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.

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 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.

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?

]]> http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/12/fast-online-chinese-character-to-pinyin-converter/feed/ 39 http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/11/the-inventor-of-pinyin/ http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/11/the-inventor-of-pinyin/#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 07:01:22 +0000 kang-wei http://mandarinscholarship.wordpress.com/?p=29 The phonetic alphabet developed by Zhou Youguang, pinyin, turns 50 this month, having helped up to a billion Chinese citizens to learn to read, write and in many cases speak the national language.

The 102-year-old linguist is renowned as the “father of pinyin”, the system for representing standard Mandarin in the Roman alphabet. The country is celebrating the anniversary with lectures, a TV series and educational programmes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Bi_DVFecE]

On the 50th anniversary of the introduction of his alphabet, Tania Branigan meets 102-year-old Zhou Youguang, the man credited with helping millions of Chinese to read and write.

guardian.co.uk

Some bloggers were critical of the pinyin used by the Guardian. And this, “if you want to get a look at the guy who rescued you from bopomofo, have a look.”

Personally, I think Bopomofo/Zhuyin is great!

Google Pinyin was released about a year ago. I must admit I didn’t really know what to expect when I downloaded it and installed it. I am only a beginner and the Google Pinyin site is written entirely in Chinese so I didn’t expect to get very far. About 60 seconds later I was typing simple sentences in Chinese. It’s that easy to use.

As you can see from the image above, imputing Hànyǔ pinyin (without any tones) activates a drop down menu with Chinese character suggestions. This kind of software is known as an Input Method Editor (IME). An IME is a program or operating system component that allows computer users to enter characters and symbols not found on their keyboard.

Using Google Pinyin and MDBG online Chinese-English dictionary I can complete my class assignments in double quick time.

Shawn over at Scattered-notes has gone to a great deal of trouble to translate the setup options and other configurations for Google’s Pinyin Input Method Editor. Thanks Shawn!

Jetorz has outlined 5 big advantages of Google Pinyin.

Google Pinyin is currently only compatible with Windows. It works fine with Firefox.

]]> http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/05/google-pinyin-the-easiest-way-to-type-chinese/feed/ 21 http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/04/chinese-lyrics-with-english-pinyin-videos/ http://mandarinscholarship.com/2008/05/04/chinese-lyrics-with-english-pinyin-videos/#comments Sun, 04 May 2008 04:19:40 +0000 kang-wei http://mandarinscholarship.wordpress.com/?p=11 DirtyAmp is a great blog dedicated to providing Mando pop lyrics in Chinese (traditional), English and Pinyin. The site currently offers 18 songs form 12 artists.

Here’s Jay Chou’s 周杰倫 (zhōu jié lún) I’m Not Worthy / 我不配 (wǒ bú pèi) (Thanks Hsinchu DrityAmp!):

“A sad, beautiful song by Jay Chou about how the busy life of his stardom brings about lonely nights with no time to pursue a relationship.” DirtyAmp

Poor Jay! His new album is titled On The Run / 我很忙 (Wǒ Hěn Máng). The literal translation for the album is “I’m Very Busy”. I think he’s trying to tell us something…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnQH7xnKHRY]

[--- 歌詞 / Lyrics ---]
Verse 2x:

這街上太擁擠
zhè jiē shàng tài yōng jǐ
This street is too crowded

太多人有秘密
tài duō rén yǒu mì mì
Too many people with secrets

玻璃上有霧氣在被隱藏起過去
bō li shàng yǒu wù qì zài bèi yǐn cáng qǐ gù qù
Hidden in the foggy glass lies the past

妳臉上的情緒
nǐ liǎn shàng de qíng xù
With your sulky face

在還原那場雨
zài huán yuán nà chǎng yǔ
Returning to the rain

這巷弄太過彎曲
zhè xiàng nòng tài guò wān qū
This lane is too crooked

走不回故事裡
zǒu bù huí gù shì lǐ
To return back to the way things were

這日子不再錄
zhè rì zi bú zài lù
The green days are gone

又斑駁了幾句
yòu bān bó le jǐ jù
With just a few short exchange of words

剩下搬空回憶的我在大房子裡
shèng xià bān kōng huí yì
I’m left alone in the house with empty lingerning memories

電影院的座椅
diàn yǐng yuàn de zuò yǐ
Even seats in the theater

隔遙遠的距離
gé yáo yuǎn de jù lí
Brought us farther apart

感情沒有對手戲
gǎn qíng méi yǒu duì shǒu xì
Feelings with no partner

妳跟自己下棋
nǐ gēn zì jǐ xià qí
Is a game of chess played by yourself

還來不及仔仔細細寫下妳的關於
hái lái bù jí zǐ zǐ xià xià xiě xià nǐ de guān yú
There’s still no time to properly write down what I’d like to say to you

描述我如何愛妳
miáo shù wǒ rú hé ài nǐ
Describing how I love you

妳卻微笑的離我而去
nǐ què wēi xiào de lí wǒ ér qù
Yet you’ve left away with a smile

Chorus
這感覺已經不對
zhè gǎn jué yǐ jīng bú duì
This feeling isn’t right anymore

我努力在俛回
wǒ nǔ lì zài miǎn huí
I tried hard to return

一些些應該體貼的感覺我沒給
yī xiē xiē yīng gāi tǐ tiē de gǎn jué wǒ méi gěi
Some of the feelings I wanted to give

妳嘟嘴許的願望很卑微在妥協
nǐ dū zuǐ xǔ de yuàn wàng hěn bēi wēi zài tuǒ xié
The small desires you humbly permitted to be compromised

是我忽略妳不過要人陪
shì wǒ hū lüè nǐ bú guò yào rén péi
Were my mistake yet you still wanted to be with me

Oh 這感覺已經不對
zhè gǎn jué yǐ jīng bú duì
Oh this feeling isn’t right anymore

我最後才了解
wǒ zuì hòu cái liǎo jiě
It wasn’t until afterwards that I finally understood

一頁頁不忍翻閱的情結妳好累
yī yè yè bù rěn fān yuè de qíng jié nǐ hǎo lèi
While flipping through unbearable pages, realizing how tired you were

妳莫背為我掉過幾次淚多憔悴
nǐ mò bēi wèi wǒ diào guò jǐ cì lèi duō qiáo cuì
Burdened, you cried yourself dry because of me so many times

而我心碎妳受罪
ér wǒ xīn suì nǐ shòu zuì
And I was heart broken that you endured so much

妳的美 我不配
nǐ de měi wǒ bú pèi
I’m not worthy of your beauty
[---------------------------------------]

End of Jay Chou Wo Bu Pei (I’m Not Worthy) Chinese Lyrics and English Translation

http://dirtyamp.blogspot.com/