Kanji Pict-O-Graphix: Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics
1 ) The cover and titly imply that the book is all about learning kanji , but actually the first few pages are dedicated to visuals and mnemonics for memorizing hiragana and katakana . Only then does the book move on to the kanji .
2 ) The kanji are organized in chapters with wide themes ( respectively : world , food , animals , people , body , spirit , power , learn , tools , places , journey ) . These chapters are in turn divided up into mini-themes dealing with each chapter ( for example , different animals and ideas associated with them ) . This helped me a lot in mentally organizing kanji and their meanings .
3 ) Each kanji entry contains a reference number that corresponds to the numbers printed in the upper corner of each page ( i.e . each page will show kanji #1 - 7 ) . This is helpful for when you're flipping through . If you prefer , you can also look up the kanji by this number in the index , which is organized by reference number and pronunciation .
4 ) Each entry contains the English meaning , and each kanji character is printed in a clean typeset font for easier memorization . Also included are the Chinese and Japanese readings and a visual mnemonic as well as a textual mnemonic ( a play on words to go with the drawing , which itself resembles the kanji ) .
Cons :
1 ) This book is only for learning how to read , not write . No stroke order is given for hiragana , katakana , or kanji .
2 ) Since there are only 46 letters each for the hiragana and katakana , those are all covered in the opening pages . However , only 1225 kanji are listed here . This is a little more than the kanji mastered by Japanese children in elementary school and , I've been told , is sufficient to be able to understand most of a newspaper . However , the Japanese Ministry of Education has identified about 2000 basic kanji , so you'll probably need to continue studying beyond this book .
Frankly , these cons don't bother me . This book is doing for me what it set out to do : help me memorize kanji . I am hopeless with flash cards so this was a very welcome respite . If I were to judge this book as a book for learning kanji , it would get a much lower mark , as it doesn't teach you how to write . As a memorization tool , it is excellent and deserves five stars .
In sum , great book , but it should just be a supplement to your learning arsenal .
Other beginner learning materials that I have found helpful include :
Ultimate Japanese Beginner-Intermediate ( Book ) ( LL ( R ) Ultimate Basic-Intermed )
- Get the set that includes CDs with the book .
Japanese the Manga Way : An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure
- Fun and informative way to learn grammar in an informal context . In other words , you're learning Japanese as it's actually spoken and written , a nice change from the elevated formal speech I've found in every language textbook I've ever used . I kept borrowing this so much from my library that I ended up buying a copy . Only downside is it doesn't include lessons . If it had been more like a workbook , it would have been perfect .
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
- This is the kanji resource you've been looking for . Wonderfully organized , very useful , small , AND it includes stroke order for each kanji . Buy it on Amazon ; I've found it in local bookstores and they seriously mark the price up .
001 4 . . . it's just not an effective way to learn kanji . In this book each kanji has a little picture associated with it , which may be helpful if you're curious about what a kanji looks like , but if you're trying to learn kanji efficiently and hope to retain what you learn I don't find this book very useful .
One problem with it is it can't help you with much else besides recognition , looking at a kanji and knowing what it is . If you're trying to use this book to learn kanji , then the basic steps you'd follow would be : 1 ) look at the kanji , 2 ) what picture does the kanji look like , 3 ) what is the meaning based upon this picture . First of all , there are a lot of kanji which look very similar , so it may be difficult to keep them straight if you're trying to remember what a kanji looks like . So even recognition itself is difficult . Second , even if you do remember correctly what it looks like , you may have trouble then recalling what the meaning of that kanji is , since sometimes that meaning is very abstract , or you could incorrectly come up with alternate meanings .
Another major problem is that it doesn't do much good if you want to recall how to write a kanji given it's meaning . If you recall what the picture is given the meaning , it doesn't mean you'll necessarily write it correctly .
Instead of this book I'd highly recommend Heisig's Remembering the Kanji . The sole purpose of his book is to learn how to remember the meaning and writing of kanji ; there's no japanese whatsoever in it . But it turns out this is a really effective method . His guide is really just a set of mnemonics , or memory tricks essentially , to help you remember the kanji . He introduces rougly 2000 kanji to you , and in an order which facilitates you learning all of them . Instead of associating a picture with each kanji , you associate a little story , and from the story you can remember how to write it . You'll need to know that many kanji eventually anyways , so you may as well learn all their meanings right away . I was skeptical at first , but once I started trying it I was learning kanji at an amazing pace . In the first week alone I memorized the meaning of 300 kanji ( I spent a lot of time studying though , it just shows that it's possible ) . I'd also recommend using an computer flashcard program , one that allows you to write your own flashcards and test yourself on your computer ( I used a good one called VTrain ) . It's much more convenient this way than writing them on index cards . 2000 sounds like a lot of kanji , but you'd be surprised at how fast you can learn them if you're diligent . I found that it was much easier to learn the readings of the kanji once I already knew all the readings . Trying to learn both at once will really slow you down . Plus knowing the meaning of the kanji is the most important part . Even if I don't recognize a word , I can usually get it's general meaning based upon what the kanji means . If you're still skeptical , consider how many years it takes Japanese children to learn all the kanji , and these are kids that already speak Japanese fluently . You can't expect to learn kanji the same way they do and learn it much quicker than them .
008 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
This book presents approximately 1,000 kanji characters , along with mnemonics designed to help you memorize the meanings . For example , on the cover , the book suggests that the character for stop looks like a policeman saying stop !
It's a good idea , but the bottom line is that most of the entries just are not that good . For example , the character for horse really looks like a horse . You shouldn't need any help noticing that . The book twists the character into a different , and much less plausible , horse .
Try Essential Kanji : 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference instead . It is much more useful .
009 4 This book presents approximately 1,000 kanji characters , along with mnemonics designed to help you memorize the meanings . For example , on the cover , the book suggests that the character for stop looks like a policeman saying stop !
It's a good idea , but the bottom line is that most of the entries just are not that good . For example , the character for horse really looks like a horse . You shouldn't need any help noticing that . The book twists the character into a different , and much less plausible , horse .
Try Essential Kanji : 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference instead . It is much more useful .
