Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103346 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07
• Original language: Japanese
• Binding: Cards
• 100 pages

Customer Reviews

Brilliant set for new learners and for staying sharp
I bought this flash card set because I learned the Hiragana two years ago, and recently find myself struggling to remember some symbols. I found these flash cards refreshed my memory in no time.

Notably, I did NOT learn Katakana previously, and using these cards I found I learned them all within a mere 4 or 5 passes of the cards. I shuffled the cards between passes to ensure that I was not merely learning a sequence (although I would have been just as impressed if I had learned a sequence of 46 symbols, haha).

Everything is in card form. What's in the box?

- 46 Hiragana flash cards (burgundy),
- 46 Katakana flash cards (teal),
- One double-sided Hiragana/Katakana chart,
- Youon (contraction) charts across two cards,
- 4-sided introduction to Kana and Japanese writing,
- 3 or more recommend-a-friend cards,
- A couple of cards about White Rabbit.

The cards and even the box they come in have been designed to be both appealing and informative. There is little clutter and simple design in combination with a controlled colour palette means the information is easy to digest.

The Kana cards are well-designed. Moving down the card and from left to right, you have:

- The kana symbol itself,
- A grid showing several ways in which it may be seen written or printed,
- The card number (1-46),
- A list of in-context examples of the kana being used,
- The strokes required to draw the kana.

Flip the card over and you have...

- The Roman reading of the character,
- The kana written next to a pictorial mnemonic,
- A mnemonic phrase to go with the picture,
- The list of in-context examples again, this time in Roman form with translations.

As another reviewer mentioned, a handful of the pronunciations are a bit odd in that the mnemonic phrase gives an Americanised lilt to the reading. This is BAD because the pronunciation must be as it is read in Japanese if it is to be of any use. I recommend using the cards in conjunction with a free language resource site such as Livemocha, where you can learn with small audio clips which are recorded by native speakers.

However I would definitely recommend this set for anyone who wants to learn the Kana, and for anyone who has previously learned them but exercises them so infrequently that they find it all slipping away. This set is very portable (although you may wish to get hold of some elastic bands - you'll see what I mean) and can be kept in a bag, glove box, etc.

excellent value for money
I like these a lot. I've done a term and a half of evening classes so far and am teaching myself Katakana so I can keep up with my Kana textbook. My teacher also recommends them.

The cards are well designed, clearly laid-out and include examples as well as showing stroke order and visual/verbal mnemonics.

My only reservation is that some of the mnemonics assume you have american pronunciation. For example, the Katakana card for "ta" shows a picture based on the character, which supposedly shows someone "Tossing a Tomahawk". Which when I say it sounds like "To" (), and not once but twice!!

This happens in maybe 5 or 6 cases with Katakana and I've had to make up my own alternatives. Other than this, these are great value for money and actually much faster and simpler to use than any software I've yet tried.

Great Product
White Rabbit flashcards are of the best quality for the Memorisation of Kana and Kanji. This set is for the Memorisation of Kana (Hiragana and Katakana). I highly recommend these cards to anyone as the pictures can help with memorisation. I used these cards in conjunction with the books "Lets Learn Hiragana" and "Lets Learn Katakana" by Yasuko Mitamura. These cards are best used with another learning method and are not suitable for lone use to learn kana. After you have learned kana you probabily wont use them anymore and because of that i only gave 4 stars.