<< 1 >>
Rating:  Summary: The Reviews are Lies Review: I got these cards as a gift from my teacher, and I just completed the first set (I already knew some). These cards are perfect, the big type allows you to see the kanji clearly, and compounds teach you some of common readings, and it has how to write, along with all the on and kun readings. True, they are in romaji, but RTK also uses romaji. Most of the reviews have just been people going wah wah wah about losing them and them being small. I haven't lost a single card, and how hard can they be to organize? It's not like I'm building a house of (flash)cards with them. The romaji, perhaps unacceptable, is commonplace in kanji learning materials, and the thickness and size is not a problem at all. Don't get these cards if you have the attention span of a 10 year old, but other than that they are excellent.
Rating:  Summary: kanji cards are the only way to go for learning nihon-go Review: I love kanji cards. They can be shuffled, turned over, reshuffled and turned back over. For quick acquisition of kanji, here is the method I recommend: Put all of the kanji that you think that you know well in a pile with the reading side up and try to write them correctly. Flip the card, and you have instant feedback. Remove the ones that you have mastered and repeat. Then test yourself orally for memory of the readings, working from the kanji side of the cards. The best! (Is there any other way to learn kanji??) Although many people make their own kanji cards, I prefer the preprinted version. Quick, easy, and, most importantly of all, correctly written (at least according to Tuttle!). Take a pile of them with you wherever you go (don't forget a rubberband). No need to waste time anymore while waiting in lines or sitting on the subway. Learn more kanji!
Rating:  Summary: You get what you pay for Review: These cards are cheap. At $13.97 they are about $.03 per card, but you get what you pay for: poorly design cards printed on small, thin squares of paper; stroke order characters scrawled by hand; and the use of romanji despite strong sentiment among educators that it should be abandoned as it interferes with mastering basic kana skills. I give this product only 1 star because even though it is very cheap, I still felt a little ripped off because the quality is so poor.I recommend 'Japanese Kanji Flashcards 1' published by White Rabbit Press, ISBN 0974869406. True they cost a few cents more per cards, but they are well worth it. I bought mine through the "New and Used" link so I paid about six-and-a-half cents per card, but the features are well worth it for me: the design and printing is excellent, you get more vocab, better definitions, images of kanji which look similar so you don't get confused them, stroke order diagrams in typeset fonts (not handwritten); and, of course, readings in kana scripts (no romanji). Also, they are the same size and shape as regular playing cards, a little large for some people's hands, but I've gotten use to them. Learning kanji is a lot of hard work. If you are a student on a very limited budget, then the Tuttles cards do have the basic kanji information in a flashcard format, but if you can afford a few pennies more per card I recommend investing in the "Japanese Kanji Flashcards 1" product--you get a lot more for the money. It's worth is just for the extra example words (six per card). The biggest problem with the White Rabbit Press cards is that there aren't enough of them. I have written the publisher about this, and they said we can expect Set 2 with 700+ cards sometime later this year, so hopefully they will be out by the time I'm finished with Set 1. Nihongo Ganbatte!
<< 1 >>
|