Flashcards are almost a necessity for any language learning project. They are a brilliantly easy way of expanding your vocabulary while constantly testing yourself for recall. Most Chinese learning software has built in support for either virtual or printable Chinese flashcards, but if you're teaching yourself Chinese on your own it's easy to to make your own Chinese flashcards from scratch, and customize them to your specific needs.
1. Choose the Vocabulary
Don't try to make too many Chinese flashcards at one time. Instead, look at the specific unit you're working on right now and pick out the key vocabulary. Pay special attention to words that you have difficulty remembering.
Later on you can continue using these flashcards even after you've moved on to the next unit, as a way of reviewing. You can also keep certain words that you have trouble with in the rotation while putting aside words that you are confident you will remember.
2. Decide on your Language Learning Priority
The problem with Chinese flashcards is that they really should be three sided instead of two sided. In an ideal world you would want to switch between the written character, the pinyin, and the English word. However, you have to make a decision, because your Chinese flashcard will only have two sides.
If you are focusing on conversational Chinese, you may not want to print the character at all. Just write the English on one side and the pinyin on the other. This is enough. If you're learning the Chinese characters at the same time as you're learning the pinyin, you might want to write the two of them together on one side and write the English on the other side. If you're trying to test your reading ability, you might want to put the English and pinyin together, and have only the Chinese character on the other side. It's up to you, and your Chinese flashcards should reflect your level of fluency and your language learning goals. Beginners should stick to English and pinyin.
3. Make the Chinese flashcards
This is the easy part! Buy some recipe cards and a sharpie marker, and go to it. If you're writing characters, be careful to write them with the correct stroke order so that you don't end up memorizing an improperly written character. The great thing about making your own Chinese flashcards is that the process of making them is a kind of study in and of itself. You'll discover that you have an easier time with the vocabulary after you've spent a half hour or so writing it all down on recipe cards.
If you get used to making your own Chinese flashcards, there is no limit to what you can do. Flashcards are great for games that you can invent for yourself. Try attaching points to different cards based on their difficulty, or giving them suits like in a deck of cards. Chinese flashcards can really help you increase your vocabulary, and have fun while you do it.
Justin White lives in Jhubei Taiwan, and frantically works at learning Chinese.
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