019 4 If you really want to get a handle on Japanese reading and writing , you're going to want to tackle at least the 1,945 Joyo Kanji ( with the 1,006 essential characters and the other 939 general use characters ) . That might take awhile . . . While starting off with a book like Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese : Third Edition by Kenneth Henshall and getting a kanji dictionary is a good starting point , they probably won't help you actually retain the kanji very much or make visual connections .
Understanding radicals is an important part of learning kanji . For instance , one common component of kanji means sun , another means moon . These two components together make the kanji for clear or bright ' . Knowing these radicals definitely improves comprehension of how kanji are constructed and what their meanings are . However , there are so many kanji to remember ! Relying on the radicals alone isn't usually enough to recall the meanings some of the more complex kanji . That's where this book comes in .
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix contains mnemonic , visual aids for all of the hiragana , katakana , and 1,225 of the kanji . Mnemonic is just a fancy way of saying mental memory aid ; you probably have used such implements when you make flash cards , or try to use a made-up name ( like Roy G . Biv for remembering the colors of the rainbow : Red , Orange , Yellow , Green , Blue , Indigo , and Violet ) in order to remember facts . Many of the pictures in this book draw their inspiration from the radicals ; some take more artistic liberties to convey the actual meaning of the kanji . The type of art used in Michael Rowley's drawings are an interesting , black and white blocky style . The pictures look very modern , with clean lines and shadows in all of them . The hiragana and katakana's drawings are based off of their shape and their sound . For example , the drawing for the katakana te is of a telephone pole ( emphasis on the sound at the beginning of the word ) . After the kana , the kanji are sorted into 11 chapters : World , Food , Animals , People , Body , Spirit , Power , Learn , Tools , Places , and Journey . Each of these chapters contains subsections ; Chapter 1 : World has divisions relating to topics such as the sun , moon , the day , time , weather , elements , landforms , etc . Every kanji entry is accompanied with a meaning , reference number , the kanji itself , the mnemonic picture , a sentence helping to explain the meaning , and and what radicals are contained in the kanji . An index of kanji sorted by pronunciation appears in the back .
Aside from being a helpful kanji-learning tool , this book is simply interesting to look at . Even for someone not intending to master the kanji , this would be an excellent book for anyone fond of art and / or Japanese culture .
024 4 As a background , I have already tried a few different books as an independent learner . I was told that I could get away with learning the language without learning the writing systems , but that seemed like a cop out . And in any case , it seemed silly to ignore reading and writing , since that forms such a vital part of communication .
This book's premise is so brilliant that I'm surprised it hasn't been done before and I'm glad I found it .
Pros :
1 ) The cover and titly imply that the book is all about learning kanji , but actually the first few pages are dedicated to visuals and mnemonics for memorizing hiragana and katakana . Only then does the book move on to the kanji .
2 ) The kanji are organized in chapters with wide themes ( respectively : world , food , animals , people , body , spirit , power , learn , tools , places , journey ) . These chapters are in turn divided up into mini-themes dealing with each chapter ( for example , different animals and ideas associated with them ) . This helped me a lot in mentally organizing kanji and their meanings .
3 ) Each kanji entry contains a reference number that corresponds to the numbers printed in the upper corner of each page ( i.e . each page will show kanji #1 - 7 ) . This is helpful for when you're flipping through . If you prefer , you can also look up the kanji by this number in the index , which is organized by reference number and pronunciation .
4 ) Each entry contains the English meaning , and each kanji character is printed in a clean typeset font for easier memorization . Also included are the Chinese and Japanese readings and a visual mnemonic as well as a textual mnemonic ( a play on words to go with the drawing , which itself resembles the kanji ) .
Cons :
1 ) This book is only for learning how to read , not write . No stroke order is given for hiragana , katakana , or kanji .
2 ) Since there are only 46 letters each for the hiragana and katakana , those are all covered in the opening pages . However , only 1225 kanji are listed here . This is a little more than the kanji mastered by Japanese children in elementary school and , I've been told , is sufficient to be able to understand most of a newspaper . However , the Japanese Ministry of Education has identified about 2000 basic kanji , so you'll probably need to continue studying beyond this book .
Frankly , these cons don't bother me . This book is doing for me what it set out to do : help me memorize kanji . I am hopeless with flash cards so this was a very welcome respite . If I were to judge this book as a book for learning kanji , it would get a much lower mark , as it doesn't teach you how to write . As a memorization tool , it is excellent and deserves five stars .
In sum , great book , but it should just be a supplement to your learning arsenal .
Other beginner learning materials that I have found helpful include :
Ultimate Japanese Beginner-Intermediate ( Book ) ( LL ( R ) Ultimate Basic-Intermed )
- Get the set that includes CDs with the book .
Japanese the Manga Way : An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure
- Fun and informative way to learn grammar in an informal context . In other words , you're learning Japanese as it's actually spoken and written , a nice change from the elevated formal speech I've found in every language textbook I've ever used . I kept borrowing this so much from my library that I ended up buying a copy . Only downside is it doesn't include lessons . If it had been more like a workbook , it would have been perfect .
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
- This is the kanji resource you've been looking for . Wonderfully organized , very useful , small , AND it includes stroke order for each kanji . Buy it on Amazon ; I've found it in local bookstores and they seriously mark the price up .
026 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
This book is really helpful for remembering Kanji , and it's got a section at the beginning for Hiragana and Katakana as well . Its mnemonics are creative , helpful , and an original way that makes 1,985 joyo kanji not seem so bad ( though I think that this book doesn't have every single one of them . ) I recommend this book to anyone learning Kanji for whatever reason .
032 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
I'm a visual designer , and I bought this book because it shows some amazing interpretations of abstract concepts in iconographic form . Both the actual Japanese characters , and the author's illustrations are superb examples of iconography . The fundamental topic behind the broader meaning for each character has been distilled into one succinct character or one illustration .
The illustrations in the book are beautiful in their own right , for fans of graphic illustrations . I have never tried to memorize any of the actual characters , but this book is entertaining even without a stong desire to learn Japanese . If I did intend to learn , this would be where I would start , because I am a very visual learner , which is the focus of this book .
This book is a great addition to a coffee table or night stand .
