There's no reason to buy or use Kanji in Context at this point. I used it a few years ago, but I really wished I had used the Core2k/6k decks instead. The example sentences in KiC are far too obtuse, long, and ironically, lacking in context. I also found the a lot of the example vocabulary used to be too obscure, and way too heavily biased towards politics/economics.

I've actually used the KanKen Step books as well, and I found them to be very good. The only problem some learners might have with them is that they're kind of slow to work through since they're designed to be worked through at the rate of about 1 per year for Japanese school children. You could work through them at a pace of about one every 2 months, but I worry about retention at that speed.

To give you an idea, Core6k will give you a good overview of pretty much all the Jyouyou kanji. That's ~6,000 sentences to learn vocab/readings for ~2,100 kanji. To cover all that material in the KanKen Step books is about ~20,000 sentences/flashcards for ~2,100 kanji. I know that because I've personally typed flashcards for the KanKen step books from 5級～2級, and have estimated from 10級～6級 based on looking at them at the bookstore.

Now there's a lot of really useful vocabulary in those books, but not all of it is stuff that's necessary for intermediate level. A lot of it can be learned more easily later on at advanced level.

I really like the KanKen step books, but for efficiency's sake and your own sanity I think you should consider doing a more abridged overview first, and then going through the KanKen Step books if you feel yourself wanting more detail or wanting to take KanKen.

Core2k/Core6k also have the benefit of being free, and users here have done really great projects with them like optimizing the sentence order so that the sentences build on each other very very efficiently as you go.

Here's a link where you can get the optimized version:
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=11655&p=1

Last edited by erlog (2013 September 01, 9:30 pm)

Yeah from what I understand Kanji in Context is more suited for intermediate learners.  Start wth the Kanji Odyssey 2001 or the Core series.  The KO2001 is kind of laid out like Kanji in Context is so you may like it.  I think there was an anki deck for it floating around here sometime back. 

This is the first time I have heard about the Kanken step books so I may look into it.  I was under the impression that once you finish one of these established programs like Core, KO2001, etc., you should go on and add vocabulary from real material.  I finished Core 10,000 about three months ago and since then started to read a lot of light novels.  I added vocabulary via rikaisama and Yomichan and amassed an additional 5,000 words.  I just started to go through them now. I imagine if you read more advanced books you can do the same.  Isn't this the proper way to proceed or is it still worth while to add supplementary vocabulary from learning materials at this point?

erlog wrote:

It depends on the direction you want to take, and how convenient it is for you. I studied for KanKen because I live in Japan, it's convenient for me to take, I like kanji, and I want to pad my resume. If I actually wanted to improve my Japanese I probably should have spent more time writing and more time reading from native sources.

I really wouldn't recommend the KanKen Step books to everyone, but they're pretty solid overall.

Also, I disagree that KiC and Kanji Odyssey/Core are serving different audiences. All 3 are serving people who want exposure to kanji vocabulary in the context of sentences. After doing Odyssey/Core, I think there's not much point in using Kanji in Context because you can just jump to native sources very easily from there.

KiC is no longer very useful now that better textbooks/methods are available. People suggested it before because it was one of the only truly comprehensive textbooks available at that time.

Yes,  I think you are right about KIC.  It is probably better to jump to native sources after you finish Core/KO2001.  If you are doing Core 6000, you can also do the additional words up to 10000 if you want to.

The Kanken stuff intrigues me though.  I live in the USA so I can't take the examines but I think I'd like to take a look at one of those books.  I can also try that Nintendo DS game also. Do you think studying the material so that you gain a better understanding of Japanese is worth it if you don't plan on taking the exams?  Or is it just a resume filler?

I will agree with erlog that I used KiC in 2001-2002, and so it's very possible that there are newer methods better than that.  If you already have the book and think it looks useful, I would use it, but you may want to investigate some of the other things people mention.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions everyone. I've decided that I will just go with Kanji in Context after all. I know that there are many free resources online, but I just don't feel as comfortable and productive learning from a computer screen than with a book. I kind of realized this after trying anki and taking a look at Kanji Odyssey. I prefer to have the text laid out in front of me where I can write in it than going through it one by one on a screen. What erlog said about Kanken makes sense to me though, so what I'm going to do is finish Kanji in Context and then go through one more pass with the Kanken books.

Last edited by Zephys (2013 September 02, 7:02 pm)