Samort7 Thoughts Thoughts about board games, RPGs and other stuff. Recommend Tools for the Chinese Learner Posted by Taylor Liss Taylor Liss Samort7) United States

Quincy

Massachusetts Here are my favorite tools for learning Chinese.



Lingoes

The first is Lingoes: a dictionary that works through your mouse cursor. Simply highlight any Chinese text you don't know and it will instantly translate it for you.





Installing it is a little tricky, but here's a rundown:

1. Follow the link I've provided to download Lingoes.

2. Download the appropriate dictionary for translation. I recommend this CEDICT Chinese dictionary although there are numerous different dictionaries you can search for in all sorts of languages.

3. Install the dictionary. Do this by first making sure you are on the "guide" tab. Then click the "Dictionaries" link under "options." Then click the "install" button and find your dictionary. If it asks to enable "index groups" and "text capture groups" I just say yes.

4. Set up the dictionary activation to your liking. Click "configuration" under "options" and go to the "text capture" tab. "Mouse activation mode" is when the program will engage when you highlight a word in the dictionary. I set mine to "mouse over" without extra buttons to make it so I don't have to press any keys on my keyboard.

5. In the taskbar (bottom left of your screen) right click the Lingoes icon and make sure translate selected text is enabled.

6. You're all set! Give it a whirl! It's really an amazing piece of technology!



Dimsum

Dimsum is another free piece of software that I have been using since I first started learning Chinese. It has so many amazing tools I don't know where to begin. For starters, if you don't have Lingoes, this program does mouse over translation of any words you copy and paste into it. It also can convert chinese from simplified to traditional to pinyin if you need it. Very useful if you just want to know how to read a paragraph out loud without having to mouse over every word. It has a very comprehensive dictionary built in and you can search by radical, by components, by english, by chinese, by actually writing the character yourself... it's amazing. It even has an abacus, and family title generator built in. This is especially useful if you don't know what to call your father's mother's sister in Chinese.





Google Pinyin

The third tool I use is Google Pinyin. This is simply a program that allows you to type in Chinese on your computer by writing in Pinyin. After installing the program, press shift+alt to activate it, and press those keys again to turn the program off when you don't need it. The only time this becomes a problem for me is when I am playing computer games and accidentally turn the program on, but it shouldn't be a problem for most people. Another thing to note: if you want to type words that have the "ü" tone like "nǚ" (女), you should type a "v" instead of a "u" in the pinyin.





Anki

Anki is a flashcard program that utilizes "spaced repetition." The basic idea is that when you normally use flashcards, you often review words that you have already memorized. This takes away time from words that you actually need to spend time on improving. What anki does is after reviewing a flashcard, it asks you how difficult the card was. If the card was easy, it won't show you this card again for a few days. If you don't know the card very well, it will show it to you again sooner. It's very useful and creating flashcards on your computer is very quick. Best of all, if you have a smartphone, they have a free program that allows you to download your flashcards so you can review anywhere you want. They even sync the cards on your computer and phone to the same server so you are always reviewing the cards that are most important.





Hanping Chinese Dictionary

This is smartphone app that you have to pay for but I feel is worth every cent. It's a very easy to use dictionary that allows you to search through English, Chinese, or Pinyin. Highly recommended. They also have a free version, but I'm not sure if it uses adds, or is trialware.





Go Keyboard

Go Keyboard is an input method editor (IME) that I use on my android phone to write in Chinese using Pinyin. You can download an extension that allows you to actually write characters into your phone as well! It's free and combined with the Hanping Chinese Dictionary, makes an effective combo for language learners on the go.





Let me know if you have any other awesome Chinese tools! [+] Dice rolls Search Categories Contributors Taylor Liss