033 4 I'm a visual designer , and I bought this book because it shows some amazing interpretations of abstract concepts in iconographic form . Both the actual Japanese characters , and the author's illustrations are superb examples of iconography . The fundamental topic behind the broader meaning for each character has been distilled into one succinct character or one illustration .
The illustrations in the book are beautiful in their own right , for fans of graphic illustrations . I have never tried to memorize any of the actual characters , but this book is entertaining even without a stong desire to learn Japanese . If I did intend to learn , this would be where I would start , because I am a very visual learner , which is the focus of this book .
This book is a great addition to a coffee table or night stand .
036 4 It looks great , with nice clear friendly picture on the front , but as another reviewer said , when you bring it home and start to use it you see the problems . The kanji are arranged thematically , which is all well and good if this book is your primary textbook for kanji learning . But if you're taking classes somewhere else and you have a prescribed order to learn the kanji , its not very useful . Secondly , many of the mnemonics are fairly poor ( although some are very useful ) , and thirdly , worst of all , the index is terrible . Many of the characters I tried to find weren't listed .
Didn't quite live up to it's promise .
037 4 I enjoyed this book immensely . The pictures and images are fun and visually appealing , and the explainations of each part are facinating . But I must agree that as a learning tool , it was not very helpful . Mnemonics are usually very helpful for me , but whenever I came across a kanji I first saw in this book , I would recognize it , remember parts of the mnemonic , but compeltely forget what the whole kanji meant !
I did however find this book VERY helpful for remembering the kana . In this case , Rowley's mnuemonics helped a great deal .
039 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
Great Book . Its all photos which is what you want ! The secret key to one of the oldest alphabets in the world .
044 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
I don't particularly care for this book , I bought it because I've seen so much and heard so much about it , that I thought it would help . However , aside from the picture on the front , I couldn't really see the pictures in the kanji , and it didn't help me memorize it any better . I wouldn't necessarily buy this book unless this is really your learning style .
047 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
It's a good book to help you remember what each kanji means . But the book makes it a bit confusing with the 2 definition for each kanji . One is for Chinese and the other one is for Japanese . Sometimes I wasn't sure which one was which meaning .
049 4 Serious students of Japanese and kanji are best to avoid this book , as it is little more than a curiosity . It is not an effective study aid . In fact , it is probably detrimental to students because it reinforces a false impression that all kanji can be reduced to some loosely interpreted visual mnemonic / diagram .
Kanji were originally derived from pictographs and ideographs by ancient Chinese , yet there is no discussion on the evolution of the modern kanji forms from ancient bronze or seal script , save for a vague 2 paragraph mention in the introduction . Seeing the ancient forms is useful because in most cases , they are very simple and look like the modern forms . Rowley replaces them with his own modern interpretations , which are overly complex illustrations that are not at all an effective means of remembering strokes and radicals . They won't help you learn or remember how to write the kanji . There is no stroke count or a diagram of stroke orders . There is no index of radicals . Learning radicals and how kanji components stack ( like Lego blocks ) are of great use to the learner . Knowledge of radicals and stroke count is a pre-requisite for being able to look up words in a kanji dictionary .
The organization is not based on how Japanese themselves learn kanji as kids , starting from the simplest characters first , then progressing to those with more strokes . Instead , the book is organized into themes : people , animals , food , etc .
The example sentences are given in ENGLISH , in the form of a mnemonic phrase , meant to explain elements of the diagram . This is not useful . I want a Japanese sentence to illustrate the use of the word in context . I also find the illustrations unattractive looking .
If you are serious about learning Japanese , you are much better off getting a real learner's book , such as the superior
The Kanji Dictionary
,
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary
, or a Nintendo DS dictionary :
Kanji Dictionary : Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten
. The DS makes it very easy to write the kanji out if you need to look up a word .
Pass on this gimmicky book . It's good for amusement , but not language learning .
053 4 a fun way to ( try ) to learn kanji . . .
you can even give signs on passing ( japanese ) trucks a go ! you'll be surprised . . .
054 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
I had high hopes when I bought this book , but I soon realized that it was no help to me .
The illustrations really turn me off . Some of them are creepy and repulsive . I also failed to connect most of the pictures and stories with the kanji .
I find it a lot more helpful to study radicals and practice writing the characters .
056 4 Another good book by Michael Rowley . I like that he presents a radical , gives it meaning , and shows it used with other radicals and their respective meanings . He also gives both the Chinese and Japanese reading for each symbol , so theorectically , this book could be used for students of Chinese as well . I find his drawings to be very helpful in remembering the symbols , because they are so interesting and memorable . He also gives a guide on how to use the entries for each kanji , and an index . He gives mnemonic devices for the kana in the beginning of the book , but they are different from the ones in Kana Pict-O-Graphix and I personally don't like them as much .
An index in which you can find the kanji for a specific english word would have been helpful , as well as notes on stroke order and creation of the characters . However , the point of this book is to remember the kanji , so Rowley probably assumes that you already know how to create the characters . He also states that he leaves out common kanji because he couldn't come up with a mnemonic device for them , and puts in kanji not approved for common use because they are interesting to him . But other than that , I would definitely recommend this book if you need help remembering the kanji .
057 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
Without this book , the task of learning Kanji becomes horribly difficult .
Michael Rowley takes 1250 of the 2000 basic kanji , needed for basic Japanese literacy , and breaks them down into fun , understandable pictures through which you can easily understand and memorize them . Japanese is a complex enough language WITH this book , so without this book I assume it would be boring , rote memorization of intangible Japanese graphics . Michael's organization isn't by use , but by subjects centering around radicals ( smaller Kanji being parts of more complex Kanji ) describing the world , people , tools , animals , the elements , numbers , motion , directions , etc . It also features a great Hiragana and Katakana picto-graphic guide up front . While not including all the combinations of the syllabic alphabets , it does give all the basic characters , pronunciations and comparable drawings allowing for easy memorization . Because of this book , Kanji seems approachable and fun . A feat none of my other text books come close to achieving even slightly .
The one fault : Mr . Rowley never put out the follow up text for the rest of the 2000 basic Kanji ! ! Help !
058 4 Without this book , the task of learning Kanji becomes horribly difficult .
