I am moving to Tokyo and starting to learn Japanese. I seem to remember seeing a reference somewhere to Kanji flashcards as a way to learn the characters. However, I can't seem to find anywhere to procure them. Does anyone know if flashcards actually exist and where I may buy them?

thanks,
marc

I have the kanji cards from White Rabbit Press. Their website is at http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/ .

The cards are available directly from White Rabbit Press in both the U.S. and Japan. Amazon also carries them. I believe that you can find them in bookstores such as Kinokuniya.

The cards are about the size of standard playing cards. The reviews on Amazon are very positive. I bought them for my kids, but they haven't used them much. I should start using them to improve my kanji skills.

I see that Heisig also has kanji cards, but they are very expensive. After reading the thread on learning Japanese painlessly , I wonder if these might be more effective as a study aid.

I personally feel it is more effective to make your own.

The effort it takes to do them (to get the kanji looking right you might want to print or photocopy large versions and either paste or trace them) seems to contribute to learning them.

If you are happy bending your imagination around mnemonical scenarios and phrases, then Heisig's method could be very useful. But if the phrases in the first post are irritating or useless to you, then give Heisig a miss (they're much more straightforward and logical than many of the 'stories' in 'Remembering the Kanji').

I put surprisingly little effort into my first attempt at learning Kanji (mainly on the train route I used to travel on to work), I picked up the book thanks to the recommendation in that thread. Hundreds of kanji have 'stuck'. I'll need to go back to refresh and complete the course before what I've learnt can be turned into something 'useful', but I can testify that the system works.

There are virtual flashcards you can get for your PC.
Have a look for kanjican - they're quite popular.

I would just make my own. It'll help in the learning process since it gives practice in writing too.

Thanks all!!!! White Rabbit Kana and Kanji cards have been ordered.

Marc

Students tend to assume that kanji flashcards are the best way to learn kanji, but unlike Chinese characters, kanji don't have just one pronunciation, so if you really want to be able to READ, as opposed to guessing the meaning, learn the "kun" readings (the native Japanese ones) with their "okurigana" (the hiragana that make up the grammatical endings) as in ??("kaku" instead of just "ka-,sho") or ???("taberu" instead of just "ta-, shoku). (Set your browser encoding to Japanese if you can't read this. ON EDIT: Even though the kanji came out clearly as I was typing them, I can't read them now. They come out as question marks no matter which encoding I try. )

To learn the "on" readings, the ones used in compounds, add a couple of compounds to your kanji cards. It's easier to remember ? if you learn ??(shoten "bookstore") and ???(kyoukasho "textbook") at the same time, or ? if you learn ?? (washoku, "Japanese cuisine") and ?? (shokudou "dining hall") at the same time.

Remember that kanji rarely occur by themselves, so learning them in isolation will not lead to real literacy.

"Kanji and Kana" by Wolfgang Hadamitzky and Mark Spahn (published by Tuttle) gives the kanji with compounds.

This hint on learning kanji is not original with me. When I was first learning Japanese thirty years ago, a classmate who had majored in Chinese as an undergraduate told me about learning characters in context, because even in Chinese, perhaps the majority of words are made up of two or three characters.

I continued using that tactic when I myself studied Chinese, and it was a great help.

I actually find doing simple flashcards on the computer a much quicker method of recognition - there are many free versions available;

I would recommend

http://www.msu.edu/~lakejess/kanjigame.html

you can break them down into small groups and use either english or kana - which will really help in speeding up your hiragana reading as well.

I also find

http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Reader.do

is great for finding the stuff in context and creating worthwhile lists (which I find my true talent is in list building rather than learning )

The great thing about kanji is the most important ones will be the one's you learn first and see everywhere (learn 100 and you'll be able to understand a lot that will help you get by (numbers, days of the week etc) - it gives you a kick....but it's all uphill from there!!

Ganbatte!!!