Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"?

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - Printable Version

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Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - zardoz - 2007-07-22

I believe this is a fairly new book, and as I was perusing it at the bookstore, I noticed a blurb on the dust jacket by Heisig himself, saying something positive about it (forget what exactly).

It's a monster of a book, about the size and weight of an unabridged dictionary, but more like RTK than anything I've seen. David uses a similar technique but is original all the same--he takes a kanji and replaces the first letter of the English keyword. For example [kanji for fire] becomes [kanji]ire. It all looks better than I can explain...take a look at the preview pages on the amazon site.

http://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Handbook-Tuttle-Language-Library/dp/0804837791

It's intriguing, though if I use this it might help or it might just confuse me if I'm using RTK concurrently. Anybody got this book?

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - aircawn - 2007-07-22

zardoz Wrote:It's intriguing, though if I use this it might help or it might just confuse me if I'm using RTK concurrently.

I had a quick look at the book, Amazon allowed you view the first couple of pages. I've got an idea of how it works, written mnemonics with clever rhymes and metre to make things stick, which may work better for those who consider themselves wordsmiths. It has a lot of potential but I wouldn't recommend using it and RTK at the same time. The methods are too different, even if they both use a menmonic scheme to help with memory.

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - wrightak - 2007-07-22

I've only just taken a brief look at this but for someone who believes in minimising the use of English in his Japanese learning, it makes me shudder.

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - sheetz - 2007-07-22

At JPod101 the author posted several samples of 'kanjihybrid' texts based on this method using software he's developing.

http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1319&highlight=kanji+handbook

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - _Qbe_ - 2007-07-22

A few months ago I asked my local Barnes & Noble to order this one, since I was at a standstill with RTK and floundering about for an alternative. I spent an hour or so looking at the book and knew without a doubt that it wasn't the alternative I wanted.

I wrote down a page full of notes, but my notebook is at work. I'll post some impressions tomorrow.

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - JHastings - 2011-02-09

wrightak Wrote:I've only just taken a brief look at this but for someone who believes in minimising the use of English in his Japanese learning, it makes me shudder.

Hi, just to say a big thank you Smile

I actually started with "The Kanji Handbook" but, though I spent a lot of time using it, I found it very hard to retain what I'd been studying. I came across this thread trying to find some tips online, from which I found out about RtK. I'm currently about 400 kanjis in. So, thank you for being my introduction to this wonderful site.

Any thoughts on Vee David's "The Kanji Handbook"? - ファブリス - 2011-02-09

That's some sweet thread reviving skills you got there, hehe. Welcome!