Michael Rowley takes 1250 of the 2000 basic kanji , needed for basic Japanese literacy , and breaks them down into fun , understandable pictures through which you can easily understand and memorize them . Japanese is a complex enough language WITH this book , so without this book I assume it would be boring , rote memorization of intangible Japanese graphics . Michael's organization isn't by use , but by subjects centering around radicals ( smaller Kanji being parts of more complex Kanji ) describing the world , people , tools , animals , the elements , numbers , motion , directions , etc . It also features a great Hiragana and Katakana picto-graphic guide up front . While not including all the combinations of the syllabic alphabets , it does give all the basic characters , pronunciations and comparable drawings allowing for easy memorization . Because of this book , Kanji seems approachable and fun . A feat none of my other text books come close to achieving even slightly .
The one fault : Mr . Rowley never put out the follow up text for the rest of the 2000 basic Kanji ! ! Help !
060 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
Some of the Kanji pictographs I find helpful , but alot of them are very confusing . . . and just are mishmashed pictures that you have to work really hard to see .
Its a hit and a miss , though , I hear there are much better ways to learn the Kanji . Alot of these pictures just confuse me honestly > . though , some of them are helpful .
063 4 An enjoyable , well presented book , though more for entertainment than a serious study aid .
If you really want to learn Kanji then try Ken Henshall's Remebering the Japanese Characters .
Kodansha's Let's Learn Kanji / Let's Learn More Kanji are really helpful too .
022 4 The bane to every Japanese student is kanji . Nobody likes to learn them , but they do make you look cool when you read them to friends . This book can easily teach you kanji if you spend a bit of time studying it .
068 4 this is simply the best kanji tutor available . No better way to remember kanji than with these clever mnemonic
025 4 I'm self teaching myself Japanese and Kanji definetly is a hard hurdle to master . While I've only so far used this book to learn Kanji ( along with [ . . . ] ) , suffice it to say you need quite a few different methods / tools to learn this difficult aspect of Japanese language . While this book is helpful if you know what you are looking for ( by looking back in the glossary for the corresponding Japanese romanji term ) , it's too much to just to go through and try to learn all of the words , unless you're looking for words you like , like love or whatever . Also , the pneumonics aren't the best in the world , but believe it or not it is actually more helpful to me with my kana then the kanji . While this may be a helpful addition to your collection , I'd say research a bit more before buying this book . If you do , just note that you'll definetly need more than this book if you want to become good at Kanji .
023 4 This book is awesome , i probably should read it more though . . .
so far i've been able to learn more with this book than with others . : )
070 4 This book is GREAT if you don't plan on learning Japanese and you just want to gain some interesting random information . However ! ! ! ! - do not look at the kana pictures if you want to be able to read katakana and hiragana ! I can't look at the hiragana symbol for mi and NOT think in my head me ? i'm 21 because that is the mneumonic used to remember the symbol . It has been difficult to train myself to read hiragana naturally , and I have spent hours with flashcards , computer hiragana-romaji recognition for speed intentions , and reading hiragana aloud . I will major in Japanese in college and when I take Arabic and portuguese , I hope that there aren't any mneumonic schemes like this out there to help me remember things that can be memorized by rote ! In my personal experience , songs make the best way for non-memorizing learning ( since memorizing a song to a familiar tune is much simpler than memorizing facts ) . Consider writing songs if you want to teach yourself something . Example :
DNA ( to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad )
Deoxyribonucleic acid , they call it DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid , makes genes that turn hair grey
Each little part is called a nucleotide
Made of sugar , phosphate , and a base
Adenine combines with Thymine
Cytosine with Guanine picks up the pace .
( credit goes to Kathleen Mangion Mofield for lyrics )
The book needs a separate section on radicals , instead of telling the reader to flip through to find them ( it says this in the introduction ) . Also , the kanji need to have furigana .
029 4 I picked up this book at the library and i was highly skeptical . I was reading through it , looking at the pictures this guy uses to help you remember the kanji . I thought it was really stupid . I set the book down and started reading other books on japanese i had checked out . Poop on me , it works . I reluctantly learned from this book . I dont know why . I just remembered all the meanings because the explanations were so weird . Oh well , go with what works . I wish that he put more effort into the translations though . He needs to have it so we can look at the kanji , and instantly know what it means in english and the one wayto say it in japanese . Otherwise , very strangely good .
064 4 This clean pocket guide makes remembering kana easy by turning abstract shapes into memorable images . I find especially helpful , the hints on distinguishing characters that look very similar to one another . I highly recommend it !
038 4 This book presents an easy way to learn and memorize Kanji . As a forigner who is living and studying in Japan this book can help to learn Kanji and presents a pictorial description of each Kanji . The philosophy of creation of each Kanji helps to memorize it as well as it's meaning . Introducing the Kanji Radicals to show the Kanjis of the same family effectively helps to learn the meaning and the method of writing . If , even , some one don't know how to read Hiragana or Katakana , using this book can read the Kanji
027 4 This book is really helpful for remembering Kanji , and it's got a section at the beginning for Hiragana and Katakana as well . Its mnemonics are creative , helpful , and an original way that makes 1,985 joyo kanji not seem so bad ( though I think that this book doesn't have every single one of them . ) I recommend this book to anyone learning Kanji for whatever reason .
030 4 As an intermediate supplement , it's perfect ! This book is a wonderful help of explaining the radicals the kanji are made up of . . so when you run across it again , it will be easier to learn . It's helpful in use alongside a more traditional academic course - it lightens it up and gives a fresh perspective !
043 4 This book has made learning kana and kanji very quick , easy , and fun ! Thank you so much for this book !
