Chinese Flash Cards Kit Volume 1: HSK Levels 1 & 2 Elementary Level: Characters 1-349 (Online Audio for each word Included) (Volume 1) Cards – Audiobook, 10 July 2012

Before buying these I checked the reviews on other sights and the American Amazon and then bought these based on those reviews.I can now so I am so glad that I did, alike many of the Tuttle Library products I own these are very good.They're laid out brilliantly, they contain the traditional and simplied characters, pin yin on the back, English meaning and example sentences and/or phrases. On top of that they're not at all expensive.After buying these I bought the Korean in a Flash v.1 for my Korean studies too! I really can't say enough good things about them.

This would be a perfect product if the cards were delivered in a smaller and more usable box, one that holds them as one would use them. The carton shown in the picture appears to have been designed to hold the cards on a store shelf.Nonetheless a proper little box was made by cutting up the Amazon package in which the cards were delivered.The cards are easy to use and contain the information that you will most likely want to know: The simplifed character itself, a small representation of the traditional character if there is one, warnings about similarly shaped characters, the stroke order, a few sample words and a sample sentence.Each card is 85mm x 55mm, which is a little smaller than A7 size, and sufficiently stiff to be handled rapidly. The card surface is smooth.The most important thing, however, is that the cards are a genuinely useful study tool with which a diligent student can make progress.

These are very handy little cards that cover the first several hundred words in the Chinese official vocab, meaning that once you've mastered them all you've covered enough to be able to understand most written Chinese that you'll find. The cards may be a little small for some, and the text can be on the tiny side, but they do a very useful job.I really recommend getting these with the Tuttle Learning Chinese Characters volume 1 book Learning Chinese Characters: v. 1 which follows the same list of words and has some handy mnemonics to help you learn. Within an hour I'd learnt 16 Chinese characters - that's 7% of the most frequently used ones! Hard to believe...Together, the cards and book are an excellent combination, strongly recommended!

I have had the "hard-copy" version of Volume 1 for some time, and recommend it strongly to anyone learning Chinese. But I have just bought the Kindle version of Volume 2, and do not recommend it all. I am sure it has the same content as the hard-copy version, but it is very awkward and cumbersome to use, as it does not seem to have been adapted in any way for Kindle. I fear the Kindle version of Volume 1 may be the same.With the hard-copy version, there is a booklet listing the characters in alphabetical order in pinyin and giving the card number, making it easy to find the card you want in seconds. The list is also there in the Kindle version, and I had hoped and expected that by clicking on a character, I would be taken straight to it. Not so. As far as I can see, once you have learnt the card number, you have to scroll through all the cards until you reach it. If it is a low-number card, that may not take too long, but for high-number cards it is very time-consuming.I hope I am missing something (and please tell me, anyone, if I am), but if not, then I cannot recommend that anyone to buy the Kindle version. Buy the real cards!

The cards are durable and the reverse side gives 4 or 5 examples of how the character is used. This complements other learning materials such as textbooks and apps.

I wanted to refresh my knowledge of Chinese characters, so I decided to buy these cards. Individual characters are clearly presented on one side, and where traditional Chinese characters are also relevant, those are presented on the side as well. I think that you are supposed to copy the character in the order of strokes presented on the bottom of one side of the card, but the card's surface isn't suitable for writing on with a regular pen. Nevermind. On the back of the cards, combinations of characters are presented as phrases. Admittedly, many of the phrases would be difficult for a complete beginner, but they are useful for people who already have a basic grasp of Chinese. Some of the idiomatic phrases, however, are not so useful. The cards are robust enough for repeated handling. There is a ring clip that can just about hold all the cards, but you can't flip the cards when they are all on the ring. It would have been better to have provided more than one ring clip. Overall, I can recommend the cards as something you can keep on your desk or put in your pocket to regularly revise the characters. My goal is to learn all three sets of the flashcards in three years to take HSK level 4. Finger's crossed!

Very low quality cards. The metal ring is way too small for full lot, so you'll only be able to put a hundred or so cards on it at one time.But the text on the cards is relatively good. The example words on the front of the cards are helpful to remember the meaning of the character, but are in a smaller font, small enough that you can ignore them if you prefer.

I have only been learning Chinese a short time mostly using pinyin and could quickly see a need for starting to learn some common Chinese characters. The cards give the basic meaning of the character as well as using it in a sample sentence and listing a few other words containing the character. It is a good way of learning even if you are a busy person. I take a few cards at a time, study them carefully to start with, then review them a few times through the day, just for a few minutes each time.I have learned over half the characters already and I'm now able to read and recognize more and more Chinese characters.Iit's been so helpful and rewarding I would recommend these to anyone who is serious about learning Chinese.