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Kanji cards

In my experience kanji cards are the most effective way to learn kanji. The easiest way to get kanji flashcards is ordering ready made ones. Of course you can also use the free pdf files to print your own kanji flashcards. Finally if you need some more writing practice you can write your own cards.

Kanji cards from the book store

There is a single company dominating the market for ready made kanji flashcards. White Rabbit Press produces kanji flashcards sorted into three sets by difficulty and JLPT level.

Kanji flashcard set 1 by WHite Rabbit Press Kanji flashcard set 2 by WHite Rabbit Press Kanji flashcard set 3 by WHite Rabbit Press
cards 300 900 895
level beginner intermediate advanced
JLPT levels N5 and N4 N3 and N2 N1
link get it at Amazon get it at Amazon get it at Amazon

Ready to print kanji cards

You can download pdf files containing ready to print kanji cards in the download section. They might not be perfect yet, but they get better with each update!

Howto Write your own Kanji Cards

Kanji cards could have approximately the size of a credit card or a business card. I use squared A8 index cards available from my local stationary store. When writing complex kanji the squares are more useful than lines would be.

front side of a kanji cardback side of a kanji card

Information on the front side:

  1. the kanji
  2. Kun readings
  3. On readings
  4. example words
  5. reading of example words

Information on the back side:

  1. marking signifying the total number of Kun readings
  2. marking signifying the total number of On readings
  3. meanings of the kanji
  4. translation of the example words