Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23386 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-30
• Original language: Japanese
• Binding: Cards
• 284 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent learning aid
This set provides flash cards for all of the Kanji which were required knowledge for levels 3 and 4 (the two easiest levels) of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) prior to 2006. Please note that JLPT levels are cumulative, so if you wanted to take the L3 exam you would need to know all the L3 and L4 Kanji.

As with their Kana flash card box, White Rabbit have planned this set out very well indeed and built on the experience of their previous releases.


What's in the box?

- A printed card guide explaining the layout, which also includes a large yomi index and a stroke index,
- One double-sided Hiragana/Katakana chart,
- 103 Level 4 Kanji cards (green),
- 181 Level 3 Kanji cards (dark blue),
- 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 3.5x2.5" cards are glossy with rounded corners and apparently are coated with "UV varnish" which presumably makes them fade resistant to some degree.

The Kanji cards are well-designed. Unlike the kana cards, they are presented horizontally to allow more information to be fitted in. Moving down the card and from left to right, you have:

- The Kanji symbol itself,
- A list of example kanji compounds (giving a total vocabulary of 1700 compounds across all the cards),
- The card number (1-284),
- A grid containing similar-looking kanji, with their meanings and card numbers,
- The stroke numbers for writing the kanji,
- The radical/s for the symbol,
- The stroke order diagram for drawing the kanji.

Flip the card over and you have...

- The "On" reading (borrowed Chinese), written in Katakana,
- The "Kun" reading/s (Japanese), written in Hiragana,
- The meaning/s in English,
- A diagram of the kanji elements, with their separate meanings,
- A handy "progress meter" which shows how far through the 284-card syllabary the current kanji appears,
- List of Hiragana readings of example compounds, with meanings in English.

As you can see, there is a lot of information packed into this set.

Be aware that there is NO ROMANISED READING on these cards, other than the English translations, so you do need to know your kana. I recommend using the Kana flash card set:
Kana Flashcards: Learn and Remember Kana in a Flash With Visual and Verbal Mnemonics

I also recommend using the cards in conjunction with a free language resource site which gives audio clips, or a reputable Kanji learning text which provides Japanese pronunciation guides.

I definitely recommend this set for anyone who wants to learn the basic Kanji. 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. Check out the publisher's web site for additional resources!

Better than Tuttles Kanji flash cards kit.
I highly recommend this product as it is a White Rabbit Press release which is well-known for high quality study guides especially the flash cards.

Wut's good about this set is that it forces you to learn to read and/speak the kanji which has 6 useful examples when used in a compound or a phrase. Providing, that is you have at least memorised the kana [relatively with hiragana]. There's also NO romaji whatsoever which might be frustrating at first but it does help you use what kana characters you have remembered and to actually use them. It's harsh but it keeps you constantly mentally accessing the kana.

Another thing is the layout. The design serves well as on one side it features the kanji itself and the stroke order and the 6 examples of its use. On the back is where the kana equivalent of the 6 examples and the english meaning and the kun

These cards make kanji studying fun and easy
I have started learning Japanese about 8 months ago but have been putting off the studying of kanji. I find kanji rather terrifying and, really, I tried to avoid it as much as I can. However it is impossible to be proficient in Japanese without knowing kanji (which means being illiterate and stopping the learning process by not writing anything - which means not practicing grammar as effectively). So, after finding this kanji flashcards's set and reading the reviews I decided to buy it and I'm really happy with the product. This set has 284 kanji cards which help to prepare for Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 3/4 (the easiest one). These 284 kanji are very frequent and common in Japanese vocabulary studied by the beginners. Each character has it's stroke order written down on one side of the card and about 6 sample words made of that certain kanji. The set also includes a card with hiragana/katakana alphabet on each side (it is helpful when you forget them sometimes). Both on and kun readings are written, as they usually are, in katakana and hiragana. So no romaji is used for Japanese words.
The flashcards are great if you want to organise kanji into the groups of learnt kanji, recognised kanji and unlearnt kanji. It is brilliant for a quick review and studying. I really recommend these cards to everyone (and it's cheaper than to make one's own cards - I tried that too!).