Tools for learning

jonsnow

September 30, 2008, 09:21 PM posted in General Discussion

Hi all

Due to being tre bored I thought I'd post this;

What tools do you (and how you use them) all use for learning? And I'm not talking specifically about dictionaires, phrasebooks (though please feel free to mention these if you feel it's really helped you)

But recently I find myself compiling a massive list of websites or add on bits which people may find useful(all free):

ChinesePod (Ok, an obvious one...but some people may find doing different things helps retain info faster)

-I tend to write the whole lesson down from start to finish. Including characters and pinyin (ignoring pinyin for characters i know by heart). I'll then try to guess and provide translations for the pinyin. If I fail there I then turn back to the pdf and write in the english.

Then I'll re-write some words which I do not recognise. This really helps retain it :)

-I'll do a similar thing for the expansion

Chinese Perapera-kun

-This is a firefox add on. Fairly simple install. Traditional or simplified characters it'll provide the pinyin and basic explanation by hovering the mouse over kanzi...even linking words together when it thinks it should. Very useful when someone has written in characters on the comments part XD

-Can be obtained from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3349  (and you obviously have to be using firefox

NJ STAR WORD PROCESSOR

-http://www.njstar.com/

-Pinyin input results in simplified characters, also acts as a dictionary providing quite a comprehensive lists of what the word could mean under different contexts

-I will use this at work (hehehe) when I'm trying to inconspicuous and look productive

MOBILE PHONE

-Use as an i pod for my chinese pod lessons

-Also read the pdf's on the can

CHINESE TOOLS WEBSITE

-Has a mouse/character input java applet (draw the character on the screen and it'll provide pinyin and rough translation)

-Has songs in chinese which you can download and listen to...also providing the lyrics. Find this quite useful.