Post by Nate M on Apr 25, 2006 11:49:30 GMT 7
I was going to post this in the Chinese learning thread over in the LLL, but thought this was important enough to warrant it's own thread.
Sometime last year, when I was in China, I got in my head that I should get one of those Chinese-English electronic dictionaries that I saw all of my students using, to help me with my Chinese study. In particular, I wanted to find one that would allow me to hand-write the characters into the machine and have it recognize what I'm writing, bring up the definition in English as well as the pronunciation of the character in pinyin. I figured this would help me if I was on the street and wanted to say find the meaning of a sign or translate some characters on a menu in a restaurant to find out what the hell I was actually putting into my mouth. The problem is that not a single one of these stupid goddamned electronic dictionaries has pinyin in it, (assuming they even have an English menu system). So even assuming that you translate the correct portion of the word, you have no idea how it is pronounced and thus couldn't really use it to incorporate new words into your vocabulary unless you already knew how they were pronounced. This mostly comes from the fact that Chinese use these things to learn English, not Chinese. The assumption is that you already know Chinese, so you shouldn't need to know how to pronounce the words. The best alternative I was able to find is one that would say the words for you using some barely comprehensible computerized speech program in either English, Cantonese, or Mandarin. The handwriting recognition on this device, (or maybe it was just my handwriting), was absolutely atrocious on this as well, so I was never able to really use this for anything in a real-world, on-the-fly setting. Even when using it for homework, it was so frustratingly unwieldly that I would often just as soon throw it against a wall as open it to try and look up a word. So in the year or so since I've bought it, I've basically tried to use it as little as possible, although my increasingly sloppy Chinese textbook has caused me to rely on it more and more as they insert more words we've never gone over before, in passages devoid of any pinyin or English guide.
Enter My Savior: The PDA
Ok, now for those of you saying to yourselves "all right, I'll bite: what the m'kay is a PDA and what's so great about it?": A PDA is a handheld digital device you can use to store information. These things are also called Palm Pilots or Pocket PC's. Basically it is a small handheld device used as kind of a digital organizer. You can use them to take down notes, organize your calendar, surf the internet, and even play games/movies/ MP3s on the newer models. You use a touch-screen and a little pen-like device to input information into the machine by basically writing it down on the screen itself. These things have been around for quite some time now, but they’ve started fading from use as more and more people have picked up tiny laptops, and as phones have grown those thumb-sized keyboards that are actually quicker and more reliable input devices than writing in the letters by hand. However, it is this screen input method that makes these things absolute gods when it comes to finding the perfect Chinese-English translator.
I had read a little bit about Chinese-English PDA dictionaries, but hadn’t looked into it all that much because by the time I could afford it, I was already back in the U.S. However, over the last few weeks, as I prepared to go back to China, I began to get the gadget itch again and decided that I needed to do something about it. After searching around for a bit, I eventually received a very nice offer on a very nice used model that combined phone and PDA functions into one for about 150 dollars. In fact, given the fact that new models of this phone tend to go for about 450 dollars, (and that’s including the 200 dollar discount on them you get for signing the two year contract), it seemed as though it was too good to be true. Either I wasn’t getting what they were advertised, the device was stolen, or they desperately needed drug money.
Upon arriving at this person’s house to check it out, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, in fact, the device was up to par. The only problem was that it didn’t come with any accessories. This kind of threw some weight behind the stolen/drugs theory, but I wasn't asking any questions, and $150 dollars later I was walking out of there with my new favorite toy. They even sweetened the deal by throwing another, older PDA on top of it. Rock.
So here I was, with two very nice used PDA’s. Now what the hell could I do with them to make them into good Chinese-English translators? Plecodict is a Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary with handwriting recognition, huge add-on dictionaries, and more. It is generally regarded as the crème de la crème of mobile Chinese dictionary software. You can translate using pinyin, handwriting, and a slew of other options. It’s awesome. I had two small problems that prevented me from using it right away, though. One is its size. It’s too damn big to fit into the pre-installed memory on either PDA. I had to purchase an add-on memory card. I’ve ordered one that should be here in a few days, and at that point in time I should be able to add it in on the newer PDA without too much hassle. The other problem is that the older PDA uses Windows CE 3.0, (the newer one uses Windows Mobile 2005, and there is about a 6 year difference between the operating systems), which isn’t supported by Plecodict, so I need to go elsewhere if I want to use that old PDA for a pocket translator.
It took me about 3 days to find software that would work suitably for it, but I found it, thanks in no small part to some of the folks over at www.chinese-forums.com. The software you need to use on an old device like that can be found here:
Chinese input:
www.mobem.com/products/cestarold.php
Dictionary:
www.mobem.com/download/index2.php?pro=pkdict
These are both small enough to fit on the pre-installed memory of most devices made within the last 4 or 5 years. The only problem I’ve had so far is that the demo only let’s you use the handwriting portion of it for 10 minutes. So if I want to stick with this it looks like I’d have to pony up an extra $25. Still it would be worth it, given how much it rocks the socks off of any electronic dictionary you are going to find in the Middle Kingdom. To anyone looking to study Chinese while they’re over there, I would HIGHLY recommend picking up one of these to take with you on your travels. It will be a life-saving tool if you take the time to learn how to use it.
