“For anyone serious about learning kanji, this is THE place to go” (GS)
Welcome to keystojapanese.com, official site of the Kanji Learner’s Course series (KLC), including the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course textbook and the KLC Graded Reading Sets series.
Combining a comprehensive kanji textbook and an accompanying series of kanji-graded readers, the Kanji Learner’s Course series is the most powerful system available today for attaining genuine literacy in Japanese. This self-guiding, self-reinforcing curriculum allows you to acquire a native-like understanding of kanji meanings, a vast kanji-based vocabulary, and the capacity to read a diverse range of Japanese texts.
The Graded Reading Sets let you experience the pleasure of reading and understanding authentic Japanese—from your very first kanji. By reading a large volume of comprehensible material, you will absorb an ever-expanding range of grammar patterns, vocabulary, and subtleties of usage in the most natural and enjoyable way.
The Kanji Learner’s Course Series also includes the KLC Green Book (a writing practice workbook) and the KLC Wall Chart, a striking mosaic of all 2,300 KLC kanji with a selection of key example words.
Download this valuable PDF with detailed instructions on how to use KLC to learn kanji, vocabulary, and grammar in the most enjoyable and efficient way—through extensive reading of material that challenges you but which you are equipped to understand.
The Kanji Learner’s Course (KLC)
The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course (2013) is the core textbook for the KLC Series. User testimonials:
- As a kanji learning tool, this book has no peer… Absolutely essential for all students of Japanese! – R. Nagell
- I am convinced that there is not another book on the market to beat it for teaching non-native speakers kanji quickly and effectively – C. Cameron
- For anyone serious about learning kanji, this is THE place to go. The way the main Kanji Learner’s Course book works together with the Graded Reading Sets and the Green Book is a thing of beauty – Geoff Stimson
- I’m pretty sure I looked through 90% of all the available resources on learning kanji and this is, without a doubt, the best one I’ve come across yet. – Jomteon
- A tremendous book. I can’t imagine a better means of learning to read Japanese, whether you aim to build vocabulary for speaking and listening, or are a scholar looking to access written texts. Conning’s extraordinarily thoughtful approach clearly reflects careful examination of the learning process; a lot of value-added. – Dr. Darin Bellisario
KLC Graded Reading Sets
The KLC Graded Reading Sets are a series of e-books containing over 30,000 mini reading exercises covering all 2,300 kanji in the Kanji Learner’s Course (download free pdf of Volume 1). The exercises for each entry contain only kanji already introduced earlier in the course, and are focused on giving you contextualized practice with reading the kanji and kanji-based vocabulary introduced in the KLC. The Graded Reading Sets allow you to begin using kanji and kanji-based words as you learn them, and to continuously review what you have already studied. Visit the GRS page to learn more and sign up for notices of occasional discounts.
User testimonials:
- In six years of “studying” Japanese, I can definitely say this is hands-down in my TOP 2 best Japanese study materials. Along with the author’s previous book, The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course, which gets the #1 spot on my list, this is an absolute must. I can’t say enough about the quality of these graded reading sets, as it’s obvious the author put a lot of time and effort into creating them. The example sentences provide a solid understanding of the actual kanji used in various contexts. Some kanji have up to 30 example items, and the examples the author used were also fantastic. The advantage compared to every other Japanese language study material is that you can actually see and understand the kanji in different forms, which greatly helps remembering them. I think this is best used side-by-side with the KKLC, but if you’ve already advanced quite well through the kanji, you’ll still find this useful. – Alex Williams
- These books are an amazing achievement. The order in which the kanji are introduced, the excellent mnemonics in the KLC, and the reinforcement of actively trying to puzzle out the meaning and pronunciation of each character in the context of real sentences have worked like a charm. Thanks to this methodology, I have been able to absorb an amazing amount of Japanese despite not being surrounded by it. … The format works great on my iPad; I use scrolling mode to keep the “answers” hidden until I am ready to see them. Thanks and congratulations – “Afficionado“
- This Graded Reading Sets series is fantastic! This provides something no other kanji learning method does: carefully curated, increasingly complex context to add value to the kanji learning experience. – Àlex Zerkalo
- This series is honestly such a godsend when paired with the Kanji Learner’s Course. It’s clear a lot of time went in to this and it really helps cement your understanding of the kanji characters and gives you invaluable reading practice.…. If you struggle with kanji, this series will really help you! – “Cha_rris“
Learning grammar
Our Grammar Resources page lists several popular tools by other content creators. Each is cross-referenced from the “grammar glosses” within the KLC Graded Reading Sets series, which introduces over 600 grammar patterns as they arise in the exercises.
Join our kanji learner’s group
Join the growing community of KLC users on the KLC User Group on Facebook, and gain new insights into learning Japanese by subscribing to our blog. Announcements of occasional discounts for the KLC Graded Reading Sets series will be made via the blog and Facebook group.
Support tools
This website provides several support tools for KLC users.
Learning kana
If you’re just starting with Japanese, we offer The Ultimate Kana Wall Chart: A Visual Guide to Japanese Phonetic Writing.
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