Chinese Flash Cards Kit

These are really wonderful aids and do all that a flashcard can be asked to do. Also, they DO provide a very detailed stroke order- I am puzzled why so many reviews comment that there is no stroke order. Perhaps there was an earlier edition? I will take and upload a photo, so other customers can see for themselves. I find them superior to "Chinese Character Flashcards 888" and wish I would have saved my money as I purchased both sets. There is another review comparing them that is incorrect. These flashcards are more sturdy, have a more detailed stroke order (they break down every single stroke while the 888 set often groups them), provide a sample sentence as well as additional words using the character (888 only has a few sample words), and provide the traditional character along with the simplified when applicable (888 does too, but it's very small). They are superior in every way to the 888 set- I haven't even looked at the other set since the Tuttle set arrived. In fact, this is the first Amazon review I've written, and I do so to correct the misinformation I based my purchasing decision upon. Another useful feature is that the first 500 flashcards in the set coincide exactly with the two Tuttle Language Library volumes "250 Essential Chinese Characters". So, if you're working your way through these books, these flashcards are the ideal study aid. (The labeling numbers coincide exactly...if learning character number 115 in the book, you can refer to flashcard 115.) I am very happy with the cards and encourage their use as part of a well-rounded study program. It has been commented that individual characters have no real "meaning", so these cards have limited use. I disagree. Individual characters do have meaning and are used to represent a particular sound and tone. You must learn what sound goes with which character since characters are written individually with equal spacing- when reading Chinese, you need to pronounce each sound as you go along since characters are not grouped together to signal they are being used to build a particular word. Thus, each character needs to be learned individually since it can be used with many different characters to build different words. For example, "pengyou", meaning "friend", is written with two characters: one representing the sound "peng" (which means friend) and one representing "you" (which also means friend). But the character for "you" can also be combined with the character for "yi" which result in "youyi", meaning "friendship". As far as the samples sentences go, they may potentially be confusing since they do not provide an exact word-for-word translation, but for someone with moderate experience (I've been studying Mandarin for 3 months now) they are very easy to understand. An exact translation wouldn't be very comprehensible anyway. I rarely find myself confused over which word represents which meaning, and if uncertain, it's easy enough to look up a troublesome word in the dictionary. It's all part of the learning process.

I studied Chinese in college and even as a native speaker I struggled. HARD. Never learnt to read and write but could speak it, however shabbily, but still I could speak Chinese. My biggest struggle was learning HOW to study Chinese and memorize characters, stroke order, pin ying, etc after years of learning language through the use of 26 alphabet letters. This might seem like a non issue to some but trust me when I say it was very difficult at first figuring out how to start from scratch with basically a foreign system of reading and writing and finding a method that was efficient, useful, and more importantly EFFECTIVE. Which is why I wish I had these back in the day. I had looked for something like this but most were just either not as good or less well laid out in terms of providing the information I needed in a form out that was helpful. And forget about me making my own. Believe me I tried. Whether it was my own terrible hand writing throwing me off, it was like the blind leading the blind, or the tedious and time consuming act of making print outs, typed up definitions, etc. then pasting them onto notecards, there just wasn't a convenient method. Then years after my Chinese classes I found these! Wish I had them back then but oh well. What I like about these is that the cards are not too flimsy, small but legible, easy to carry, and most important all the info you need is meticulously well thought out and organized into a very helpful method for quick learning. These cards have the pinying, stroke order directions, traditional AND simplified characters, definitions and even cooler common uses and other characters they are usually paired with. Plus they have the radicals associated with them. For me that was HUGE because somehow I missed the lesson on radicals and went a long time without knowing I had such helpful hints at my disposal. I really can't say enough glowing things about these handy dandy little helpers. Sure in this digital age there may be and probably is some app or program you could use and save some trees while doing so. But selfishly I gotta say there is something about notecards that always helps make learning easier and with these, as corny as it sounds, it makes it fun too! A must have for anyone learning Chinese or even struggling with learning Chinese! JIAAAAAAAAAAAAAYO!

