The Kanji Learner's Course Green Book: Writing Practice Workbook for The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course (The Kanji Learner's Course Series) Paperback – September 30, 2016

I found this to be a great supplement while working through the Kanji Learners Handbook (the blue book). I purposefully used a mechanical pencil (my absolute favorite for practicing kanji) I actually preferred to use ones that were of 1.3 mm (a mechanical pencil for kids by BIC) or .9 mm (Pentel) or a lil less. It gives you thicker and more legible strokes for the practice section that contain the larger squares. Maybe it's silly but to me the size more closely resembled the ink like font used in the workbook. For the smaller squares, I used a finer tip pencil (I prefer .3 or .2 mm mechanical pencils). In this size I can practice for a more natural handwriting style.You might want to pass on this if:1. You are using a book to learn kanji that is NOT the Kodansha's Kanji Learner's Course. The order will be different and looking for the kanji you're working on will only be a chore (hence the negative reviews here) so unless you're using an app to cross reference and locate the kanji in the book (like Kanji Study on Android) it will only frustrate you.2. Money is a concern. This book is $2-$3 more than a low-priced blank genkouyoshi on Amazon.3. (Which leads to) You don't need/ want the kanji listed in it. This, I imagine, is why it cost $2-$3 dollars more. The kanji is used as a reference to self check.4. You don't mind if the size of your written kanji is correct or are balanced within the square. The reference serves to help with penmanship, stroke order and general balance of the kanji which is important in the Japanese culture. If you're not concerned about your penmanship than yeah any scrap paper or any old notebook, or a blank genkouyoshi will do.5. You want more space to practice. This book gives you 11 spaces to practice each kanji. The pages however (so far) have withstood repeated erasings. In a typical 'cheap' genkouyoshi blank book without a grid there are usually 10 columns with 20 boxes in each per page.I've had the book for over a year and as I was overwhelmed with my studies I had to set aside my kanji practice. That said when I returned to it recently a sort of muscle memory returned as well and fortunately so did the stories that were in the Kodansha's Kanji Learner's Course. Even so, what was great was that I could erase the ones that were currently giving me a hard time and practice them repeatedly. I could also compare my old handwriting to my current one and see how much I've improved. Additionally, each page allows you to practice 20 kanji (10 top, 10 bottom) while tracking what has been accomplished along the way. Having it organized this way it can help with creating a daily practice. I have a set amount that I prescribed for myself per day and would look at the kanji I'm expecting to learn just go get acquainted with the look of it. I personally liked knowing the key word in English and would jot that as a header in this green book. Once I understood the components and how to write it I would just practice in the section there. I would save a few spaces, and test myself by covering what's been written on a page and, just remembering the keyword, would try to remember how to write the kanji.The book also helped when I wanted to practice on the go. Let's face folks, the KKLC, is a big beautiful blue beast of a book and you're not gonna want to lug that around if you wanna study away from home. It's much easier to learn to write them after learning, or again, as a preview and then practice with the book later. I find that having multiple exposures to the kanji to be really helpful.I've learned about 800 using this with the blue book and have learned about 200+ elsewhere. I'm looking forward to filling the whole book with kanji one day. I think it will serve as a nice record/ souvenir of my efforts and accomplishments. ^_^

I bought this workbook to practice the writing of the kanji taught in the Kanji Learner’s Course textbook. It provides example kanji in both larger and smaller squares to practice writing them with good penmanship and it functions well for this purpose.However, imho this workbook also serves an even more important function...It provides a super clean overview of 20 kanji per page. It is very easy to look at each page and review the kanji I have already learned or to preview those coming up and get an over all sense of the groupings. (A plus for me as I remember things better when they are in groupings than in isolation.) I also decided to write the ON-yomi in the margins immediately above/below each kanji. This way I will be able to easily see when kanji with shared elements/graphemes also share ON-yomi.I also use this workbook as a “template” for Iversen-word-list type review. Well, not really word lists.... For example, I look over the first 5-10 kanji on a page. In my mind I go through all of the English keywords/meanings for each of the 5-10 kanji. Once I think I have them all clearly in my mind, I write all the English keywords/meanings down at once on the left hand side of a sheet of paper. Later that day (or the next day, etc), I will look at the English keywords/meanings for all 5-10 kanji, and go through in my mind how to write the kanji. Once I have these in my mind for all 5-10, I then write down the kanji for the entire group all at once on the right hand side of the paper. The Green Book then serves as my answer sheet for the kanji themselves. Of course I often like to write down 1-2 vocabulary words for each kanji during this step, if any come to mind. (They might be from the main blue textbook or they might be from the excellent Graded Readers.) I just write down whatever vocabulary comes to mind to allow my brain to free flow and reinforce whatever connections come up for me. I usually do this as a review for additional recall and writing practice.

I completed this workbook in 2019. Then I bought another in 2020 and completed that one too. With 2300 characters written 11 times each, that's 50,600 repetitions - not bad.I do not know the readings and meanings of all 2300 characters - not even close. I use it more for the pleasure of writing kanji, because it can be somewhat relaxing, and because it's something to do with my hands that doesn't involve more screen time. It also gets me more familiar with the characters, even if I don't know their particular meaning right now.I don't recommend buying this book and just practicing the characters as you learn them. That will take a very long time, and you might as well just get some grid paper for that. I recommend this for people who want to write out these kanji just for the fun of it, for writing practice, and so you can at least get your eyes and hand accustomed to all the common kanji.The book has you write each character in a large square 4 times, and then 7 times in a small square. Use a fine point pen or pencil, otherwise the small square will get too crowded.My second time through, I ripped out the pages, which makes it easier to do the characters on the backside of a page.Completing this takes follow-through and determination. There are 117 pages, so it might take a few months, unless you really race through. Finishing becomes a little accomplishment that you can pride yourself on :).

Even just looking through this, viewing 40 Kanji at a time, you got a better sense of the patterns and connections than from the main book or the poster. It’s almost worth the small cost just for that. I suggest writing 2-3 key compounds/words for each kanji, not just writing each individually, and then use this book later to quiz yourself: for each character you should be able to give an example word, and you should know the readings for the words that you wrote.