How to study kanji using flash cards?

[Sequa]

Hi,
learning vocabulary using flash cards is easy (Japanese on the one side, translation on the other)
but when it comes to learning kanji, I'm not sure what to write on each side.

What I want to learn:
- Kanji itself
- meaning
- onyomi
- kunyomi
- vocab which uses this kanji / compounds

These are five things to fit onto two sides of a card. I rather need a cube for this ^^
My idea was to put the meaning on the one side and all the other things on the other.
Then when I see the meaning I write the kanji on some piece of paper, think of all the readings and check if I'm right.
Or should I skip the readings all together and just learn the readings of the kanji in the words that I already know?

(I'm about jlpt4 level and can recognize about 150-250 kanji but can't read or write most of them.)

How do you learn kanji (using cards) ?

[nice gaijin]

I would recommend having the character itself on one side, and designing a grid of information for the other stuff on the backside, making the pronunciations the most prominent elements. I would also include sample compounds that use the character you are studying, to give some context.

The method I'd suggest would be to use the cards by looking at the kanji side first and practice writing the character, and try to use it in a sentence, or just write a compound involving that character. Then flip the card over to confirm it. You could also go the opposite way, looking at the meaning or the pronunciation, then trying to write out the kanji before looking at the other side of the card.

[Dena81]

Originally Posted by nice gaijin

I would recommend having the character itself on one side, and designing a grid of information for the other stuff on the backside, making the pronunciations the most prominent elements. I would also include sample compounds that use the character you are studying, to give some context.

The method I'd suggest would be to use the cards by looking at the kanji side first and practice writing the character, and try to use it in a sentence, or just write a compound involving that character. Then flip the card over to confirm it. You could also go the opposite way, looking at the meaning or the pronunciation, then trying to write out the kanji before looking at the other side of the card.

I agree with that method. That's what always helped me, writing the actual character on one side and on the other you put all the different parts, making sure to split the pronounciation for each individual Kanji if it's a combination. I've also seen a number of pre-made Kanji flash cards out there if you want to get an idea from those.

[nice gaijin]

The act of making the flash cards is also good practice and might help you retain the information, granted you do them one at a time, writing the character and all the information for one kanji at a time.

[Sequa]

Thanks for your replies!

I will try it the way you described it.

You could also go the opposite way, looking at the meaning or the pronunciation, then trying to write out the kanji before looking at the other side of the card.

But this doesn't work if I write the compounds on the same side as the meaning and readings, does it? Because then I could see the kanji already in the compounds.

[Supervin]

Originally Posted by Sequa

Thanks for your replies!
I will try it the way you described it.
But this doesn't work if I write the compounds on the same side as the meaning and readings, does it? Because then I could see the kanji already in the compounds.

For the compounds, put a symbol like tilda (~) to substitute the character that you're learning. That way, you won't see that character.