Learning to speak Japanese, it Is universally acknowledged, can be done in a reasonable amount of time, but learning to read and write it cannot. The culprit is kanji, or Chinese characters, which complicate the Japanese writing system to the point of frustration.

A first step toward conquering kanji was taken by Yasuko Mitamura in 1997 with the publication of Let's Learn Kanji. There, the fundamentals were introducedstrokes, radicals, and components-and 250 basic kanji as well. Now, Let's Learn More Kanji moves on to complex kanji and the formation of compounds of more than one character. Not simply a brilliant exposition but more importantly a workbook, it teaches the student how to analyze difficult characters in terms of radicals, components, and basic kanji; how to put kanji together into compounds; and how to recognize and learn any kanji not actually introduced in the book. Progress is constantly checked, and the student is continually motivated through quizzes and exercises. The result is the acquisition of 300 complex kanji. If the student has also studied Let's Learn Kanji, at the end of this volume he or she will have mastered 550 kanji for writing and received exposure to some 2,000 kanji altogether. As a result, the student will be firmly on the road to reading and writing Japanese.