Best of Chinese Study Tools, Studying Chinese Online and Off

[haton]

For training both sound / character / meaning, have you tried playing PINGRID?

New version 3 is just out, and it includes Handwriting training, that means that, at determined intervals you have to write the words with the mouse. All this based on a spaced repetition model, that tracks which words need more training.

Check it out (for free) at: http://ehaton.blogspot.com

[ocram]

WOW great threads guys thanks alot

[leosmith]

Forgive me if I've missed something, but the list in the first post, which I assume is the master, is missing some vital information that has sort of been established, or documented to some extent, in other posts throughout the forum. For example, it looks like several of the podcasts that I wrote about here didn't make the list. Also, a list of textbooks and Grammars would be nice; there are so many threads about those. If the problem is that the thread starter isn't available, perhaps one of the admins would care to take over the first post?

[renzhe]

The first post used to be a wiki, actually, but that was switched off due to lack of use.

[simonlaing]

While you're at it Roddy I definitely think you should add the short reading comprehensions and vocabulary building exercises done by the university of Iowa.

Espicially for intermediate students these readings and exercises are fantastic as they asre plentiful and deserve to be on the first page of the post..

Even several years later it is hard to find as good free reading comprehension resources that are on the web.

Hook it up Roddy,

Have fun,

Simon

[Rypervenche]

I say we get it turned back into a wiki.... There are so many sites that I want to add.....and since the original poster hasn't been active for a year, I ask that someone create one. I just found out about New Tong Wen Tang for Firefox and I'd like to add that along with Taiwan's Ministry of Education stroke order flashes.... Someone make this a wiki then make post a reply here letting us know where it is ><

I'd make one myself, but I don't know how to make one.... :/ If no one does make one, I may just have to make one once I get the Internet back in my place.

[renzhe]

I'm sure that if you post the links here with a short description, a moderator will edit them into the first post.

There was a discussion on whether to keep the wikis, but they became a nuisance after a forum upgrade, and it was hard to argue for them after they sat unused for long periods of time.

[roddy]

Would anyone like to take ownership of the first post? Deciding whether to add resources (and there does need to be some judgment there, we can't add everything that is suggested), removing out of date stuff, etc.

[renzhe]

Not at this time (I'm overworked into insanity at the moment).

If the issue is still around in half a year, I'd do it.

[leosmith]

I volunteer if there is nobody with better Mandarin who wants to do it.

[alleywatson]

Excellent resources for learning Chinese, so will just keep this short and sweet. Just joined a flashcard website called http://www.flashcardexchange.com/

just type in chinese or search for more detailed resources relating to Chinese, i.e NPCR books are linked to this site with great flashcards that can be learnt online, but to print out, a one off joining fee of I think $25,00 is needed you can have a lifetime membership and printable access to all flashcards and make your own, link below is a result of typing Chinese in the search bar, there's looooaaaaadddddssssss !

http://www.flashcardexchange.com/tag/chinese

Alex

[davidy]

I have used Pingrid and Pablo to great effect in learning lots of mono-character and double-character words.

Both are stand-alone programs that can run off a USB card - ie you can carry it to any other PC without having to install.

Pingrid has Spaced Repitition System or flat-random presentation of words. The SRS is running well with the latest version 3.1.

Wordslist are easily created as text files of a list of characters.

Pingrid can be used as a game-based way of playing with user configurability - testing knowledge in recognition of character given pronunciation, pinyin, english translation in combination or alone.

Pingrid also test the how the character is written with a good recognition engine and good official stroke orders - it has illuminated me on numerous words which I had memorized the wrong stroke order.

Pablo is a dictionary which uses CEDict but adds to it with great ways of searching for character including handwriting, multiple radical components, or searching words based on other words.

Pablo can be brought up using a user defined key in Pingrid or other programs.

Pablo also has a pop-up definition box on mouse-over.

I have used Skritter before too and find the need for an internet connection difficult at times. I like Skritter but find that Pingrid Pablo is used much more often due to the lack of need of internet connection, and the ease of adding words. Different lists can be used for different people or different situation - eg a test list for upcoming kid's test etc.

