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It's been a while since I've checked to see what's new in the Japanese section of Borders, so I guess that this monstrosity-- the Kanji Handbook by Vee David-- is not brand-new. But I've managed to avoid hearing about it until now.
One entry at random, for 赦：
赦orgive 赦ardon
On 赤ed 嚇hreat, let's 赦orgive and forget.
These words in which the first letter has been replaced with a kanji that means the same thing as the word are called 'KanjiHybrids,' and I have to say, there are a lot of stupid kanji mnemonics in the world, and this is the most stupid I have seen so far.
(1) The word is not immediately obvious unless you already know the meaning of the kanji. How do you know that '赤ed' means 'red' and not 'bed'?
(2) Surely it's no less work to memorize 赦orgive than '赦=Forgive'?
(3) Like most dumb kanji mnemonics, the meaning is all-important, and the reading is dismissed. This? Is something that drives me up a wall. Not just because I subvocalize when I read in Japanese; not just because I don't believe you really know a word unless you can read it aloud. Part of getting past the beginner stage in Japanese is recognizing that kanji belong in words; they're not discrete semantic bits that you can put back together any way you like. 赦=Forgive is a bad equation; you need to learn that 赦 is in the words 赦免 (remission)、恩赦(amnesty)、容赦(forgiveness)、大赦 (amnesty), and as you learn that you'll get a semantic cloud around the kanji 赦 that probably looks a lot like 'forgive,' but the point needs to be the words, and not the kanji.
(4) Every kanji dictionary has 19 indexes; I accept that. I like that. This one has two indexes for the readings, one in romaji and one in kana. Can we say redundant?
(5) The author seems to be replying to every post that mentions his book with the same KanjiHybridized message. 聖oly Spammity Spam!
You get good at a language by working hard at it. No shortcuts. Not even when it comes to something that looks as evil and impenetrable as kanji. Anyone who really understands Japanese should know that. So I can't avoid the feeling that the author knows it, and sees his system as a golden opportunity to fleece a bunch of hopeful students to the tune of $41.00 apiece.
One entry at random, for 赦：
赦orgive 赦ardon
On 赤ed 嚇hreat, let's 赦orgive and forget.
These words in which the first letter has been replaced with a kanji that means the same thing as the word are called 'KanjiHybrids,' and I have to say, there are a lot of stupid kanji mnemonics in the world, and this is the most stupid I have seen so far.
(1) The word is not immediately obvious unless you already know the meaning of the kanji. How do you know that '赤ed' means 'red' and not 'bed'?
(2) Surely it's no less work to memorize 赦orgive than '赦=Forgive'?
(3) Like most dumb kanji mnemonics, the meaning is all-important, and the reading is dismissed. This? Is something that drives me up a wall. Not just because I subvocalize when I read in Japanese; not just because I don't believe you really know a word unless you can read it aloud. Part of getting past the beginner stage in Japanese is recognizing that kanji belong in words; they're not discrete semantic bits that you can put back together any way you like. 赦=Forgive is a bad equation; you need to learn that 赦 is in the words 赦免 (remission)、恩赦(amnesty)、容赦(forgiveness)、大赦 (amnesty), and as you learn that you'll get a semantic cloud around the kanji 赦 that probably looks a lot like 'forgive,' but the point needs to be the words, and not the kanji.
(4) Every kanji dictionary has 19 indexes; I accept that. I like that. This one has two indexes for the readings, one in romaji and one in kana. Can we say redundant?
(5) The author seems to be replying to every post that mentions his book with the same KanjiHybridized message. 聖oly Spammity Spam!
You get good at a language by working hard at it. No shortcuts. Not even when it comes to something that looks as evil and impenetrable as kanji. Anyone who really understands Japanese should know that. So I can't avoid the feeling that the author knows it, and sees his system as a golden opportunity to fleece a bunch of hopeful students to the tune of $41.00 apiece.
