Mandarin Scholarship Taiwan » convert http://mandarinscholarship.com Studying Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:56:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Web based handwriting recognition tool at NICKU.com http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/10/12/web-based-handwriting-recognition-tool-at-nickucom/ http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/10/12/web-based-handwriting-recognition-tool-at-nickucom/#comments Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:33:10 +0000 kang-wei http://mandarinscholarship.wordpress.com/?p=217

Nciku is basically an online Chinese-English dictionary and is a great tool for Mandarin scholarship students. I had a look at it a while ago and came to the conclusion that it was a social networking dictionary. You can sign up and interact with others in the nciku community, as you look up new vocabulary. It didn’t appeal to me, as I thought the concept was odd and had been happily using mdbg.net.

That said, the Handwrite Characters function, or handwriting recognition tool, is brilliant! Pinyin.info recently highlighted this feature which I have used several times.

What is the handwriting recognition tool? The handwriting tool allows you to find characters by drawing them. Simply write the character, with your mouse, in the box and select the desired one from the list that appears.

If you’ve ever tried to translate a character, you will know that if you don’t know the radical it can take a very long time to work out. This tool makes short work of that problem.

How does it work?

The tool searches our character database based on the appearance of what you draw, the stroke order you use, and other factors. Even if you are unsure how exactly to write a character, the character you are looking for will most likely be included in results for you to recognize and choose from.
Does stroke order matter?
Stroke order does not matter. We will find your character even if you don’t write it perfectly.

The handwriting recognition tool has been around for many years. My Chinese teacher introduced me to it a few months ago. It was part of his Chinese language Windows OS or MS word suite. Unfortunately, I run an English language version of XP and that tool is not included.

This tool/software can also be put on a PDA. A mobile handwriting recognition tool! Just the thing for long bus journeys.

]]> http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/10/12/web-based-handwriting-recognition-tool-at-nickucom/feed/ 1049 Fast Online Chinese Character to Pinyin Converter http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/12/fast-online-chinese-character-to-pinyin-converter/ http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/12/fast-online-chinese-character-to-pinyin-converter/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 15:29:31 +0000 kang-wei http://mandarinscholarship.wordpress.com/?p=32 PurpleCulture

Just found this easy to use Chinese character to pinyin converter/ translator at PurpleCulture.net.

It’s web based which I like and fast. It supports both Simplified and Traditional characters, which is great for those learning Chinese in Taiwan.

If you happen to need to convert/translate between one of the many different Romanization systems and Zhuyin (BoPoMoFo) the Chinese Romanization Converter over at MandarinTools.com works well.

How did people learn Mandarin before the internet revolution?

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