A Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese

by Florence & Emori Susumu Sakade

Learn how to read and write Japanese with this up-to-date and practical handbook the 1,850 most essential characters, the phonetic writing, easy-to-follow writing charts, useful definitions, everyday vocabulary, simplified readings and writing, and a full index.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Reference, Language, Japan, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Linguistics

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since it was first published in 1959, this book has taught the kanji to generations of Japanese learners and has seen frequent new printings and passed through successive editions. Those new editions (the 4th is out as I write this) have generally been released to match new Japanese government education standards for learning the kanji, so foreigners can learn the particular kanji, and in the particular order that Japanese pupils would.

But all you are getting here is a dry list of each of the 2136 kanji, the order in which it is written stroke by stroke, its readings (in romanization only, not kana), and three or so example Japanese words that use the kanji along with romanization and English translation. Once upon a time, students would have painstakingly written out flashcards from this material. Nowadays, however, there are many apps out there for smartphones and tablets that contain these kanji, often similarly tiered for students working towards e.g. the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), and which can teach you with highly effective spaced repetition algorithms.

Consequently, it's hard to recommend a purchase of A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese. Even those who obtain this book may find it gathering dust as soon as they discover a kanji reference for their particular smartphone or tablet device. Instead of this, I'd recommend shopping around for a graded Japanese reader, because while learning the kanji through rote memorization is one thing, feeling comfortable with them in practice requires exhaustive reading of texts where you encounter them in real use.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book while taking a Japanese class in college over 30 years ago.

This book is still relevant today.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in learning Japanese.

[Camy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great reference book for learning Kanji because most of the book demonstrates stroke order for the characters. The stroke order is in pen so it's pretty easy to follow.

The book is divided into:

--The 881 Essential Characters, each with stroke order, listed in an order determined by the Japanese Ministry of Education in relation to frequency of use and recommended for teaching in elementary schools. For example, characters 1-46 are for school grade 1, characters 47-151 are for school grade 2, etc.

--The 1850 General-Use Characters. These do not have stroke order, but the characters are listed according to number of strokes, which can be very helpful for looking up a character.

--Proposed changes of characters to be added, additional readings and simplified writings, and characters to be dropped (my edition is the 2nd revised edition, 56th printing, 1986).

--A Syllabary of katakana and hiragana, which shows the stroke order for katakana and hiragana characters, and sound changes and kana combinations in both kana and romaji.

--The Index of Readings, which is one of the most useful sections for me to be able to look up kanji.

It's not a book to learn Japanese, because in order to look up a character you need to already know the on-yomi or kin-yomi reading, or else be able to guess at the stroke number and search for the character in the 1850 General-Use Characters section where all the kanji is separated by stroke number. Either way, I've been able to find all the kanji I've come across in my Japanese studies and be able to find proper stroke order (or if it's only listed in the 1850 Characters section, to guess at it, which you can after you've written a bunch of kanji).

This book was given to me when I was in high school by one of my sparring partners (uke) at my aikido dojo, an adult (he must have been in his 20s or 30s) who knew I was studying Japanese. I've worn this book down so much that the pages are sticking together and the book jacket is torn. But this is a great book and incredibly useful now that I'm trying to relearn my Japanese.

There's an updated version (4th revised edition) with more Essential Characters and General-Use Characters, which I'm going to get so I can be more updated. But I'll always be grateful to this book for all my early Japanese studies.

[Nova · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book for intermediate Japanese learners who have learned their kanas, know some elementary spoken Japanese, and can already recognize a few kanji.

Having all of the joyo (general use) kanji in one place, makes this book an excellent resource for those trying to learn the Japanese written language to be able to read Japanese books or manga, and also for those aiming to take the Jlpts (Japanese Language Proficiency Tests) However, the book only gives the stroke order, basic meaning and two or three of the most common compounds for each kanji. It is a bit difficult to retain the more complicated kanji on this system so I recommend using other resources and drilling yourself by methods such as flash cards and writing practice.

I have used this book to memorize all of the grade one and grade two kanji (240 in all) so it is very useful. You'll just need additional resources to aid in retention, and for learning other facets of the Japanese language.

[Milissa Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Another amazing book by Tuttle at a price I can afford. As a single mom living under the poverty level, I need to be careful how I spend my money. I want value in need books that will supplement my girls' education and also useful to me as well. A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese is modern with "the most recent changes to the kanji list prescribed by the Japanese Ministry of Education." Learning each stroke of the 2,136 characters in the general use kanji set in the 1,009 essential characters are a breeze. It includes the full range of character readings and their English definitions. There are plenty of examples and "special codes to indicate the kanji required for the JLPT and AP exams." Learning kanji has never been so easy!

[Meltha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice explanations of stroke order. Now if I could just find the time to work on it.

[Melissa]

[Dec 2009]

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a hardback version of this somewhere.... But I am loving the electronic ePub version. Borrowed it from the library and now I'm intending to buy it. Soo easy to use and follow.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

My paperback copy gives an original publication date of 1959 with the revised being 1961.

[Fransiska · Rating 5 out of 5]

very helpful to learn and understanding kanji (Japanese).

[Cloay · Rating 3 out of 5]

- available in SG NLB 495.6 (Bt Merah)

[Hans Ollaiver]

Vit. Paperback. 21 cm.