James W. Heisig

Impressively effective teaching of the hiragana. I liked the author's memorization techniques, which involve creating mental pictures that reference both the shape and the sound of the hiragana. About half of his mental pictures didn't click for me so I ended up creating my own, and this worked out just fine because I was still using his technique.

One thing to note is the claim of teaching oneself the hiragana in 3 hours. I followed the time instructions, and I truly did learn the hiragana show more in about 3 hours, spread out over a couple days. However, I also practiced off the clock, and since completing the book I have practiced a lot to keep the information imprinted in my memory. I think that this is key: the book will teach you the hiragana in 3 hours, but to truly know it you will need to practice practice practice. show less

When I first moved to Japan I really struggled with learning the kana until someone recommended this book (and the companion katakana one). Amazingly I really did learn the hiragana in less than 3 hours, and it stuck really well. That was all over 20 years ago. I've not studied Japanese for years, but had a sudden urge to give myself a refresher course. Its simple, split into 6 lessons which should each take less than 30 minutes to complete, and it really works.

A compelling idea which, ultimately, was not as helpful as I'd hoped. Heisig's technique is to help you associate mental images with the components of a character. I found I couldn't achieve fluid reading, because I'd have to go through the process of analyzing the character and remembering the associations, rather than going directly to recognition. I found if I simply memorized the characters in the more conventional fashion of standard textbooks, I could read more fluently.

Uno de los mejores libros que han pasado por mis manos en mi época de japonés autodidacta. Usa el método mnemotécnico de la memoria imaginativa, siguiendo un orden específico para aprender el silabario.

A mi me resultó realmente útil y ameno.