Chinese Character Flashcards 888

Rating:
Summary: Great support for my Chinese course
Review: I am taking Chinese in College and I got these to help out. The index is very helpful for pulling out the characters I am currently learning for each chapter. I wish the characters were a little bigger, but these are the best and most complete set that I could find anywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Great support for my Chinese course
Review: I am taking Chinese in College and I got these to help out. The index is very helpful for pulling out the characters I am currently learning for each chapter. I wish the characters were a little bigger, but these are the best and most complete set that I could find anywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Useful Tool for Memorizing Chinese Characters
Review: Since I have both "Chinese in a Flash" and "Chinese Character Flashcards 888" flashcard sets, I wanted to offer a comparison between the two.

Flashcards 888 are organized in the order of frequency of use of characters; Chinese in a Flash are arranged in the order of frequency and complexity. Someone learning Chinese language is more likely to encounter characters in the order presented in Chinese in a Flash cards.

Flashcards 888 are of a sturdier quality than Chinese in a Flash cards.

Both are approximately the same size.

Both have radicals mentioned. On Flashcards 888, radicals are provided in the upper right corner on the front of the card; on Chinese in a Flash cards, beside the radical is also noted the name of the character as well as character components.

On Flashcards 888, you'll also find a stroke order, helpful to know when you practice writing characters; Chinese in a Flash cards, do not provide a stroke order.

Both sets also mention several character combinations, together with their pronounciation in pinyin and the meaning in English.

Chinese in a Flash also provide a sample sentence where the particular character / word is used; Flashcards 888 don't.

Flashcards come in one set of 888 cards; Chinese in Flash come in two sets of 448 cards.

I am very happy with both sets and enjoy using them both.

Rating:
Summary: Best of a limited field
Review: The approach is right, the type of information is right, and the cards are sturdy and sturdily packaged. There aren't a whole lot of flashcard sets on the market for learning Chinese, which sort of surprised me, but these are still pretty good in terms of the range of products I could anticipate.

My only real complaint about this edition is that they are simplified-character primary. I'm learning traditional, and I think it's a lot easier to go from traditional to simplified than the other way around. The traditional characters are available on the front only of the flashcards only (along with the standard simplified), so it's not a complete loss, but the traditional font size is about 1/5 that of the main simplified character (which just exacerbates the problem of learning complex traditional characters), and the backs and index cards don't have the traditional characters at all. I went through the first few chapters of my textbook so I could pull the right flashcards out, but it was extra tedious because I'd have to constantly double-check the textbook's index to be see if there were a simplified version that I should be looking for on the flashcard index.

Rating:
Summary: Best of a limited field
Review: The approach is right, the type of information is right, and the cards are sturdy and sturdily packaged. There aren't a whole lot of flashcard sets on the market for learning Chinese, which sort of surprised me, but these are still pretty good in terms of the range of products I could anticipate.

My only real complaint about this edition is that they are simplified-character primary. I'm learning traditional, and I think it's a lot easier to go from traditional to simplified than the other way around. The traditional characters are available on the front only of the flashcards only (along with the standard simplified), so it's not a complete loss, but the traditional font size is about 1/5 that of the main simplified character (which just exacerbates the problem of learning complex traditional characters), and the backs and index cards don't have the traditional characters at all. I went through the first few chapters of my textbook so I could pull the right flashcards out, but it was extra tedious because I'd have to constantly double-check the textbook's index to be see if there were a simplified version that I should be looking for on the flashcard index.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic resource for those learning Chinese!
Review: This is an indispensable resource for learning Chinese characters. The flashcards are high quality and a perfect size that balances readability and portability. The front of the card contains the character in large font, and also the frequency of usage, character radical, traditional character equivalent (if different), and stroke order. The back of the card contains the pinyin pronunciation, the definition of the character, and a number of words that contain the character, along with each definition.

I have only one complaint with the flashcards. Because of a lack of space, the stroke orders are sometimes abbreviated, combining a few steps. It isn't always apparent which of the combined strokes should be written first. Stroke order aside, this is the best set of Chinese-language flashcards that I have come across.