Remembering the Katakana

I found the 3 hour approach very well indeed. I had been struggling for three years with the Japanese syllabry, only to accidentally find this book and finish in three hours. It uses a uniques approach that I have been trying to find for years. You'll find it unique, and wonder why no one knows about it. You may even want to start with the author's "Remembering the Hiragan" [ISBN# 0-87040-765-1] companion for the text. I've got both. Buy the Hiragana first because the Katana relies on the Hiragana text for its explanations. Both texts are done very well, small books that get straight to the point of helping you learn what you need, and not just memorizing tables of alphabets. Actually, you won't need to memorize any table for either of the books. It's simple, short, straight forward, and actually fun to use these two books

This book is organized by symbol complexity rather than alphabetically so that the student does not become frustrated or overwhelmed by beginning with too complicated of symbols. Students instead ease into the whole learning process and will, most likely, gain confidence after their very first self-test using REAL Japanese words made from the symbols they have learned. The author is fun, amusing, unique, imaginative, and above-all, CREATIVE with his mnemonics. He keeps them as simple as they can possibly be and if they can't be simplified, he suggests outrageously silly mnemonics that are almost impossibly to forget! All the learning comes from YOUR imagination rather than memorization. The author's lessons were so successful with me that even THREE YEARS after I learned Katakana from the book (with a touch-up review once a year and without reading katakana regularly at ALL), I was able to read - without even THINKING about it - the labels from a Japanese stuffed doll that someone brought to work! People were quite impressed with me and, to be honest, so was I with myself! This book is a DEFINITE keeper! Don't lend it out or you may NEVER get it back! :)

Actually, it is Heisig who deserves more of the praise for this book since he was the one who wrote Remembering the Hiragana, which this book is based on. In University, I had used that book, but this book was not available yet. I breezed through learning the hiragana, and stumbled with the katakana until this book was released. I recommend both books as the best way for English-speakers to master the syllabry in the shortest time (and with the best retention)

Helmut Morsbach is a Genius!! He has a new way of learning from an unconventional book. In the beginning he states that you can learn all of it in just 3 hours. A boastful statement but very true! An easy way to learn Katakana that was fun. Flipping through the book to go from one page to the next is the method he uses.