Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186542 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Cards
• 448 pages

Synopsis
Chinese in a Flash Volume 2 is an excellent new language learning resource for travellers and those who want to learn Chinese quickly and easily. Following on from Volume 1, it consists of a complete boxed set of flashcards for Chinese character recognition, vocabulary learning and testing. It has a full range of features to help beginners and intermediate learners.

Customer Reviews

Very handy revision aid for intermediate Chinese
This is a box containing 448 flashcards and a short booklet explaining what they are and how to use them, with an index of all the cards in the box.

On one side of each card is a Chinese character (both simplified and full-form) with four examples of its combination in a two- or three-character word.
On the other side of the card is the meaning, pronunciation (in pinyin), radical and an example of its usage. There is also a translation and pronunciation of the four combination uses.

I got these cards off a friend who hadn't used them. I'm now using them as a way back into Chinese after letting my knowledge lie idle for 10 years. It's a very handy method, since you can test yourself by looking at one side and trying to remember what's on the other. The combination characters are very useful memory-joggers. The flashcard format means you can take some with you in your pocket or shuffle them up and have a random test. You can even get someone else to test you.

The cards are not quite as tough as playing cards, but they are not flimsy and would definitely withstand quite some use.

It's hard to fault such a simple and effective tool, but if pressed I might say that the translations given for each character could be fleshed out a bit, since Chinese characters tend to have a tremendous number of meanings. But these are often reflected in the combination examples, and maybe flashcards are not quite the right format to go into the entire etymology.

I haven't got Vol.1, so I can't vouch for them, but I would imagine they are just as handy.

This is the sort of thing that people buy and then actually never use (like my friend) and that's a pity. If you've got a Chinese exam coming up, you might well find these cards a great help.