Tuttle Chinese Flashcards Vol. 1

[Pokarface]

Perfect for yourself and an ideal gift for your friend learning Chinese. This complete set has all the tools needed to not only review known vocabulary but also to learn new Chinese characters, how to combine them and create new words, how are they used in sentences, and how they sound as well! Every character, compound word, and example sentence is included in the CD and read by a native Chinese.

 

The beauty of the examples provided is that they use the characters in various compound words. Some of them are easy to figure out, like: 有名（has + fame = Famous）, but just because you can combine 2 or 3 characters, it does not mean that they will make sense in Chinese! Likewise, some compound words were not meant to make sense to foreigners, like: 小心(literally: “small + heart”, but it actually means, “be careful”).  The flashcard kit contains examples of both, the logic and not logic ones, so you can you can rest assured you will be understood when using compounds in written and spoken form.

 

This set contains not only colloquial phrases but also slang (for example it has both ways of calling a foreigner: 外国人and 老外; and the expression, 七上八落, a funny way of saying that you feel “agitated”) and you’ll also find curse words! (for example: BS and damn it!).

 

The back of the flashcards contains the radical used and components that make up the characters. Having these elements dissected makes writing easier as our brains start recognizing the “building blocks” used in written Chinese. Pronunciation is covered as well in Chinese pinyin, and for difficult characters, you will also find useful mnemonics to aid you on the back of the flashcard.

 

As an added bonus, you will find the traditional Chinese character as a reference (the way they are written in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau), and you won’t be puzzled as to how to study with this flashcard set since a study manual is provided with tips on stroke order, radicals, and pronunciation to get you started right away!

 

Find them at: 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Flash-Cards-Kit-Characters/dp/0804842019/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422917014&sr=8-1&keywords=tuttle+flashcards&pebp=1422917016652&peasin=804842019

 

http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/language-books/mandarin-chinese/flash-cards/chinese-flash-cards-kit-volume-1-book-and-kit-with-cd

[Bigdumogre]

Added these to my ever growing Amazon list

Thanks

[ZhiMu]

My 2 cents as an owner of this set of cards.

 

I must say that I ordered these almost 2 years ago before being truly active in Chinese study...  I almost never use them, nor am I sure they are the best investment of time or money.  If it came down to ordering the complete set of these cards (volumes 1,2 & 3) or a getting full featured Pleco, I say in my opinion Pleco wins.  With Pleco you get stroke order, example sentences, the ability to access so many different dictionaries, traditional and simplified charterers, radical components, OCR, spoken examples in both female and male voices and the list goes on... all with the ability to study with SRS digital flash cards all on your phone or mobile device where every you are.

 

I'm an avid believer in "Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time", one of Olle Linge's best blog posts in my opinion. http://www.hackingchinese.com/time-quality-and-studying-chinese/  If I have the time/ability to layout physical flash cards I am probably utilizing this time for a different type of study/practice.

 

However they the flash cards do sit out on my coffee table along side of my copy of Chineasy... both do provide entertainment to my intrigued guests.

 

@Pokerface BTW I am a huge fan of your video's.  I think you must be a very cool guy in person!!!

[Pokarface]

@ZhiMu. Hi! Thanks for following my progress. I hope I'm a cool guy.

Overall IRL, I tend to talk about the things I like the most with lots of energy, yet I don't try to act like if I know everything about them.

I always feel weird when some people do that  . If that counts as a cool guy, then yeah! I'm awesome  !

 

I try to mix things a little bit in my youtube channel. I also started backing-up some videos on YouKu, and to see what the general consensus in China is about my spoken Chinese 

 

I mainly use a lot of printed material to study or review Chinese (I think I'm old school; although, I do use Pleco flashcards and dictionaries).

 

In fact, it hasn't been long since I considered using FluentU.com, ChinesePodcast, and buying the full version of Pleco as my digital alternatives for Chinese learning resources.

 

I recently bought an Ipad to follow podcasts and hear Siri's voice read Pleco's example sentences (which is free), and considered buying the full version in my Ipad to port my license to Android as well since Mike Love has stated that purchasing the IOS version and then trying to use your paid version on Android is no problem 

(I have an Android phone which does not have a stock Chinese voice, but will be able to read with the full Pleco version).

 

You can use it on both systems once purchased! This is definitely a plus.

 

Another use that me and my friend have given to the flashcards to increase their replay value, is to play Karuta with them:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gAimoLfgxQ << an anime that explains the Japanese game, Karuta.

 

We are able to do this because we cropped the audio from the CD and set it on random on the media player, Lol!

 

Obviously, the real game is played with high high-quality plastic tiles. So the match didn't went so well  ,

but it was fun and as silly as it sounds, we couldn't have done it without the flashcards, lmao!!    

 

The time quality concepts are nicely applied. Points 1 and 2 are very practical for anyone with a smartphone and headphones.

The one I do the less often is speaking with myself, although, I do it sometimes while walking  from home to the office when there's not many people around me. Last time a lady heard me speaking Mandarin by myself...

 

After all this time, I just recently started using a tutor thanks to http://signup.speakupchinese.com/, (You can still sign-up and win!!!),

so point 4 has made me anxious because I do think of things like that. I want to make the best use of my time and progress