Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji ─ The Innovative Method for Learning the 520 Most Essential Japanese Kanji Characters

Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji helps students recognize and remember the meanings and pronunciations of 520 essential kanji. This otherwise daunting task is made easier by the use of techniques based on the psychology of learning and memory. Key principles include the use of visual imagery, the visualization of short "stories," and a systematic building-block approach that shows how more complicated characters are constructed from more basic elements. A strategy for remembering the pronunciations of the characters is another way Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji differs from other kanji-learning guides.

Although Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji is a book for serious learners of Japanese, it can be used by anyone with an interest in Japanese characters, without any prior knowledge of Japanese. It can also be used alongside (or after, or even before) a course in the Japanese language.

Key features of this book:

• Unique drawings and stories enable the reader to create mental associations that stick in the brain and allow you to recall the meanings and sounds of the characters
  
• Sample sentences using common words and compounds expand your vocabulary by showing each kanji used in context
  
• Stroke-order diagrams show the correct way to write the character
  
• Chapter and cumulative review exercises help to reinforce what you've learned
  
• Bonus DVD includes stroke-order animations and pronunciations for all kanji, compounds and sample sentences

A practical guide with a clear, concise, and appealing layout, Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji gives you approximately 80 percent of the characters you will encounter in daily life, from newspapers to street signs.

Glen Nolan Grant is a translator of Japanese and also works for the Canadian post office. He has traveled extensively, visiting over 60 countries and learning to speak six languages. He became attracted to the Japanese writing system while living in Japan, and after hearing that many consider Japanese to be the most difficult written language in the world, he took on the challenge of finding a way to make learning it easier. Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji is the result of that challenge.