It would be really cool if...
geromeaccount
September 23, 2009, 03:54 AM posted in General DiscussionIt woulb be really cool if Chinesepod could come up with a way to put tone marks above characters (Hanzi). As of now, it seems that there's no other software/company that has done this, which is odd considering how helpful it would be for students to study tones and characters, without the pinyin. Because everyone knows that 人 is ren, but if we could somehow add a tone mark above "人”， then people could start learning things they need, without going over or seeing the stuff they already know.
pchenery
September 23, 2009, 04:23 AMCheck out this blog on sinosplice, which proposes colors be used to represent tones for hanzi:
http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2009/08/11/tone-and-color-in-chinese
lechuan
September 24, 2009, 01:36 PMI'm interested in knowing why putting the tone above a character, or coloring the character to indicate the tone, aids learning/retention.
I always figured that the phonetics and tone should be considered one single unit that must be memorized together; If you don't know one or the other, then you don't know the pronunciation yet.
orangina
September 24, 2009, 04:30 PMYou are right lechuan. If you need the tone mark you don't know the pronunciation yet. Otherwise you wouldn't need the tone mark! But I like to use the least amount of learning aids that I need at a particular time. If I am writing down a phrase or sentance I anticipate using, I will write a combination of characters, characters with tone marks and characters with pinyin. As time goes by my percentage of charaters goes up.
smellyshoe
September 24, 2009, 04:50 PMIn the famous words of George Lucas, 不好。
orangina
September 23, 2009, 04:01 AMnevermind! I should have read your post better... That would be cool, but I don't know how feasable it is.