042 4 Anyone who is an English native speaker can tell you , especially as an adult that learning a new language can be quite the challenge . It is said that learning Japanese is one of the hardest languages around . The most difficult of them all within the Japanese learning is the writing form Kanji . I am currently studying for the JLPT exams , and this isn't easy one little bit . I used to spend long hours in frustration trying to memorize the kanji character by rewriting over and over on a piece of paper simply to get it confused with another that looks similar in kind . Then I came across this book , and I felt like a kid learning my ABC's all over again . This book has lots of illustrations images , large in size , that closely resembles the meaning and how the character looks like . There are also mnemonics for each one to aid in memorization . This is a huge plus for me , since I tend to remember things better by big picture association . Also included is the On-yomi and Kun-yomi readings for each kanji character . The only draw back I found with this book , ( minor by the way ) is that it doesn't really teach you the stroke order , or how to draw any of the characters . That having been said , it can be very intimidating to try out some of the more complex characters by guess , since you can't exactly just draw it randomly if you want to learn it properly ! My other complaint , is that this book does not display the radical for any of the characters , which is also the key to mainly helping to learning kanji easily , seeing that there are over 2000 of them and most of which are reused in combination . So if you are an entire novice to kanji , this book may still be very helpful , but you will still want to use other materials that will help you learn to draw them properly as well .
Despite the cover displaying the word ' Kanji ' this book also introduces you to hiragana and katakana . Again very nicely done images to the character association but still the problem of no stroke order . I really like how this book teaches you all the basics of the common kanji that can be found in japanese magazines and newspapers . So all in all , this is definitely recommended to guide those people struggling to learn kanji . I must commend Michael Rowly , the author for a job well done !
002 4 I had purchased this book simply because it was one of only 3 books on Kanji I could find . Had I so much as a few hours ' worth of experience back then , I'd have passed this book up . This book does in fact turn out to be one you can judge accurately by the cover , which makes for a perfect example of why this is a terrible first or second foray into kanji .
The author's cute attempts at using his own version of visual association will begin to work against you from the start . For example , right on the cover happens to be the same association I would have put together for the term stop . While a crossing guard protecting a little guy might make a fun means of remembing stop , the accurate representation to consider is that of the foot , meaning stop .
Being historically inaccurate for the sake of easier recognition would perhaps be forgiveable if it weren't so detrimental ; truly learning involves building from the learned kanji and their appearance in compounds , so while the foot might not quite rest in the mind as easy , the crossing guard is all but obsolete when it comes time to actually use the intended foot representation in compounds .
Too many occurences of such short-sighted teaching .
To make matters about as bad as they can possibly be , some of these baseless adlibs are actually tougher to get than the true visual association ancient times . Some of the pictures are rather ridiculous .
One can , in fact , end up worse for having tried to learn by studying this book .
003 4 Why should a picture of a misshapen person , eye , heart and ear make you remember Kanji #549 Listen ? Or one man beating another with a stick , Kanji #400 , Industrious ? For the same reason King Philip Came Over For Good Sax * , I suppose - who knows why and how mnemonics work , but in this cleverly ( sometimes , fiendishly so ) illustrated volume , Michael Rowley provides memorable mind-helpers for those learning Kanji , or just simply fascinated with the development of this writing system borrowed from the Chinese .
The book aggregates kanji into thematic groups , determined by the radical , or root element , of each kanji , and makes for much easier comprehension than standard elementary Kanji texts . Each kanji is presented with its Japanese and Chinese reading ( very , very roughly speaking , similar to the way we have the Germanic sweat and Latinate perspire to mean the same thing ) , a brainy icon system for indicating which part of the kanji comes from which other character , and a mnemonic .
Rowley uses bold , strong graphic elements , and those lovable faceless people-oids you remember from 1970s government-issued pamphlets to illustrate the meaning , along with those odd quirks of literature - the mnemonic ( Our rice products earn a pile of money or the prisoner's hands are bound with thread ) . Distinctive , odd , and , yes , MEMORABLE .
This charming book is good for curious teens , the diligent Nihongo-phile , or the dedicate sensei's toolkit .
Enjoy strongly !
( p.s . My favorite Kanji is #96 , Snow )
* The classic mnemonic from biology for recalling Linnaean taxonomy : kingdom , phylum , class , order , family , genus , species .
005 4 While the number of Kanji is a bit small ( the Toyo Kanji list was 1,850 when I was in college ) , and it is not always useful in remembering the Japanese onyomi and kunyomi , it is perfect for simply learning the meanings . Since this is the first step to learning kanji , and all many people are interrested in , this book is a very valueable learning tool . I wish I had it in college .
007 4 There are so many mistakes in this book . Mis-numbered cross referential numbers and kanji is just wrong are some of the most glaring examples . It is difficult to learn anything when you are second guessing the material . The most embarrassing oversight is the kanji for noisy which is made up of three little kanji women . That kanji is only really used with a power kanji in front to mean rape . Not only is the Kanji useless by itself ( assuming you are not living in the Heian period ) , but it is offensive when you try to use it .
The idea of the book is great epically with my learning style , but get a Japanese editor .
012 4 First , let me say that I ( being a student of Japanese of 2 years ) love browsing through this book . The art is beautiful , the mnemonics usually make sense ( except a few cases where you can tell that Rowley had a bit of a hard time thinking up mnemonics for things ) , and the radical categorization system is excellent .
However , as a study aid , i found the value of this book is questionable . I missed being able to see how the kanjis work within a compound of kanji-kana / kanji-kana ( as most words in Japanese are ) .
Also , while the book features a kanji and its Ohn / Kun readings , which occasionally will have a different meaning , it doesn't specify exactly which meaning corresponds with which . As someone with a limited vocabulary at this point of her studies , I learned a lot from this book , at least where reading is concerned . I COULD have learned even more from it had they bothered to add this valuable snippet of information to each item in the book .
013 4 At first glance this book looks like the way to solve the problem of learning those tedious kanji in Japanese ! It looks like a completely NEW way to do it ! But I am not sure it is . Firstly , I have to say that some of the pictures are good for learning the meaning in relation to the shape of the kanji , like the one on the front . . . but what about the ON and KUN readings ? They still have to be learned somehow ! They are included in the book , but the kanji are not placed in any context that might help you relate them to vocabulary . This is an interesting innovation which is , I daresay , helpful , but not definitive . However , I can say with my hand on my heart that Mr Rowley took a lot of the pain out of learning the kana with the ingenious drawings he came up with ( even if the pronunciation is ostensibly American ! ) .
014 4 Not only for non-Japanese but also for Japanse , Kanji is somthing strange , hard to understand and interesting . Many dictionary called ' Kanwa-Jiten ( kanji dictionary ) ' have been published in Japan , but they don't have a good idea of displaing such Kanji's attractiveness . This book has done the great thing .
