Save time… download your free kana and kanji flashcards here. (Woo hoo!)
I am just getting started with these, and I would appreciate your feedback. Here’s what I have so far:
Hiragana Flashcards (textbook font)
Hiragana Flashcards (handwriting font)
Katakana Flashcards (textbook font)
Katakana Flashcards (handwriting font)
Kanji Flash Cards Grade 1 (handwriting font)
Don’t forget to print double sided when you try these. 
The kana flashcards include the rarely used characters ゐ and ゑ. You probably won’t be required to learn these, but I thought I would include them for those who are interested. The drawback there is that there is one lonely kana on the last page of the flashcard set. I’ll see about shifting things around a bit to fix that soon.
In the meantime, please let me know how you like these flash cards by clicking one of the buttons below:
And just FYI, I am only doing single kanji at the moment, not compounds. I will be doing compounds in the future, once I power through all the individual kanji.
If there is anything else you’d like to see in the flash cards, please let me know in the comments!
Those look great and can’t wait for more! Single kanji is fine for now, but I would eventually add compounds. Thanks again!
Hi! Me again. I think that the flashcards are great! They’re a little small though. Great job and thanks for doing this. Can’t wait for more.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll work on making a larger version and see what size is more popular.
In addition to these, which are actually great for studying, I would like to see SMALLER ones (yes! even smaller), maybe 50% the current size, to make them more portable for revision (e.g. on a bus). If fitting the readings and translations together on the flip side would make them too small, you could make 2 ultra-portable versions – one with just the readings, one with just the English translations.
I’ll see what I can do about providing a variety of sizes so you can all just pick and choose what works best for you. In the meantime, you could try using your page and printer settings to get some smaller cards. For example, start in your PDF reader at the File menu and choose Page Setup, then change the % to whatever size suits you (say, 50% of the original). Then when you go to print, make sure your printer settings do not “stretch to fill” or “scale to fit,” and make sure the image is centered on the page. This will waste a little paper around the edges, but I think this will work to give you exactly the size you want.
Please let me know if this works for you!
Hey that’s sweet! Thanks for the share!
Thanks!A great size!I wait for a grade 2:).
Really great cards!
However, may i suggest adding the English pronunciation to the back of the card?
I want to print the cards out to flash to my toddler son, but I am not able to read them.
Thanks! And great job!
I like the card sets, but I wish that you would remove the parentheses from the wi and we flash cards. They may be rarely used characters, but if I am going to learn them on sight, I should learn them as I would see them.
Thanks again for these cool cards,
Lunarclipper
I have been using your flash cards to help me make better use of the book I am using to teach myself Japanese (Japaneses Demystified). Your cards have been an immense help.
I found a slight problem with the card, however: In all sets for Hiragana and Katakana you have a symbol for the syllable “hu”. I had practiced with the cards several times before I found the error. I got to wondering why the book (and other info I had) went to all the trouble of explaining how the Japanese ‘f’ sound is made differently from the English ‘f’ sound if there was no ‘f’ sound in either the Hiragana or the Katakana. That is when I went to the Hiragana and Katakana tables in my book, (and verified from other sources). The error is in the cards. “hu” should be “fu”
This site, http://www2.latech.edu/~sajones/Foreign%20Languages/Japanese%20Syllables.htm , explains very nicely why this is the only ‘f’ sound, and why it occurs in the middle of the ‘h’ column (or row, depending on how the table you are using is oriented)
Anyways, just wondering if there will be a corrected set out soon. Let me know,
Lunarclipper
lunarclipper,
I’m so glad you are enjoying the cards!
As for the “hu/fu” issue, textbooks really differ on how to romanize the Japanese sounds. (I believe the Japanese: The Spoken Language texts go with “hu” as well.) As a linguist, I personally prefer to use “hu” when teaching because the pronunciation is much closer to the original Japanese sound (it’s a lot more like “who” than “foo”). It also makes it easier when memorizing the hiragana and katakana when all the sounds in the column begin with the same letter.
