Heisig, James W.

James W. Heisig is an American scholar best known for his work in teaching Japanese kanji, the characters used in the Japanese writing system. His most notable contribution is the book "Remembering the Kanji," which introduces a mnemonic method to help learners memorize kanji by associating each character with a story or image. This approach emphasizes understanding the characters' meanings and writing them, rather than just rote memorization. Heisig’s method has gained popularity among language learners for its effectiveness in simplifying the learning process of a complex aspect of Japanese.