Kanji Flash Cards

[Yamanchu]

Hi, I've made up some kanji flash cards in pdf format loosely based on the Tuttle book 'Reading and Writing Japanese. I've set these up on A4 paper with marks to show where to cut down the cards.

I plan on doing roughly 200 at a time (when I get the time) and have now finished the first 200 cards.

If anyone wants a copy of these cards send me a message and I'll email them. I have checked these fairly carefully but I give no guarantees that there are no mistakes.

[mieth]

hey man I dont want to rain on the flash card parade or anything but one of the members of this website made a pretty nice website called www.readthekanji.com you can probably save yourself a lot of time.

[Yamanchu]

Hi Mieth, I use the 'Read the Kanji' site, and yes, I think it's brilliant as I commented in a different post. But that site teaches you compound words. The point of the flash cards is to recognise and read the kanji individually. Then, after you recognise the kanji, jump on the 'Read the Kanji' site and go for your life.

The point of the flash cards is to learn the different readings of the kanji as individual kanji which I think will complement the "Read the Kanji' site.

[Javizy]

The point of the flash cards is to learn the different readings of the kanji as individual kanji which I think will complement the "Read the Kanji' site.

Do you mean just learn words with a single character, or just learn a list of readings for each character? If you're going with the old skool list option you'll find it's much more difficult and pretty much pointless when compared to learning readings in context. Do you learn that 誇 has the readings こ and ほこ, or do you just learn the words 誇示 and 誇る?

Just learning the readings will give you a major headache after you're a few hundred characters in, especially trying to remember which ones are onyomi and which are kunyomi (which is crucial for guessing how words are read, which is all you'll be able to do). If you learn a Japanese and a Sino-Japanese word for each character to begin with, not only will you eventually add 4000 words to your vocabulary, but you'll have something concrete to relate the readings - including a solid distinction between on and kun - of each character to.

[Yamanchu]

The cards have the on and kun reading and also the english. It's up to you what you want to learn.

[Javizy]

The cards have the on and kun reading and also the english. It's up to you what you want to learn.

I was assuming that when I posted. Whether or not you can remember which arbitrary sound listed under character X is onyomi/kunyomi in a couple of months time, when you're trying to read real Japanese - real Japanese that contains real Japanese words like the ones I was on about - is another matter.

Why are you learning the readings? Naturally, so you can learn to read words. So, how can it not make sense to combine the two? It is not just a matter of readings, learning the words also reinforces the meanings of the characters. You're free to study however you want, I was just trying to offer some advice, since a lot of people have had efficient success with this approach, including myself.

If you're using the old school method of trying to learn everything at once (writing, meanings, and all the readings), then you're probably in for a bit of a rough, frustrating ride no matter what, I'm afraid. If you put your flashcards into an SRS program, then you might be able to strive off the headaches a little easier.

[Yamanchu]

Javizy, does it make sense to you, that if you know the meaning of individual kanji, then it's easier to learn and remember the readings and meanings of words with multiple kanji?

[Javizy]

Javizy, does it make sense to you, that if you know the meaning of individual kanji, then it's easier to learn and remember the readings and meanings of words with multiple kanji?

Whoa, I thought we were discussing readings here. Starting off by learning the meanings is the best thing you can do. Character X means Y, Y is written X: keep it nice and simple; review and remember it easily. From there, you can open a book, see a word with characters you recognise, and learn it. Learning a bunch of abstract sounds in advance is going to slow you down massively, and believe it or not, won't help you a great deal at all, if you are indeed able to seriously keep 2000 sets of overlapping, meaningless (and therefore very difficult for your mind to recall) sounds clearly distinguished and split into on/kun pairs in your head.

You'll do what you'll do, and learn from experience, and I hope you get results whatever. I'd definitely urge you to use SRS whatever approach you take, though, since this will unquestionably improve your retention, as well as organising your reviews.

[Yamanchu]

All I'm trying to point out is that i need to learn an individual kanji before I learn a compound word. I am not telling anyone how they should do this. Only that if these flash cards will help they can use them.

As a matter of convenience, if you want the 'on' reading it's there, if you want the 'kun' reading it's there along with the English equivalent. How these cards are used is up to the individual.

[jclemons]

I have both the sets of White Rabbit cards from the site. Making index card kanji flashcards was a real pain so I thought to buy some. They're really good, I just grab 5-10 a day and stick them in my pocket to review in my spare time. I lost some on the train though...whoops.

[untmdsprt]

For those of you who bought the White Rabbit cards, how far have you gotten in them? How do you use them? Do you go in order or mix them up?

Currently, I'm in the 40s because I review each word on the card. I've been trying to do about 10 a day, but work and other studying gets in the way. I do try to study them while I'm on the train.