These cards are fairly useful to the Chinese student seeking to increase his reading vocabulary. The Chinese character is displayed on one side so you can test your reading comprehension by reciting its pronunciation and definition to yourself. However, if you want to learn to write the characters---which, of course, ensures a higher level of comprehension---you're out of luck. On the other side of the card is displayed the Pinyin pronunciation, right next to a small picture of the character. You can't avoid seeing the character you're trying to remember. But that's not to say that these cards aren't helpful. An outline of stroke order is shown on each card, along with a list of character components and the radical used to identify it in a traditional Chinese dictionary. These are bonuses not easily added to home-made flash cards. I might recommend these cards if it weren't for one final complaint. These cards smell horrible. Let me repeat. These cards have the same toxic odor as new computer components, right out of the packaging---just stronger. I had to hang these cards in a mesh bag on my porch for a week before I could stand working with them for over five minutes. Even then, I had to turn the fan on full-blast. Considering that these cards don't provide much that you can't make yourself, or learn from other sources, I suggest getting Reading & Writing Chinese Traditional Character Edition or Reading & Writing Chinese: Simplified Character Edition instead. These books systematically introduce far more characters, and provide stroke order and helpful comments on radicals. They have the added bonus of allowing you to cover up either the pronunciation/definition or the character, so that you can thoroughly test your comprehension. They have the added bonus of not smelling like toxic waste.

These flashcards just arrived today, and I am impressed. I've been studying Mandarin for a year now, and ready to take the HSK exam. I bought these cards to ensure I had all the vocabulary memorized. I originally made my own at the start of my studies, but these cards will help bring my studies to a new level. With the character stoke order, example sentence, and commonly used word sections, I can expand my knowledge of a single character quickly (instead of looking up each character online/on pleco). Plus, they are numbered, so it's easy to track which characters I'll need extra practice in case I need to break up the deck. Finally, the set comes with a little pamphlet that organizes the characters alphabetically and by radicals, making it easy to find the card in the deck. I will be carrying these flashcards around with me to pass the time on my commutes, and perhaps even practice with a few friends as well. I would give this product a 5/5, but there are a few areas of improvement. First, only two of the cards were not fully punched. To resolve this I just pushed the ring through the punch area and had no problem fitting the cards on the ring. Second, the set only came with one ring. If you were to put all of the cards on 1 ring, it wouldn't lay flat on any surface (i.e. too many cards on one ring). I think the set could improve if it came with two rings. Thus, 4/5. I would recommend these cards to anyone serious about mastering the HSK exams! Hope this review helped!

This review is for Chinese Flash Cards Kit Volume 1, 2, and 3 (the newer edition of Tuttle Chinese Flash Cards) These are really great vocabulary cards. I studied Mandarin intensely as a second language (in US and in China) for about 3 years as far back as ten years ago. I previously studied all characters from the 3 volumes but haven't used them much since. I may be using Chinese for an upcoming job, so I bought all 3 newer edition flash card volumes as a review. So far they seem completely accurate. By following the suggested program, my language skills are returning quickly and efficiently. The vocabulary words on each character card are especially useful to reinforce their meaning. I would strongly recommend these as a supplement to other Chinese textbooks that can teach grammar and practice usage. As others have noted, the characters chosen line up 1-for-1 with the HSK exams. Volume 1 is HSK1, Volume 2 is HSK2, Volume 3 includes HSK3 and HSK4 characters. One downside I realized after buying, is that the newer card editions doesn't match up with the older flashcard editions. I would like to buy Volume 4 of the new edition also but it isn't released yet (if ever?). I realized that the start of older edition Volume 4 doesn't line up with the end of the newer edition Volume 3 characters. Therefore if buying 1-3 of newer edition, and volume 4 of older edition, some characters will be missing. For the most common 1,070 characters, these are a great set, but I'm not sure how best to continue past these characters once mastered. I pose questions to the author: 1) When will Volume 4 of the newer edition be released? 2) If we buy Volume 3 of the newer edition, and Volume 4 of the older edition, could you send us the characters missing in between? Overall great product, I look forward to checking out your other study resources. Thanks!

This product would have gotten 5 stars except for the poor readability. Blue ink is a poor choice because it is not dark enough for reading the smaller hanzi. The hanzi on the back of the card is even smaller The flash card material look sturdy enough and the information on the cards is good. Overall, the product is a good value. This product would have been even better if the flash cards were printed in black ink instead of blue ink.