I should have mentioned this somewhere in the post, so I thank you for bringing it to my attention. Some textbooks use “fu” and it can be confusing if your cards don’t match! What I will do is include both pronunciations in the next version of the cards.
Thanks for your feedback!
Hey Shindo,
Your welcome, glad my feed back was of use, and glad for your explanation for the discrepancy between these cards and the books and such I have looked at. It makes sense, especially in light of what I read about why ‘hu/fu’ is pronounced the way it is and why this syllable is so confusing to an Alphabet thinker and speaker like me. The article is at the web address I mentioned before (http://www2.latech.edu/~sajones/Foreign%20Languages/Japanese%20Syllables.htm)
This is off the subject of the cards, but I am interested in your opinion on this. I am interested in linguistics, and have formed an opinion which makes sense to me, but I admit I don’t have a lot of experience to validate it. Here is my opinion, tell me what you as a linguist think:
The article I read says that most introductory Japanese texts will not address the difference in the way an Alphabet thinker (like say an American English speaker) and a Syllable thinker (like say a Japanese speaker) views a syllable like “ka”. The Alphabet speaker looks at the Romaji for “ka” and sees “k”+”a” and so says “k-a”. The Syllable speaker sees the Romaji for “ka” as one complete sound (a hybrid of “a” and “k”) and so forms his/her mouth for “a” and then says “ka”. This is why “hu/fu” sounds like “fu”: if your mouth is forming the “u” sound when you say “hu” the “h” portion of the sound is changed.
Personally I don’t see why this info is deemed too difficult for a person just starting to learn Japanese. It helps explain why there are “oddities” in the Katakana and Hiragana tables, and helps an Alphabet thinker get their mind around what it is to be a Syllable speaker. In my opinion, not learning this at the start allows the student to train in bad habits, which he or she only has to unlearn and retrain later. I would prefer to learn it correctly the first time.
Well, thanks for having patients with me and your opinion on this. Feel free to email me the response if you wish to keep it from cluttering up this thread. As far as the cards go, now that I understand a little better, either “hu” or “fu” works fine for me, they both mean the same thing to me now, Lunarclipper.
Great job! Thanks for saving us time! When do you think the second grade kanji will be ready? I’m reviewing as I teach my son.
Shindo,
I looked at my previous post and realized it could sound critical. I hope it wasn’t taken that way. I really am interested in your feed back as a linguist on my opinion. I have become very fascinated with languages and want to learn more, if not to become a linguist, then just to know more about how languages work. This subject fascinates me to no end.
My previous post should be taken as someone coming to a professional and saying “I think I understand this principle, here is how I understand it. With your experience, can you tell me if I am right, or offer your insights?”
I really would like to hear what you have to say on the matter.
I hope I didn’t offend, Lunarclipper
@lunarclipper
No offense taken! I have been busy with other projects lately so I apologize for not answering right away.
I understand the distinction between alphabet thinking and syllable thinking you mentioned from the article (thanks for the link), and I agree that it is not too difficult for beginning learners to grasp. I think the reason that textbooks don’t go into it is that there is SO much for beginners to get their heads around (especially when they have to learn a whole new system of writing) that this distinction becomes less of a priority. The distinction only shows up in certain sounds, and even if the student pronounces it incorrectly it is only slightly off and doesn’t interfere with communication. Most teachers try to spend more time on trouble areas where the message does tend to get lost, such as the syllable length distinction between words like いっしょ and いっしょう.
Hats off to you for noticing the issue and for wanting to get it right from the beginning!
the katakana cards have hiragana on the header
also can you do the characters with the little bits like chu etc
Thanks
I’ve writers block that comes and goes and I want to locate a way to get rid of my writers block. It can occasionally be so bad I can barley make sentences. Any tips?
Thanks a lot.