Chinese in a Flash

Rating:
Summary: Useful Tool for Learning 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: do not buy
Review: The cards offer sentences in chinese and english with no clue on which words mean what. For example 'I was busy last wednesday' allegedly equals 'shang xingqisan wo you shir' but it doesn't teach you anything... 'last wednesday I was [literally 'have'] busy' would be a bit more informative and accurate. Since they do not tell you the meaning of the words, and also do not provide a dictionary, you can only learn from the cards if your Chinese is pretty good (or if you plan to learn a language by learning sentences without knowing what the words mean, a really ridiculous premise, but I have seen tourist language books like that before). I speak some Chinese but not enough by far to use these cards.