I've been using a book to learn these which is quite helpful. The flash cards are just the thing to help with memorization. Some of the Chinese characters are, for some reason, very easy to remember after the first introduction. I'm not sure why that is, but I've had no trouble with recalling about half of them that I've been introduced to. The other half...well, that's a different story. I have to keep studying them and trying to give myself a tool to recall their meaning. What the cards do is allow me to separate out those words that I have trouble with from those I don't, so that I'm not repeating the stuff I already have down cold and do not need to review. It saves a lot of time and effort and unnecessary repetition to have these. I tried making my own flash cards, but these come with some great disks that help you to get the pronunciations right the first time. Chinese is a tonal language and sounds sing-song-y for a good reason: It is! The Pinyin (Romanized spellings) have accent marks over many of the vowels -- they are there to tell you how to pronounce the sound and there are at least five different ways to do that. My comprehensive dictionary has several pages for the spelling (without accents) "xie"--so, if you do not use the correct tonal pattern, you could be saying just the opposite of what you mean to say. Xie(4) xie means "thanks"....can you imagine how easy it would be to mess that up? The flash cards are numbered and there is a printed cross-reference so that you can find one easily enough if you want to change the order (also an easy means to make notation of such actions), and there are recorded pronunciations which are worth the cost of the box alone. The cards also give examples of the word in usage--very helpful, indeed. I would call these a "must have" if you are just starting out learning Mandarin. The first set are the more commonly used words and I would guess that they comprise about 50% of the Chinese you will need to know.

I like that the flashcards are not just the character and it's definition. It also shows you how to write the character and examples of how it is commonly used. Plus it has the radical, a sentence, character composition, and the traditional character if it's different. It supposedly also tells you about other characters it could be confused with, but I guess I'm more confused than most. More cards could have used this feature. I saw in several other reviews, that cards were missing. My set came complete.

A really high quality product. Beautifully printed cards with a slight sheen and nice coating. Good size, nice and solid for a card. We love the stroke order breakdown, the list of compound words and Pinyin. Highly recommend.

I absolutely love this card set! After taking a month-long break from studying, I thought I’d forgotten so much—but these cards proved me wrong. They’re perfect for quick practice on the go, whether I’m on the bus, waiting in line, or taking a short break. The format makes learning feel effortless, and I can already see my skills improving again. Highly recommended for both beginners and anyone looking to refresh their Chinese!

J'ai longtemps hésité avant d'investir dans ces cartes assez coûteuses mais je n'ai aucun regret car elles sont bien pensées à plusieurs niveaux d'apprentissage. Le lot comprend tous les mots à maîtriser en lien avec le niveau 1 du HSK (l'évaluation internationale du niveau de chinois). Il est divisé en 4 paquets de cartes qu'on peut installer sur un gros anneau. Les cartes font la taille de cartes de jeux (voire un peu plus petit). Elles sont blanches en papier glacé écriture en bleu. On pourrait penser que ces cartes sont des flashcards comme on peut maintenant parfaitement remplacer par des applications mais ici on a : _En façade le mot en caractère en gros à gauche, des mots composés sur ce mot à gauche (à raison de 4 à chaque fois, choisis pour leur fréquence ou pertinence) puis en dessous l'ordre dans lequel faire les traits et le nombre de traits (enfin le numéro de la carte pour les replacer dans l'ordre d'apprentissage) _au dos le mot en caractère suivi de sa translation en pinyin puis sa traduction en anglais avec à droite le radical qui le compose et les caractères différents qui le composent, une phrase en caractère/pinyin/anglais qui l'utilise puis la même chose pour les mots écrits en façade Donc chaque carte permet d'apprendre plus que le mot qui la compose pour aller plus loin car on pourra apprendre cinq mots par carte.

As a self-study beginner I really enjoy these flashcards. The paper quality is good so the don't torn. I recommend it.

This would be a perfect product if the cards were delivered in a smaller and more usable box, one that holds them as one would use them. The carton shown in the picture appears to have been designed to hold the cards on a store shelf. Nonetheless a proper little box was made by cutting up the Amazon package in which the cards were delivered. The cards are easy to use and contain the information that you will most likely want to know: The simplifed character itself, a small representation of the traditional character if there is one, warnings about similarly shaped characters, the stroke order, a few sample words and a sample sentence. Each card is 85mm x 55mm, which is a little smaller than A7 size, and sufficiently stiff to be handled rapidly. The card surface is smooth. The most important thing, however, is that the cards are a genuinely useful study tool with which a diligent student can make progress.