015 4 I have bought lots of Kanji books and this is one of my favorites . I would recommend this book to anyone trying to learn to read the Kanji characters . The visual and written mnemonics really helped me remember the characters .
The book is broken down by subjects ; some include the world , food , body , people and animals . For each word the Kanji character , reference # , English meaning and visual / text mnemonic are show .
On and Kun readings , as well as the schematic of elements are also included . There is a Kanji index in the back.My only wishes were that it had the romaji translation and contained information on how to write the characters .
016 4 This is a lovely book and a recommend to anyone who enjoys collecting everything on the subject ( like me ! ) get a copy .
As a serious study aid it is lacking - it doesn't cover all recommended characters and is pretty limited on compounds too .
Great to look at , great to review part of the subject , but not part of a serious study scheme .
Heisig is more comprehensive , though for simple ease of use , and results I can't recommend anything more highly than K . Henshall s Remembering The Japanese Characters . I keep a copy at home on my desk and one at work for quiet moments too .
Subarashii !
017 4 Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views ( 3 / 07 )
Kanji , the written form of Japanese characters , is very difficult to try to figure out . The author of this book , Michael Rowley , used mnemonic devices as memory aids to simplify the process . Mnemonics are used to create associations . I used this method to visually learn to read Braille and I found it worked . Mr . Rowley does an even better job with the mnemonics that he has created to help with this process . I found the characters much easier to memorize than when I learned Braille .
He provides you with pictures ( pictographs ) that are drawn in a manner closely resembling the kanji character . Your mind makes an association between the two and the next time you see the kanji , you remember the picture and what it represents . In this book , he provides the means for you to learn over 1,000 kanji characters . This is about 50% of the kanji characters that are commonly used in print today .
The chapters are well-organized and have an extensive index the end of the book , which also includes the kanji characters for a quick reference . I also found his choice of kanji characters to be very meaningful and most likely to be encountered . Mr . Rowley has the distinction of earning both the International Typographic Design Award and the HOW International Design Award . I can see why he would earn these awards .
In addition to recognizing the meaning behind many of the kanji tattoos that you commonly see today , I also think that martial artists would enjoy this book . In the Japanese styles we see a great deal of kanji characters and it would be nice to be able to recognize their meanings . I also hope that when I return to Japan , I will have a much easier time understanding what the signs mean over there . I was clueless on my first trip over there and I look forward to this challenge . Of course , Kanji Pict-o-graphix will be going with me !
018 4 but it works , is a great addition to with Rosetta Stone or other materials
020 4 Since leaving university I've sorely missed having a teacher - if for nothing else , the wonderful ways they help you to remember Kanji . My teacher was an older Japanese man who'd been trained as an artist , so I always found his mnemonics and deconstructions immensely useful for remembering specific kanji and what made them different from others . Sometimes a little story to go with a character is just what you need to remember it ( like ku-no-ichi for the kanji for ' girl ' )
When I found this book in my local library it was a godsend - deconstruction of the kanji into the individual elements , on and kun readings and a mnemonic ( visual AND textual ) to help remember it . The only downside is that it's a little confusing if you sit down to read the whole thing in an attempt to memorise all of the kanji ( a daunting task in itself ) but in terms of memorising individual kanji , it's an invaluable resource , especially for people teaching themselves Japanese . It's also remarkably useful as a supplement for people who want an extra edge against their classmates . Definitely recommended
021 4 I have been using this book for little more than a week now , and I must say , the amount of kanji I now know has significantaly increased from what I already knew .
This book as all the kanji plus more for the beginners , intermediate and experienced Kanji expert , with both easy and more difficult kanji to learn , i will find this book a treat .
easy kanji is a breeze to learn with pictures that directly correspond , and even tell a little story as to the make up and structure of the kanji . Though the more complicated kanji may take a bit of getting used to ( sometimes the pictures do grasp at straws a little ) It still is a book that every student of Japanese should have .
The pictures contain all the On / Kun readings and seperate particles that make up the kanji itself , so it's easy to break down and then build it up .
* * * * / * * * * *
028 4 Like far too many books about Kanji , this one chooses to focus on the meanings conveyed by the characters rather than the phonetic and morphological information they supply which is their real function . I will give this an extra star though , because some of the illustrations and mnemonics are clever .
Ivan Rorick
031 4 As a visual person who makes up his own mnemonic devices to remember all sorts of things , I fully appreciate Rowley having done the work for me with the kana and kanji . It must have been painstaking but enjoyable .
I bought this book primarily for the kana , but have spent hours perusing the kanji for the sheer joy of it . I now recognize and understand many kanji I never really tried to learn .
If you also want to write the kana and kanji , you need other books for the pen strokes , in addition to ( not instead of ! ) Rowley . Start with Heisig's Remembering the Kana .
034 4 I have been able to lear 400 kanji in three weeks with help of this book just by perusing the book once in the morning and once in the evening .
I am giving this book 5 stars in spite of the fact that pictures for certain kanji doesnt work for me but they can work for someone else .
It is one of my 2 books dealing with kanji only , the other lists all possible information for 2500 kanji while this one lists just basic meanings , mnemonics and pronunciations for over 1000 kanji . I think this book is a perfect starter and I appreciate that it analyses all parts of a kanji , all elements , so I know which basic meanings the kanji constists of .
050 4 This is a fun book to flip through , perhaps with younger learners of Japanese , but the visual method espoused by the author becomes somewhat forced and cumbersome for serious adult learners . A more thorough and systematic approach that breaks Kanji down into radicals such as the book by Henshall or Heisig is more useful .
Nathan Dummitt
author of
Chinese Through Tone & Color
055 4 I had high hopes when I bought this book , but I soon realized that it was no help to me .
The illustrations really turn me off . Some of them are creepy and repulsive . I also failed to connect most of the pictures and stories with the kanji .
I find it a lot more helpful to study radicals and practice writing the characters .
061 4 Some of the Kanji pictographs I find helpful , but alot of them are very confusing . . . and just are mishmashed pictures that you have to work really hard to see .
Its a hit and a miss , though , I hear there are much better ways to learn the Kanji . Alot of these pictures just confuse me honestly > . though , some of them are helpful .