Sometime last year, when I was in China, I got in my head that I should get one of those Chinese-English electronic dictionaries that I saw all of my students using, to help me with my Chinese study. In particular, I wanted to find one that would allow me to hand-write the characters into the machine and have it recognize what I'm writing, bring up the definition in English as well as the pronunciation of the character in pinyin. I figured this would help me if I was on the street and wanted to say find the meaning of a sign or translate some characters on a menu in a restaurant to find out what the hell I was actually putting into my mouth. The problem is that not a single one of these stupid goddamned electronic dictionaries has pinyin in it, (assuming they even have an English menu system). So even assuming that you translate the correct portion of the word, you have no idea how it is pronounced and thus couldn't really use it to incorporate new words into your vocabulary unless you already knew how they were pronounced. This mostly comes from the fact that Chinese use these things to learn English, not Chinese. The assumption is that you already know Chinese, so you shouldn't need to know how to pronounce the words. The best alternative I was able to find is one that would say the words for you using some barely comprehensible computerized speech program in either English, Cantonese, or Mandarin. The handwriting recognition on this device, (or maybe it was just my handwriting), was absolutely atrocious on this as well, so I was never able to really use this for anything in a real-world, on-the-fly setting. Even when using it for homework, it was so frustratingly unwieldly that I would often just as soon throw it against a wall as open it to try and look up a word. So in the year or so since I've bought it, I've basically tried to use it as little as possible, although my increasingly sloppy Chinese textbook has caused me to rely on it more and more as they insert more words we've never gone over before, in passages devoid of any pinyin or English guide.
Enter My Savior: The PDA
Ok, now for those of you saying to yourselves "all right, I'll bite: what the m'kay is a PDA and what's so great about it?": A PDA is a handheld digital device you can use to store information. These things are also called Palm Pilots or Pocket PC's. Basically it is a small handheld device used as kind of a digital organizer. You can use them to take down notes, organize your calendar, surf the internet, and even play games/movies/ MP3s on the newer models. You use a touch-screen and a little pen-like device to input information into the machine by basically writing it down on the screen itself. These things have been around for quite some time now, but they’ve started fading from use as more and more people have picked up tiny laptops, and as phones have grown those thumb-sized keyboards that are actually quicker and more reliable input devices than writing in the letters by hand. However, it is this screen input method that makes these things absolute gods when it comes to finding the perfect Chinese-English translator.
I had read a little bit about Chinese-English PDA dictionaries, but hadn’t looked into it all that much because by the time I could afford it, I was already back in the U.S. However, over the last few weeks, as I prepared to go back to China, I began to get the gadget itch again and decided that I needed to do something about it. After searching around for a bit, I eventually received a very nice offer on a very nice used model that combined phone and PDA functions into one for about 150 dollars. In fact, given the fact that new models of this phone tend to go for about 450 dollars, (and that’s including the 200 dollar discount on them you get for signing the two year contract), it seemed as though it was too good to be true. Either I wasn’t getting what they were advertised, the device was stolen, or they desperately needed drug money.
Upon arriving at this person’s house to check it out, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, in fact, the device was up to par. The only problem was that it didn’t come with any accessories. This kind of threw some weight behind the stolen/drugs theory, but I wasn't asking any questions, and $150 dollars later I was walking out of there with my new favorite toy. They even sweetened the deal by throwing another, older PDA on top of it. Rock.
So here I was, with two very nice used PDA’s. Now what the hell could I do with them to make them into good Chinese-English translators? Plecodict is a Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary with handwriting recognition, huge add-on dictionaries, and more. It is generally regarded as the crème de la crème of mobile Chinese dictionary software. You can translate using pinyin, handwriting, and a slew of other options. It’s awesome. I had two small problems that prevented me from using it right away, though. One is its size. It’s too damn big to fit into the pre-installed memory on either PDA. I had to purchase an add-on memory card. I’ve ordered one that should be here in a few days, and at that point in time I should be able to add it in on the newer PDA without too much hassle. The other problem is that the older PDA uses Windows CE 3.0, (the newer one uses Windows Mobile 2005, and there is about a 6 year difference between the operating systems), which isn’t supported by Plecodict, so I need to go elsewhere if I want to use that old PDA for a pocket translator.
It took me about 3 days to find software that would work suitably for it, but I found it, thanks in no small part to some of the folks over at www.chinese-forums.com. The software you need to use on an old device like that can be found here:
Chinese input:
www.mobem.com/products/cestarold.php
Dictionary:
www.mobem.com/download/index2.php?pro=pkdict
These are both small enough to fit on the pre-installed memory of most devices made within the last 4 or 5 years. The only problem I’ve had so far is that the demo only let’s you use the handwriting portion of it for 10 minutes. So if I want to stick with this it looks like I’d have to pony up an extra $25. Still it would be worth it, given how much it rocks the socks off of any electronic dictionary you are going to find in the Middle Kingdom. To anyone looking to study Chinese while they’re over there, I would HIGHLY recommend picking up one of these to take with you on your travels. It will be a life-saving tool if you take the time to learn how to use it.
