An exercise module for writing hanzi seems missing on CP

daolin
January 31, 2008, 11:51 AM posted in General Discussion

Dear All,

I'm just a Newbie on ChinesePod, hence might not have found yet all the features.

On http://chinesepod.com/help/chinesepod%20Method/10-step-method writing hanzi is not mentioned . 

I would like to practice and re-gain my writing,

so a module as, e.g. http://www.kiang.org/jordan/software/hanzilookup/hanzidict.html

which allows for handwritten Chinese character input could help training that.

Is there such a training facility at CP or do you plan to implement it?

Many thanks in advance,

DaoLin 

NB: I have no idea where this post is going to show up

 

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rich
January 31, 2008, 02:52 PM

Unfortunately, I don't think ChinesePod's focus is on characters and their writing, but mostly oral and reading, if that. I for one love characters and hope to be able to find ways to make them easier for all to learn in my near future, but even so seems like learning to write them, in addition to learning the radicals and individual radical/character meanings, would be quite a chore for a website to do. While classes I take here for my masters in Chinese studies has the teacher even making sure we have stroke order right by writing them on the white board for us, and having us write the characters over and over (was our homework last semester anyway), most of it comes on your own learning and discipline. Best to get a good book that shows stroke order (or get the software such as Wenlin that is a dictionary and also animates the drawing of the strokes) and like every good Chinese child has had to do, write the characters over and over (my friend always says, as if a breeze, to write my character in question 100 times) and it becomes more natural for a character to just flow out of your pen/brush, even ones that you didn't look up to see how to write. Once you have the hang of the correct storke order for the radicals as well as common stroke order for combinations of radicals, it gets easier. My only advice. :)

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evelyne
January 31, 2008, 05:07 PM

你好!I am happy to improving my writing in hanzi writing and writing again with a pencil everyday! (with listening comprehension it was and still is the most difficult for me, above all to memorize them all!) and also for having successfully installed my computer (thanks to all of you who help me), BUT, I need to know how to change the 汉字when the bad ones shows on the screen... I don't know what key I must click on!!! stupid isn'it? when I want xie I have the xie=write and not the xie of xie xie =thanks for expl. At the beginning it worked but Inow I can't do it anymore..... Thanks Evelyne

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rich
January 31, 2008, 05:50 PM

Hi Evelyne, The Chinese input local is something I am very familiar with, as I knew how to install it on Windows 98 and all that even before I knew a single word of Chinese, having to put it on a Chinese friends computer without even knowing what she was talking about! That actually got me into learning Chinese...well, one reason anyway. I highly recommend you use MS-Pinyin IME, which comes with Windows XP and I assume you are using. I have tried all the input locals and while some Chinese people prefer others, still the best for those of us who used pinyin to learn. With MS-Pinyin IME, the one thing to note is that you can specify the tone mark as well as the pinyin letters when you type. This I recommend doing because for one, it greatly reduces the number of characters you have to chose from (or possibilities of mistakes), as well as helps you a) verify that you know the tone of the character because if it doesn't have that tone it won't display and b) allows you to see all the characters of that tone (which I believes helps in character learning, to match same sound/tone characters... I tell you how to view them below). So, for the word you said, to get the character 谢 I can get it without having to pick the character...all I type is xie4. You can type 1-5, 5 being neutral. (I get 斜 when I type xie5, the only neutral xie) However, whether or not specifying tones, I greatly encourage you to not pick character to character, or even word for word, as MS-Pinyin IME can pick the most likely character from the other characters you type. So in your case, if you are using MS-Pinyin, if you simply type "xiexie" it should know you want 谢谢 as 写写 is not a word (but I do get that automatically if I type xie3xie3) Now, to answer your question on how to pick a character, which you will still have to do now and then even if you use tones and type out complete words. After typing "xie" or "xie4", you can press the LEFT arrow key (not the mouse button) to see all the characters of that pronunciation. If you do not see the character you want in that list of 9 characters, press the PAGE-DOWN or PAGE-UP key to see others if available. When you see the character you want you can either press it's corresponding number (1-9) or press the DOWN arrow key to change the highlighted character to the right (use UP to move it to the left) and hit ENTER when you have found the character (I usually use this method, as usually the character I want is right there, and I already have my hand over the arrow keys). So, here are some tips on using MS-Pinyin IME: 1) Make sure you type the tone of a character, such as xie2zi5 鞋子 or xie3zi4 写字. Less chance of it being the wrong character, or MS-Pinyiin deciding to change your character to its best guess (sometimes it even changes characters that haven't been specifically chosen when you hit the punctuation mark... don't ask me why) 2) Type the WHOLE word of phrase, as MS-Pinyin is most likely to guess it right then. 3) MS-Pinyin LEARNS what you type, so even for your Chinese name you should only have to type it once. The first time I type my name, Meng YiMing, it usually choses 梦已名 (dream already named??? no, that's not it). So once I type meng4yi3ming2 I click the LEFT arrow 3 times, and select 孟, it automatically moves to the next character and I select 以, then I select 明. Now, if I type that again, even if without tones, "mengyiming", I get 孟以明. 4) Did you know you can change between simplified and traditional characters, as well as Chinese punctuation and English punctuation? :‘’“”etc.? Just click the CH (or EN) of the Language bar, select "Show the Language bar" (should then float up at the top in your window's title bar), and you should either see a punctuation and simplified/traditional button there, or you can click the little down arrow at the bottom right of that floating toolbar and select Charset for trad/simp, Punctuation, or whatever. Hope that helps!