pinyin instead of hanzi in dialogue?

margot_in_dalian
April 27, 2013, 08:31 AM posted in General Discussion

Hi- I have a couple of questions.

1.  I'm using C.P. on my computer.  When I look at the Dialogue, Grammar, or Expansion tabs -- is there a way to see the Pinyin instead of hanzi in all the examples?  (I know I can hover over the hanzi to see Pinyin, but wondered if there's a setting somewhere that would default to Pinyin.)  (I also know I can print out a pdf that shows the Pinyin, but that's rather a pain and I'm still wondering if I can choose Pinyin on my main tabs as the primary setting...)

(For students mostly focusing on spoken--not written--Chinese, this would really be a helpful setting!)

2.  On my smartphone, is there a way to see a list of the ChinesePods that are already downloaded on my phone?

(As it is, my list doesn't distinguish between undownloaded/downloaded.  When I'm studying in a place w/o internet access, it would be really nice just to access the dowloaded lessons on my phone.)

Thanks for any help!

-Margot in Dalian

 

 

 

Profile picture
Right-Wingnut
April 27, 2013, 08:40 AM

Why not click on the text-version of the PDF to open it up on your computer.

But unfortunately CPod doesn't seem to recognise students who are not interested in learning characters.

Profile picture
margot_in_dalian

Yeah, that's what I do now. Thanks, Wingnut. :)

Profile picture
adam_p_lax
April 27, 2013, 10:24 AM

Honestly, even if you are focusing on spoken Chinese I still would encourage you to learn the characters. It really opens up the language to you and they basically become mnemonic devices that help you remember words. Also it helps you to see patterns in the language that deepen your understanding of the language and help you learn it better.

You see how much the characters really make the meaning of words and can guess meanings of words just based on the characters that they are made of.

Also if you are living in China, being able to know characters just to read signs and menus is worthwhile.

Using pinyin is like having training wheels on a bicycle when your a kid. The quicker you get off the training wheels the quicker you can become a better bike rider.

Profile picture
rich
April 27, 2013, 11:51 AM

Margot, for #2 you can now see this on Android app, v3.4, even filter by showing only downloaded lessons. Not sure what smart phone you are on.

Profile picture
margot_in_dalian

Hmmm. I'm on an iPhone. I don't see this filter.... But thanks, Rich!

Profile picture
rich

Ah, yes, not available on iPhone. I will tell the developer he should put it in.

Profile picture
margot_in_dalian

Thanks Rich!