Basic kanji book" might be better. It also has a greater number and more challenging exercises than "250 essential kanji". The bottom line - both are great- just pick the one best suited to your immediate needs.

I picked up 250 Essential Kanji For Everyday Use, simply because compared to my other choices for books to study Kanji w/, this one looked the most interesting. I am so glad I did. I was surprised how quickly I grasped the kanji. I still recognise a good many on site, including the compounds, even though I do not come across Japanese regularly. This book is not intended to teach the Japanese language, it is not for grammer and syntax. While it did help me w/ vocabulary, it is for learning the written language w/ a basic understanding of the spoken. While there was no specific place to practice the strokes outside of the quizzes, I found the extra squares left over from the book showing the stroke order worked well enough. Not to mention a separate notebook. Not everybody's going to be happy w/ this book, that's just the way the world is, what works for one, doesn't for someone else, but this is one of my favorite books.

As the negative review on this site points out, this book is not a complete Japanese course. In effect, it assumes that you are studying (or already know) first year Japanese, but as a guide for learning Kanji, it is exceptional. Unlike other kanji texts I have seen, it has many and varied drills along with profuse and useful material for seeing the kanji in real-life situations, including many photos or mock-ups of street signs, calendars, meishi, etc. Understanding is also promoted by the useful choice of kanji motivated by a well thought-out and coherent order. Although the book gives "understanding the kanji" explanations with illustrations for every kanji, it is often easier to ignore the more abstract ones. For example, the explanation for the "day of the week" kanji is "combines sun, wings, and fat bird. The sun flying on a bird's wings suggests a day of the week." Admittedly, the explanations of the more concrete versions are better, but I didn't really find them very useful. If you like that kind of thing, supplement with Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji," which has more useful mnemonics (but doesn't have any exercises or vocabulary). The bottom line is that this book is far more than a list of kanji and vocabulary. It is a complete and well thought-out system for learning kanji as a whole.