065 4 This is a great book for anyone who has never studied Japanese but is still very curious to know what those funny looking symbols mean . It takes something that can be very intimidating for a Westerner ( learning a non-Latin based language ) and makes it simple , fun and memorable .
I used to work a lot in Japan and stumbled across this book at a bookstore in the Ginza . Working in design and architecture for a U.S . company , I was immediately drawn to the cover the book . I had seen that symbol ( Stop ) before on the streets of Tokyo and finally made the connection . I picked it up and couldn't set it down . I found the images fun and easy to undertand without dumbing it down . I bought the book immediately and it quickly became my bible for understanding more of what I was seeing all around me on a daily basis ( traffic / safety signs , advertisements , business signs , directional signs , food packaging , restaurant menus , business communications , etc . ) .
Over time I was able to memorize symbols that I was seeing often , but the introductory section on Kana ( basically a sylla-bet for spelling out words ) proved indispensible . There are two types of Kana : Hiragana and Katakana . Essentially they are just two ways of writing the same collection of sounds ( somewhat like cursive and printing ) . The key is that Hiragana is primarily used for things that are native to Japan and Katakana is used for things that are not ( I'm paraphrasing ) . This was key to know , because many of the words written in Katakana ( the one that looks more like printing ) were simply Japanese phonetics of English words . I found that by spelling out the word and saying the sounds , I could often figure out what the word was : like ice cream ( i su ku ri mu ) or milk ( mi ru ku ) or taxi ( ta ku shi ) . It takes a while to sound out a word sometimes , but you get better with it over time when you realize that certain sounds are approximated to work within the fixed sounds of Kana ( like the fact that there isn't an L sound , it's approximated with an R sound ) . It became a game to figure out what signs or advertisements meant . It helped to make a sea of information more within my grasp of understanding and took away the mystery ( and some of my dependence on interpreters ) .
A highly recommended book for anyone that wants to learn more about the written language of Japanese and have fun doing it . A very visual and intuitive book that makes memorizing Kanji ( and Kana ) easy !
066 4 I got this book as an early learner of Japanese hoping it could help me learn kanji . After a very short time , I realized that it wasn't going to help . It's basically 1000 kanji arranged by category with strange pictures for each one with no real explanation of why certain pictures appear where . As one reviewer mentioned , many of them are even creepy and disturbing . There's also a short English phrase with each one that's supposed to work as a mnemonic device , but rarely seems to bear any relation to the picture so it's really just a way to remember the English word by itself . The book also gives the reader no idea how to write the characters , and they have the kanji written in some weird style , with the pictures provided to further confuse the issue .
Even learning the kanji by rote is better than trying to use this book . If you really want to learn kanji , go with Remembering the Kanji , Volume 1 by James Heisig . It costs twice as much , but it's 100 times more useful .
I highly suspect that most of the people who gave this book high ratings did not actually use it , or else they would not have rated it how they did . One reviewer who gave it 5 stars even says , I wish I had it in college . Let's get real . This book is a novelty , not a way to learn kanji .
067 4 I am a student of both Japanese and Chinese . When I came across this book , I thought it would be fabulous to kill two birds with one stone since the description said that it had both Japanese and Chinese pronunciation . It does have pretty helpful Japanese pronunciation ( although there should be hiragana to make it less confusing ) but the Chinese pronunciation is from 2,000 years ago . How helpful is Chinese pronunciation from 2,000 years ago to a student learning modern colloquial Mandarin Chinese ? I find the description to be very misleading since it has convinced many people that the pronunciation is modern Chinese .
Despite not being able to use this as a study aid for Chinese , it's still very helpful in learning Japanese . I don't use this as my primary way of learning kanji because the number of pictures can be overwhelming and confusing but it's a good reference guide . When using this book , just make sure to pace yourself .
069 4 Go instead with
Remembering the Kanji : A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters by James W . Heisig
048 4 It's a good book to help you remember what each kanji means . But the book makes it a bit confusing with the 2 definition for each kanji . One is for Chinese and the other one is for Japanese . Sometimes I wasn't sure which one was which meaning .
011 4 I must admit this book has the smartest mneomonics of all the kanji books I bought . Unfortunately , it doesn't cover all the standard kanji and lacks the stroke order pictures found in other books .
052 4 While this sounds like a super-great idea , it really doesn't help . 90% of the picture mneumonics don't help very much , and are just crude picture forms of the radicals . And it helps nothing at all with the actual Japanese . While I applaud Micheal Rowley for thinking up a few good pictoral references , don't invest your money in this book . It's better to learn like the Japanese do : writing the kanji , meaning , and pronunciation over and over again .
051 4 This book is of absolutely no value whatsoever in learning to actually READ Kanji .
For one thing , the author has taken a grievously unwarranted liberty by inventing his own picture-explanations for many of the Kanji . His chosen images are NOT historically accurate , and are frequently so bizarre that they cannot possibly help convey the meaning to any reader . This is NOT helpful , no matter how much the author appears to believe it is ; and neither are the senseless mnemonics he has created to accompany those inaccurate pictures .
Furthermore , it also contains many outright errors - - incorrect definitions and misdrawn Kanji - - and even if it HAD all been accurate , it completely fails to provide any context for how Kanji are actually USED in Japanese writing .
The result is that , AT BEST , persistent and diligent readers MAY eventually learn to associate some general meaning with each Kanji character . They will NOT learn how to read Japanese from this book , though . In fact , they will actually have been HAMPERED from doing so - - because they will have to UN-learn much of the nonsense this book fed them .
Perhaps for the reader who never really intends to learn Japanese , or who merely wants a superficial , trivial overview of the basic CONCEPT of Kanji , this book might have some marginal value . For anyone who actually wants to learn how to READ Japanese though , this book is a complete waste of time and money .
004 4 I bought this book sight unseen ( apart from the cover and the excerpts found in the look inside section and elsewhere on the net ) as my local bookstores / libraries did not have a copy . I would advise you to spend a half-hour browsing through the pages to see if Michael Rowley's method will work for you . It didn't , and hasn't so far for me . And this , in spite of having been a visual learner all my life .
