

Each kanji (and each non-kanji primitive) is assigned a unique keyword. The course teaches the student to utilize all the constituent parts of a kanji's written form-termed "primitives", combined with a mnemonic device that Heisig refers to as "imaginative memory". The method differs markedly from traditional rote-memorization techniques practiced in most courses.

This book has two variants: Remembering Simplified Hanzi and Remembering Traditional Hanzi, each in two volumes. Remembering the Hanzi by the same author is intended to teach the 3,000 most frequent Hanzi to students of the Chinese language. There is a supplementary book, Remembering the Kana, which teaches the Japanese syllabaries ( hiragana and katakana).

The series is available in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian, Swedish, and Hebrew. Remembering the Kanji is a series of three volumes by James Heisig, intended to teach the 3,000 most frequent Kanji to students of the Japanese language.