It is free with freedom to donate.

http://ehaton.blogspot.com

[anamericanembarrassed]

Hello!

I had great success using DimSum...at first. It worked flawlessly for a little while, but suddenly, it began to automatically paste *any* copied text into the search field and pretty much freeze it there; that is to say, it would not allow me to remove the text copied (from any open program) and/or type in the search field, forcing me to quit the program. Has anyone else encountered this problem? This quirk has really hampered my ability to use the program any longer, which is disappointing as I really enjoy it.

I am going to try ZDT and browse a few other resources here. Thanks for this post! Super helpful to new learners such as myself.

-lola.

*edit: just installed ZDT and works just fine for what I need.*

[jbradfor]

Yale's Chinese Usage Dictionary changed URLs. The new URL is http://comet.cls.yale.edu/chineseusagedictionary/ . [This is actually an old change, as the old URL has been down for a while, it just took me a while to find the new one.]

[Tyler M.]

This sounds marvelous! It's so timely since I'm looking for other site resources to enhance my Chinese Mandarin course. I have been using L-lingo software and I'm happy with it. Thank you for sharing this link, much appreciated.

[Yezze]

I did a search for smart.fm in this thread and nothing came up so....

I use smart.fm to study sometimes. They have a series of character lessons, which i use to study sometimes. It hits pronunciation, pinyin, matching character to def and def to character. You can do it in chunks of 5 or 10 characters and after you hit like 20 or 30 new ones, the next few lessons or so are just review of. It gives you a % out of 100 of how well you know each character, and tells you when it is most critical to study, something to do with time associated with forgetting info. Hard to explain well, try it if you want..

I also use it for other things, such as arabic and SAT stuff.

[HedgePig]

In my eternal quest to find the perfect resource that will take me from abysmal to native fluency in 24 easy leasons of just 15 minutes a day, I came across a site developed by the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland: http://readchinese.nflc.org/

It is has 60 lessons at the novice level and 69 at the intermediate level. I found the presentation surprisingly similar to the University of Iowa collection - until I read the credits and found that half the people associated with the development are in fact from that university.

While it shares some of the same quirks as the U. Iowa Collections, it also has several improvements:

1. The course is available in simplified and traditional

2. It can be downloaded and browsed offline. There are some lessons missing but the great majority are there. (The download is about 70Mb zipped.)

3. There are full English translations, along with Pinyin.

It also has a glossary with each lesson, reasonable quality audio and some exercises to test one's understanding.

[Edited to fix link! (Thanks querido!)]

[querido]

(HedgePig missed a ":") Here's the link: http://readchinese.nflc.org

To run the package as they intend, it says it requires Firefox 2+ or IE5.5+.

[Findus]

This thread is very much appreciated! I have been using Chinesepod, and find their site definatily worth paying for! It's just quality stuff altogether.

[sebastian.czaj]

Hi guys !

As far as I'm concerned Popup-Chinese is the best online learning resource. To begin with, the web page design is simple and user friendly so don't get annoyed or overwhelmed after a couple of minutes while actually trying to learn sth new. They have tons of online lessons and learning materials, ranging from basic Chinese courses to annotated transcripts of cool Chinese songs and annotated news. I've been learning Chinese for 2,5 years as part of my study at the university, but apart from Chinese classes (which are obviously cool, because there is real live interaction with a native) the learning materials suck ! And at some point when your level of motivation to study Chinese starts to drop and you are anxious to do sth meaningful with the language, you have no opportunities. I felt that way and if anyone else feels the same way I did, Popup Chinese might be the answer. Simply because I can read annotated news reports, which otherwise I would have read in English or German since Chinese news reports without any annotation is too difficult for me. You can also select the unfamiliar words and practice them using flashcards and a character writing tool. So, for me, this site is great and feel like I'm doing some meaningful learning again. I highly recommend it: http://popupchinese.com/ don't hesitate to take a look.

http://popupchinese.com/