Website Suggestion
eupnea63355
August 17, 2010, 09:40 PM posted in General DiscussionI wasn't sure where to post this. In trying to find how to say \"flashcards\" in Chinese, this occured to me as an idea for the website.
Without making it too big, (thus losing clarity) it might be nice to have the Chinese terminology in copy-pastable form under the english designation on the website. For example:
Home
Lessons
Community
Tools
Flashcards
Writing
Tests
etc.
I'd love to be reading and learning the Chinese terms for these areas I access daily. And, they are current terms, web-page-related, so difficult to find in a dictionary.
matthiask
although - you might not be able to log in :(
bababardwan
thanks mate. Not a bad idea in the interim. As below though, I guess that's going to be a bit hit and miss. Just taking the very first two translation examples we have 记得我..obviously for "remember me". This may well be a good translation of "remember me" as I know the breakdown is both "remember" and "me", but whether this is what a Chinese website would have at that spot is another question. It may be, but the point is I'm not confident without going and checking out Chinese websites. The second translation on the otherhand 忘记密码 forgotten password I feel confident is very likely to be correct and what is used. I think having the ability to display the site in Chinese as suggested by Eupnea would add a coolness factor and also help step us in the direction of using Chinese websites with more confidence.
matthiask
actually, isn't there this EnglishPod version in Chinese? Maybe we can sneak around there.
Or overall [ / tech] speaking "The infrastructure for switching the page to Chinese should be there already" ,,/. (^_^) ./..
matthiask
August 17, 2010, 10:32 PMbut there are demo lessons
bababardwan
matthiask,
Once again thanks mate, but I'm not sure what you mean by "demo lessons". This also looked like just a google translation of a standard lesson, not a specific demonstation of how to navigate Chinese websites [which would be awesome]
BEBC
Navigating chinese websites is a mystery to me. Has anyone suggested a series of lessons, or maybe even a whole new section of CPod devoted to this ? It would be fantastically useful and test our understanding of chinese in practice.
bababardwan
Has anyone suggested a series of lessons, or maybe even a whole new section of CPod devoted to this ?
Well on June 21st I suggest a lesson here:
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/5240#comment-182091
..but I don't think links to lesson topic suggestions works very well.
matthiask
sure. but the site is in chinese and there are 4 different "demonstration lessons" for "future customers" on this site. so you get the cpod feel with all tabs and so.
gaojian
August 18, 2010, 03:20 AMwhile the google link helps I think that being able to see these things over and over again would help to reinforce the characters. I switched my phone over to Chinese a while back and learned a lot of characters from just seeing them over and over again. I third the idea of having some Chinese integrated into the website's navigation bar.
eupnea63355
Although I use Google Translate a lot, I do not trust it at all. It comes up with simply horribly wrong words sometimes. gaojian, I've been wanting to switch my phone too but it is not Chinese capable. Contract ends in October and I am going to try to find a Chinese capable phone at that time. ITA, seeing these terms repeatedly helps so much. I'm glad you wrote about your phone. It reminded me to start looking for a new model.
bababardwan
do you know if it's possible to switch an iphone over to chinese? also, is it easy to switch back?...I'd hate to get stuck.
gaojian
bababardwan, I have an iPhone and it is super easy to switch over. You go under settings followed by general. After that go to international and change your language to 简体中文或者繁体中文. The wonderful thing about the iPhone is that the icons make it easy to navigate without knowing all the Chinese.
Best of luck!
gaojian
Oh, I switched my phone right now just to check and the whole process took about one minute. The other great thing is that in Chinese mode you can type, write, and see Chinese on the iPhone every time you use it. Just gotta find some friends who are Chinese so that you can text them all the time!
bababardwan
hey thanks heaps mate. I'm going to give it a shot. I just hope it doesn't transliterate all my contacts, hehe, and that I can change back ok...but I think you're right ,it should be easy on the iphone. Yeah, I use iced dictionary on it sometimes so am used to imputting both pinyin and hanzi on it.
bababardwan
gaojian,
hey that was a cinch. Thanks again. Changed back no probs too ,but think I'll keep it in Chinese mode now.
gaojian
bababardwan,
Glad you were able to make the switch okay. I like how the ChinesePod app is all in Chinese as well. Makes for a very useful study tool.
bababardwan
August 17, 2010, 10:18 PMI'll second this. Great idea. Trying to navigate a website all in Chinese is still quite a trick for me...and yet I'm using this site regularly and could be getting familiar with those terms. If not under the English designation, a toggle that you can flick on and off having everything in Chinese [except maybe the English instructions for the toggle itself so you can still get back,hehe].