Crazy for Kanji: A Student’s Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters

Crazy for Kanji: A Student’s Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters (Stone Bridge Press) is available on Amazon.

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Have a Listen!

On March 4, 2009, I was featured in a World in Words podcast, talking at length about my love of kanji, as well as my undying passion for author Haruki Murakami. (The Murakami part ran in the fall, too, but Patrick Cox, the BBC/NPR/PRI reporter who put this together, included that segment again.) The whole podcast is 25 minutes long. My part goes from 10:14 to 22:15.

I also did a very short podcast (a Geo Quiz) with Patrick Cox on the World in Words in November, and Red Room selected that as “Best Podcast” for the week of March 15! The World in Words did an A-Z of the elections in two parts. My segment happened at the letter O (O for Obama), 5 or 6 minutes into the N–Z podcast.

An Award!

The East Bay Express gave Crazy for Kanji an award in the July 2009 “Best of the East Bay” issue! The award is for “Best Kanji Crash Course.”

What People Are Saying

Here’s a taste of what people are saying about Crazy for Kanji:

• “Her latest book, Crazy for Kanji, is funny as well as educational, offering hundreds of games, lessons, and believe-it-or-nots…. Her book brilliantly merges the contemporary — sure to please not just otaku but J-Pop fans and Hello Kittenites — with the antique.”
      —Anneli Rufus, East Bay Express
  

• “Highly recommended. Kushner details her passion for kanji in an entertaining, humor-laced narrative chock-full of information, examples, and games…. Kanji neophytes, kanji masters, and everyone in between, let Kushner transport you to Kanji Heaven!”
      —Mary Sisk Noguchi, the Japan Times “Kanji Clinic” columnist
• “In Crazy for Kanji, Eve Kushner takes kanji’s raw ingredients and serves them up in ways that are delicious, surprising, and so satisfying…. I found myself continually returning for more!”
      —Michael Rowley, author of Kanji Pict-o-graphix

• A fun and informative read for people who are interested in the origins of language or simply want to learn ways to make kanji easier…. Great gift idea for the student studying Japanese or the lover of languages.
      —Sarah Yuen, Nichi Bei Times

To see the full reviews and to hear from more writers, click here.

Why a Book About Kanji?

A Japanese-language teacher told me, “Kanji is one of the hardest things to interest students in. I’ve seen a lot of students stop learning Japanese because of kanji, and every time I feel sorry that I can’t interest them in it.”

I’m sorry to hear that, too, but I’m not surprised. Many students don’t have the slightest inkling that kanji can be fun. If teachers present kanji as a random collection of characters, it leaves students feeling hopeless about understanding and mastering this system. What a shame!

Kanji is one of the things I love most in life. Here’s why:

• The immense challenge of kanji lures me on, much as Mt. Everest beckons to intrepid mountaineers. I love kanji, not in spite of its being difficult but because of that.
• I love the puns in Japanese words. Hanabi, “fireworks,” breaks down to “flower” + “fire”—a perfect, poetic way of describing fireworks! Kanji reveals the beauty and cleverness behind such constructions.
• Understanding kanji affords a wonderful feeling of being in the know, as when you can decipher kanji on restaurant signs, tattoos, and T-shirts.
• The child in us longs to decode. That’s why kids spend hours solving puzzles. And that’s why you’ll enjoy unlocking the door to a hitherto sealed-off area.
• Kanji has proven effective as an antidepressant! I believe this “drug” works because it gives endless entertainment to overactive minds.
• Studying kanji brings you into contact with old Japan—with a pure form of the culture and the Japanese mind. Dating back about two thousand years, kanji provides a time capsule, giving us insight into the way people once made sense of the world. As timeless human symbols, kanji characters can evoke the deepest feelings, above all joy.

Joy and context—those are the two main things I hope to provide with Crazy for Kanji.

Credit: David Tate

This means “peace,” “harmony,” or “Japan.” It’s most commonly pronounced “wa,” but there are several other readings.

What’s the Book About?

Crazy for Kanji provides the context sorely missing from most classes and books about kanji. Jam-packed with exhibits, the book supplies background information, explores fun themes, and challenges readers with games. Novices will gain the basic knowledge needed to grasp kanji, and advanced students will come to understand kanji as they’ve never understood it before. Here’s what the book contains:

Preface: Falling in Love with Kanji
      On the joy of cracking the kanji code and revealing hidden meanings.

The kanji for the word “kanji.”

Introduction: What Are All Those Squiggles?
      On the way characters have come to represent sound and meaning.

1. Kanji in All Their Glorious Variability
      On the vacillating pronunciation of characters and how this developed.

2. The Architecture of a Character
      On the building blocks of kanji: components, radicals, and phonetics.

3. Compounding the Pleasure
      On kanji compounds, which contain mathematical logic and elegant wit.

4. What Kanji Say About Japan
      On kanji as a cultural mirror informing us about Japan past and present.

5. Japanese Feelings About Kanji
      On the deep feelings that kanji prompt in native speakers.

6. Double Happiness
      On how kanji can make Chinese accessible, which feels like a delightful bonus.

7. Tips for Studying Kanji
      On making kanji study fun and effective by avoiding drills and engaging with characters.

Sneak Preview!

To sneak a peek at the very detailed Table of Contents in PDF form, as well at several sample pages, just click this link.

Featured on Flickr!

Crazy for Kanji features the work of photographers from around the world who have captured kanji in unusual situations.

One such photographer, tattoo artist Sergio Quinonez, now has a picture of Crazy for Kanji on his Flickr site.

So does Steve James, who goes by the name steeljam on Flickr.

So does Takeshi Sakamoto, who copyrights his work with takeratta(tm)*. He also featured my autograph on his Flickr page! Very clever!

Related Writings

Kanji Curiosity is my blog about kanji.

The April 2007 issue of the East Bay Monthly carried my essay “The Way of Kanji.”

For other articles about Japan and Japanese culture, see Japan Writing.