Especially insightful is how the Amazon.review describes Rowley's method as a mnemonic-association approach that provides a hook on which to hang the meaning and retrieve it easily when the kanji comes into view . COMES INTO VIEW . That's key . You learn to recognize kanji , but may find it very difficult to summon it from memory , and write it with the right stroke order . Is learning stroke order something one can put off ? I don't think so . I think you have to do it right from day one .
The drawings are entertaining , but I think they can only prove confusing to the beginner , and if you already know the kanji , the book is pointless , except maybe to leaf through idly , to see another person's mind at play . If that's what you want , great . But if it's learning the kanji you're after , I really recommend Heisig's Remembering the Kanji Series . There's much to be said for breaking down the monumental task of learning the first 2,000 kanji , and learning to recognize , understand and write the kanji with the proper stroke order FIRST before studying the onyomi / kunyomi readings makes learning much easier . Heisig's imaginative mnemonic approach is also more playful and whimsical ( read : you get better hooks ) and the devices ( primitives ) build upon each other amazingly well .
In any case , sample the book first , then buy if it works for you .
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
Anyone who is an English native speaker can tell you , especially as an adult that learning a new language can be quite the challenge . It is said that learning Japanese is one of the hardest languages around . The most difficult of them all within the Japanese learning is the writing form Kanji . I am currently studying for the JLPT exams , and this isn't easy one little bit . I used to spend long hours in frustration trying to memorize the kanji character by rewriting over and over on a piece of paper simply to get it confused with another that looks similar in kind . Then I came across this book , and I felt like a kid learning my ABC's all over again . This book has lots of illustrations images , large in size , that closely resembles the meaning and how the character looks like . There are also mnemonics for each one to aid in memorization . This is a huge plus for me , since I tend to remember things better by big picture association . Also included is the On-yomi and Kun-yomi readings for each kanji character . The only draw back I found with this book , ( minor by the way ) is that it doesn't really teach you the stroke order , or how to draw any of the characters . That having been said , it can be very intimidating to try out some of the more complex characters by guess , since you can't exactly just draw it randomly if you want to learn it properly ! My other complaint , is that this book does not display the radical for any of the characters , which is also the key to mainly helping to learning kanji easily , seeing that there are over 2000 of them and most of which are reused in combination . So if you are an entire novice to kanji , this book may still be very helpful , but you will still want to use other materials that will help you learn to draw them properly as well .
Despite the cover displaying the word ' Kanji ' this book also introduces you to hiragana and katakana . Again very nicely done images to the character association but still the problem of no stroke order . I really like how this book teaches you all the basics of the common kanji that can be found in japanese magazines and newspapers . So all in all , this is definitely recommended to guide those people struggling to learn kanji . I must commend Michael Rowly , the author for a job well done !
041 4 This review is from :
Kanji Pict-O-Graphix : Over 1,000 Japanese Kanji and Kana Mnemonics ( Paperback )
Anyone who is an English native speaker can tell you , especially as an adult that learning a new language can be quite the challenge . It is said that learning Japanese is one of the hardest languages around . The most difficult of them all within the Japanese learning is the writing form Kanji . I am currently studying for the JLPT exams , and this isn't easy one little bit . I used to spend long hours in frustration trying to memorize the kanji character by rewriting over and over on a piece of paper simply to get it confused with another that looks similar in kind . Then I came across this book , and I felt like a kid learning my ABC's all over again . This book has lots of illustrations images , large in size , that closely resembles the meaning and how the character looks like . There are also mnemonics for each one to aid in memorization . This is a huge plus for me , since I tend to remember things better by big picture association . Also included is the On-yomi and Kun-yomi readings for each kanji character . The only draw back I found with this book , ( minor by the way ) is that it doesn't really teach you the stroke order , or how to draw any of the characters . That having been said , it can be very intimidating to try out some of the more complex characters by guess , since you can't exactly just draw it randomly if you want to learn it properly ! My other complaint , is that this book does not display the radical for any of the characters , which is also the key to mainly helping to learning kanji easily , seeing that there are over 2000 of them and most of which are reused in combination . So if you are an entire novice to kanji , this book may still be very helpful , but you will still want to use other materials that will help you learn to draw them properly as well .
Despite the cover displaying the word ' Kanji ' this book also introduces you to hiragana and katakana . Again very nicely done images to the character association but still the problem of no stroke order . I really like how this book teaches you all the basics of the common kanji that can be found in japanese magazines and newspapers . So all in all , this is definitely recommended to guide those people struggling to learn kanji . I must commend Michael Rowly , the author for a job well done !
whatever works . I lived in Japan for almost two years , and this book helped me to start recognizing kanji [ if you're not familiar , there are three major ways to write Japanese : hiragana = a rather easy alphabet for words native to Japan ; katakana = another alphabet ( with less curves and more sharp characters ) for foreign words ( mostly English words ) ; and kanji = a group of thousands of Chinese characters that each represent an IDEA , rather than an alphabet that represents SOUNDS . ] . Memorization doesn't have to be dry and boring . . . it can actually be fun , and Rowley definitely makes it fun . Unfortunately , a couple of the pictures / explanations are definitely off-color . . . but then , so is much of life .
010 4 The first thing you will notice about Rowley's book is his creativity in language study . Some will surely say , What creativity ? ! Kanji are already word pictures . . . he's just doing what's been done for thousands of years ! True . However , this book is definitely geared toward the Western reader , and Rowley's methods of memorization are sure to make Japanese study significantly easier ( especially if you are American , British , Australian , etc . ) More serious scholars will undoubtedly turn up their noses at such sophomoric scholarship . But I say : whatever works . I lived in Japan for almost two years , and this book helped me to start recognizing kanji [ if you're not familiar , there are three major ways to write Japanese : hiragana = a rather easy alphabet for words native to Japan ; katakana = another alphabet ( with less curves and more sharp characters ) for foreign words ( mostly English words ) ; and kanji = a group of thousands of Chinese characters that each represent an IDEA , rather than an alphabet that represents SOUNDS . ] . Memorization doesn't have to be dry and boring . . . it can actually be fun , and Rowley definitely makes it fun . Unfortunately , a couple of the pictures / explanations are definitely off-color . . . but then , so is much of life .
