Customer Reviews

Tuttle Kanji Cards

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I own the Tuttle Kanji Cards I and II. When I first started using these, I only knew about 80 kanji, now I know around 600. What I liked the best about these cards were: 1.) It has a stroke order (in the first set of cards) and shows you how to draw them.

2.) It comes with 4 combinations per card. (some do repeat however, and it doesn't tell you if that particular kanji can be used alone, but I suppose a kanji dictionary would suffice for that)

3.) It breaks it up into two parts (unless it's a kanji radical), which can help in memorization.

4.) The cards are divided into grades, which gives you some idea of how much you actually know.

(my recommendation for learning: learn in a set of 10, and repeat that set until you memorize it. I usually learn about 50 cards at once this way. Even memorizing 100 cards in one sitting is possible!)

This set of 440 flash cards was a great help to me when I went to Japan in Feb 97. I knew about 2 or 3 hundred kanji then. Now I'm addicted and know about 1500. I just read that the second set of cards has been published and hope to get the complete set of everyday-use (jooyoo) kanji.

My son takes Japanese in college. He zipped through learning the hiragana & katakana, but has really had to work at learning the kanji. He has used the first set of cards for three months now and says they are the only useful tool he has found. He still has to work, especially to write the kanji as opposed to just recognizing them, but he says these cards are a huge help to him.

This is a one of a kind tool to memorize the kanji. Spread them around your home...in the bath, by the bed, on the kitchen table...if you take a look at them at least once a day, you'll learn a bombastic amount of characters in no time. A must have.

These cards are alright, but the cards by White Rabbit Press are a true 5 star product. The Tuttle cards are small, thin, have only 4 kanji compounds, many of which are not commonly used. They have some typos, and the overall design is kind of ugly--the indentation is not consistent and the stroke order diagrams are handwritten! The White Rabbit Japanese Kanji Flashcards by comparison are beautifully designed poker-size cards with 6 compounds, look-alike characters and *imporant* hiragana and katakana (instead of romaji), and they come in a very nice box. It's hard to get the tuttle cards back into their box.

Making your own kanji flashcards is A LOT of work (I've tried it) so I definitely recommend buying a set. I tried these Tuttle cards and then read a review here saying that the White Rabbit Press cards were the best, so I thought I would try them too. (I'm always in the market for anything that is going to save me some time.) Compared to the White Rabbit Press cards, the Tuttle cards are not as useful. The vocabulary words they picked are not always something you would use everday and the definitions are usually just one or two words. Also, I found several mistakes, and I'm still a beginner! The White Rabbit cards are much larger (and thicker) so they had more room for more vocabulary (each card has 6 examples--Tuttle has only four) and the definitions on the White Rabbit Press Kanji Flashcards are more like the ones that you'd find in a dictionary. They show if nouns are countable or uncountable or both, like in "(an) internal medicine." Overall I think the White Rabbit cards are a much better investment. I had to search Google to find them, but I found the author's email address and he said they should be on Amazon soon.

With clearly printed characters and up-to-date compounds these flash card are a boon to students of Japanese - like me.

This series covers around 440 characters or Grades 1-3.

I use them regularly to both learn and ensure I don't go backwards in study. The 2nd series has just been released, and thank you AmazonCom - I've ordered them. If they are as good and comprehensive as the First series, together they will make a very powerful and good value tool.

Enjoy!

I have tried hand made cards and the Tuttle Kanji Cards - OK, but easily lost or bent, and hard to organize. I just received the White Rabbit Press Japanese Flashcards - these are keepers! They are the size of standard playing cards, durable, easy to read and have stroke order as well as examples on the cards. And they fit neatly back into their box!

The Tuttle Kanji Cards (both sets I and II) are invaluable tools for learning Kanji. I have just returned from Japan where I was able to read menus, train station and public signs.

A relatively small time spent each day (waiting for, or riding on, public transport is excellent for this) will help to expand your kanji knowledge dramatically. Unlike vocab lists in books, the cards are easy to carry around, and can be sorted in easy/hard piles etc.

While do-it yourself flash cards are usually good in the case of Kanji I feel it is better to get pre-designed ones to avoid making errors.
I would strongly recommend anyone to buy the cards and USE them (don't leave on the shelf as I first did for many months!)

Gambatte!

I'm in fourth year Japanese study in high school, with intentions to attend college courses. Already these flashcards (Sets I & II) have paid off. Every week, we have a 16 kanji-test, and with my flashcards, I save time by not having to create my own (I'm lazy). Plus they're very portable for study on the go. Although I don't like the use of romanji for definitions in general, the examples are well appreciated. I would recommend these card set(s) for anyone serious in understanding/reading/writing kanji: a task made less daunting with flashcards! :)