Thread: Best of Chinese Study Tools
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Best of Chinese Study Tools
A "short list" of the best Chinese study resources available to help those new to
online/electronic resources to get off the ground.
Contents
* Dictionaries
* Tones
* Grammar
* Listening Material
* Reading Material
* Flashcards/Vocabulary
* Study Tools
* Converters
* Language Partners
* Games
* Other
[top]Dictionaries
Online Reading Assistant (instant pinyin and definition while you browse)
* Adsotrans
* Popup Chinese Translator extension for Firefox
* popjisyo.com
* Rikai.com
Online Dictionaries
*
o YellowBridge Chinese English Dictionary
o ChinesePod Dictionary (sentences w/ recordings)
o Dict.cn Dictionary, English/Chinese searchable dictionary with many examples but no pinyin.
o Xiaoma Cidian is a dictionary searchable by English, Character and Pinyin, and also has
links to other helpful word lists. [S]
o MDBG Dictionary is an all-around dictionary
o Guoyu Dictionary, commercial-level traditional Chinese-based dictionary maintained by
Taiwan Department of Education, with large number of word entries and detailed definitions.
o Classical Chinese Dictionary (A) [T]
o Specialized Chinese Dictionaries [S]
o Zhongwen.com, good radical/stem derivation diagrams fro exploring the relationship between
characters (in traditional character)
Online Dictionaries that support screen (mouse) character writing
o nciku.com - a new tool based on UniHan
o A Java tool from Chinese-Tools.com
Offline (instant pinyin and definition for offline text reading)
o Dimsum (provides pop-up definition for both websites and offline texts; uses Java, should
run on PC/Mac/and more)
o PlecoDict (Palm/PocketPC; US$99.95 for version with John deFrancis's excellent ABC
dictionary, allows for a instant definition while reading on your PDA - works the best with
TealDoc on Palm; excellent full-featured flashcard system). See discussion.
o Wakan Free mouse-over pop-up dictionary for all windows applications.
o Wenlin, US$199, with academic discounts possible; PC/Mac; includes the ABC dictionary;
provides mouse-over pinyin and definitions and unique features such as one-click searches for
all characters containing a component or all phrases containing a character. (G) [S,T]
o NJStar (mainly a word processor, but version 5.0 also has a teaching mode which provides
pop-up definitions and automated vocabulary list generator; demo version is fully functional,
but need to pay for registration for all features, including the full dictionary)
o HanConv: converts between Chinese characters to pinyin and romanized Cantonese, and
convert between Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters
o Puku: converts between Chinese character to pinyin on Microsoft Pocket PC. Freeware made
by a non-profit Putonghua advocate group.
o For more on electronic dictionaries, see this discussion and this.
o For more on mouse-over/pop-up dictionaries, see this discussion.
[top]Tones
o SpeakGoodChinese (program for training tone pronunciation, see discussion)
o Start from Pinyin: Alphabet of Pinyin (with .wav audio)
o Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation Guide (no audio)
o Pinyin Practice (B)
o Romanization Explained
o Pinyin Wiki
o More here...
[top]Grammar
o ChinesePod (grammar guide, or podcasts with grammar points).
* Chinese Usage Dictionary.
[top]Listening Material
* Chinese as a Second Language Podcasts.
* Podcast with free transcripts from Nankai University.
* Chinese Voices, collection of short, engaging mini-essays with accompanying audio for
intermediate students.
* CCTV Travel in Chinese (teaches you Chinese with a travel theme; transcript available on
website). See this discussion.
* CCTV's "Economics Half Hour" 《经济半小时》: videos (click on the little icon
after the titles) and transcripts of many shows are available on the site. A little like a more
commercialized version of "60 Minutes." The show covers many subjects, not just the economy,
despite its name.
* ChinesePod.com
* China Radio International beginning Chinese listening materials (with pinyin and English
transcripts). See discussion.
* Chinese subtitles/script for Chinese movies (for movies that you may have downloaded from
lib.verycd.com). See discussion.
* Online audio lessons (I)
* Chinese Radio Online
* Chinese Television Online
* Radio Free Asia
* ChinesePod (learning community & podcasts)
* More listening resources: see this discussion.
[top]Reading Material
* Chinese Text Sampler (texts graded by difficulty level) (linked through anonymouse.org due to
site being blocked by the Great Firewall)
* NewsInChinese.com
* Collection of writings by famous modern authors such as Lu Xun, Su Tong, and Wang Xiaobo
[top]Flashcards/Vocabulary
* Software
o jMemorize, Supermemo-like flashcard system that keeps track of your study history
o MyChineseFlashCards: nice open-source Chinese flashcard program (Mac, PC, Linux)
o See PlecoDict above
o Zhongwen Development Tool, java-based cross platform (Windows, Mac, Linux). Open Source.
* Specific Flashcards
o Integrated Chinese Level 1, with about 1154 words (simplified characters)
o David & Helen
o New Practical Chinese Reader
o Most frequently used character list
o Hanyu Shuipin Kaoshi (HSK; Chinese Achievement Test) vocabulary list
-> Mnemosyne/Anki format, TSV format, Supermemo format, KVoctrain/Parley format
o Lists of most frequently used words phrases in literature and news
o 250 Most Common Idioms
o List of common Chinese names and translation of foreign names
o FlashcardExchange
o YellowBridge Flashcards
[top]Study Tools
* Hanyu College: Animated dialogues, karaoke, radio, and advanced readings (B,I,A) [S]
* DimSum: offline reading tool with annotation, dictionary (I,A) [S,T]
* University of Oxford Multi-Media Language Course (B,I)
* Read Mandarin - Learn to Read Chinese : Very useful website created by Daniel for learning
characters (B, +pronunciation audio files) [S]
[top]Converters
* Simplified to Traditional
* Traditional to Simplified
[top]Language Partners
* Find a Chinese chat partner with QQ (a popular instant message program in China). See
discussion.
* Meet Language Partners Online
* LangEx
[top]Games
* Chinese Memory Card Game
* Chinese Squabble
* http://pirate.shu.edu/~chendong/chin...uage_games.htm
* http://qi-journal.com/culture.asp?-t...nConcentration
* http://www.flyordie.com/games-cn.html
* http://trc.ucdavis.edu/msjacob/gamelist.htm
* http://www.shareup.com/Linguata_Chin...oad-47158.html (PC only)
[top]Other
* Mandarin Slang (Wikipedia)
* Mandarin-Cantonese Term Converter
* Hanzismatter exposes the misuse of Chinese characters
* Signese exposes characters in action
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Contributors: renzhe, doumeizhen, gato, flameproof, trevelyan, jbradfor, anthony_barker
Created by doumeizhen, 4th April 2006 at 12:50 AM
Last edited by renzhe, 14th May 2008 at 03:34 AM
81 Comments , 49942 Views
Discussion
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