Chinese Flash Cards Kit Volume 2

These flash cards are incredibly useful for anyone interested in learning Mandarin Chinese; however, I'd particularly recommend this product to individuals looking for supplementary material for a course that they are taking or additional language support. These cards are most effective for learning to recognize and identify characters and tones used in Chinese. If you're interested in learning how to write the characters, I'd recommend instead purchasing a book published by the same company that makes these flash cards (Tuttle) called "Learning Chinese Characters." There are 5 predominate reasons that I particularly love this product: 1. The cards are the size of playing cards. This makes them portable and easy to take with you wherever you go. 2. There is a hole punch in every card that allows you to slide a small ring (included) around the cards. Super easy to flip through all of the cards without loosing any between couch cushions. 3. Each card is laminated. You don't have to worry about bends or tears as you would with homemade paper notecards. 4. The cards teach individual characters, but also include other words the same character in a different meaning. This will help you understand how Chinese is essentially a set of building blocks to develop new words. 5. Cards are numbered and ordered methodically so that you will learn how to develop new words and sentences as you gradually progress without needing to backtrack. My only complaint about this product is that the English and the Pinyin translations are right next to each other on the back. When first learning Chinese, most beginners will go through the process of learning how to understand and observe English to Pinyin (plus tones), Pinyin to characters, Characters to English. In a perfect world I would have preferred that the Pinyin and English were separated on the back of the card in different corners or something so that I could quiz myself on that information. Overall I am incredibly pleased with my purchase and consider it a bargain that I could benefit so much from a language product that didn't cost me $300+.

This four volume set is a very well done collection of flashcards for simplified Chinese characters (traditional characters also given for main entry, but not for examples). Flashcards by themselves are NOT a good way to learn Chinese, even if reading only is your main objective. You also need some grammer (word order affects meaning) and, most importantly, single characters are syllables, not (usually) words. For example, in English, "petro" means rock (as in petroglyph) but you do not pick up a petro from the side of the road. Learning characters is the first step in learning words. Having said that, this series is great as flashcards. It shows stroke order, the traditional character if different, a sample sentence, and some words or set expressions using that character (usually four). Each volume has about 450 characters (2000 characters covers about 97% of printed Chinese). The physical quality of the cards is high, which is important because flashcards get carried around and shuffled a lot. The only real negative is that a Chinese character can have many meanings, depending on how it is used and regional variations, and a few of the cards present somewhat odd or imcomplete choices for the English equivalents. However, this is a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent product. Bottom line: Great product for the flashcard role in your program for learning Chinese.

Chinese in a Flash - Volume 1, 2, 3 and 4 As an additional tool to learn Mandarin Chinese characters these flashcards are excellent made and very easy in use. Each volume offers 448 character flash cards and 1792 compounds words. On each individual flashcard you can find on the front side: - Large print of the character - Stroke order - Four possible (and frequently used) words using that character - A card number for easy ordering and traceability On each individual flashcard you can find on the back side: - Smaller print of the character (with pinyin and translation) - Radical - Character component - Example of using that character in a phrase (with pinyin and translation) - The four words using that character - as printed on the front side (with pinyin and translation) - The card number The 4 volumes offer in total 1792 characters and about 7168 words. Each volume has also a booklet that allows you to search on pinyin, character or translation. Volume 1 starts with more frequently used words and the volumes built up on that. All are printed in easy to read fonts by the way. This is a really great tool for the serious student of Mandarin Chinese. Great designed and superb in use!

I really do like it but have a few critiques. 1. The sound quality of the audio is bad. 2. The speaker sounds like a non-native speaker. If he is native and I'm just crazy, the tones sound very exaggerated and unnatural. Also, each audio track says "Card number <number>, <character>" before saying the sentence. So if you wanted to put them into anki it would require a lot of work to clip off the first half of each track. 3. The example sentences use the character in phrases or words that are not defined on the card. One of the first cards even contains an idiom "后来居上". Idioms and chengyu will not help a learner remember the meaning of the individual character in my opinion as they are often too abstract. 4. The stroke order seems unnecessary for the most part. If you're HSK 4 and still don't know the stroke order of most characters there is reason to be concerned lol. I'd rather see maybe the character in various fonts than this.

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.

These cards most likely will be your second purchase in your study of written Chinese if you have previously purchased the 1st iteration of Tuttle cards. The character progression is thoughtful and gradual as the first set as you begin common words and progress to more difficult ones. The cards are made of the same high-quality card-stock that the first set was made of that doesn't wear easily; I have carried the cards around in my pocket for months with a rubber-band around them without noticeable damage to the cards. The cards do no come with a carrying case which would be beneficial to keep them organized. I found a small plastic case which fit the cards almost perfectly from another flashcard set that I had purchased; I cannot remember the name of the product as the plastic case is the only thing that has survived. I recommend a thorough study of spoken Chinese before moving on to written as it will give you a better understanding of how the words that you are learning on the cards are used in context. The example sentences are great but are not all-inclusive of the situations in which certain words can be used. A great product overall and I would highly recommend to any student of the Chinese language. The pinyin for pronunciation on these cards is for Mandarin Chinese but the meaning of many of the characters also reflects the Cantonese meaning as well (though the pinyin for that dialect is not included on this particular set of cards). Happy Studying!

I am learning Chinese & these flashcards are great! They are a very nice size to carry around, plus they have several different words listed at the bottom of the card that also use the character. They show the simplified & original character. The biggest plus for me is they show you the order in which to write the character (they only show order on the simplified character)! I would highly recommend these cards if you are learning Mandarin Chinese. Volume 2 does not repeat words from Vol. 1, but just builds a bigger vocabulary. This is very helpful as you advance in learning Mandarin Chinese.

These cards are in the same improved format as in Volume 1. They have the rounded corners and plasticity that makes them more hard wearing than the previous (version 1) Tuttle set. These (2013 version 2) cards are tough enough to remain usable after a drink is spilled over them (although that makes them a bit less shiny). I prefer these physical flash cards to the virtual cards on a mobile phone because: * these don't drain battery power, * they can be shared with other learners, * and most importantly, I can manage recycling the cards in the order I want, rather than having software pop up cards I'm tired of. That works especially well with these cards because they can be shuffled like playing cards and re-arranged without damaging the rounded edges. The included MP3 CD contains, for each card, a simple reading of its character, phrase, and the four compounds of that character as printed on each. The vocalization is very clear, and I suppose you could listen to it in order for two hours, but I got bored after ten characters and went back to reviewing the flashcards (I don't get bored of that for hours because it feels like a game).

Clear, educational and fun.

My granddaughter loves these they are helping with her exams

The product itself is great. But for this and the previous set of Tuttle flash cards the CD promised was/were not delivered.

An excellent product. Certainly a great help to memorize Chinese characters.

Very good learning tool to learn more words.