KANJI LOOK AND LEARN Workbook

Ideal resource to practice reading kanji for beginners

I didn't get the main book, I just used this workbook for practice (but yes, you do need a kanji resource - I used Kodansha Kanji Learner's course as a cross-reference for mnemonics).

This books is so great for beginners to Japanese who are learning Kanji. You can use this alongside what you learn in Genki I & 2 (grammar and vocab) and it compliments very nicely (same publisher). It seemed to me that the best time to start this book (KLL) is from Genki Ch 3-6 or so in order to have enough grammar background to use the sentences.

This workbook shows about 8 kanji per lesson segment (i.e., lesson 1a). Then there are example words (super common ones you will definitely come across and use at THIS stage in your learning). Then each example word is in a very short and simple sentence - using grammar you know. Following that is a page with slightly longer sentences where you fill in the blank. Either write in the kanji from a hiragana prompt, or write the hiragana for a kanji prompt.

After every 2 lesson segments (1a and 1b), there is a longer passage to read with a little activity or follow up questions. They are pretty creative and varied. Gradually you see more and more vocab and grammar.

This workbook is a great way to practice reading - not just the kanji, but reading simple sentences in Japanese with words that you probably just learned in Genki. As the book progresses, furigana disappears from previously learned kanji. What I like, is that they still show more complex kanji. So unlike children's books where you get long strings of kana, in this book you will see normal Japanese kanji use, and the furigana is gradually removed as you learn the kanji. It's great!

This was the perfect resource to enable me to get some kanji reading practice, as everything else I was reading at the beginner stage had 100% furigana (until I got good enough to start using Satori Reader which I adore).