新西兰大学生汉语文章比赛
21/09/08 12:14
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On Friday I emailed in my entry for the New Zealand Chinese Essay Writing Competition. As I'm a university student, I entered that category. I would have much preferred to enter the in the High-School Category, as I'm sure that'd increase my chances of winning.
As I've been extremely busy with university work and trying to get my new plugin ready for release, I didn't have as much time to devote to the essay as I would have liked. Still, I managed to finish and hand it in.
I thought I'd post it here, in case anyone felt like reading what a Westerner entering a Chinese essay competition writes about...
读万卷书不如行万里路
在我中文学了两年以后，我感觉我中文说得很好。每天，我都练习我的发音，和写汉字，念课文，做作业。因为我很努力地学习，所以我以为我在中国的时候，一定能和中国人交谈。可是当我到中国的时候，我发现现实并不是这样的。我甚至不能听懂岳母问我：“你们三点半下飞机的吗？”我脸红了，我以为她说：“你什么时候开始工作？”那时侯我有一点害怕！
一开始的一个月里，我和我太太常常跟家人一起吃饭，唱歌。虽然我听不懂他们说的上海话，但是大部分时候他们说的普通话我也听不懂，那个时候我很泄气！我太太总是要把他们说的话翻译成英语，然后为他们翻译我说的“中文”，所以虽然是简单的会话，却要用很长时间！因为我们的口音不太相同。虽然后来我的中文有进步，但是我还是很难过，因为我的中文水平没有我以为的好，所以我有些灰心。
第二个月，我们去了北京旅行。我们座了那列“奥林匹克”号火车，从上海到北京用了十一个小时，特别快！我们在北京五天，看了很多名胜古迹。我发现我能听懂北京人说的普通话！这件事让我很开心，也提高了我的信心。我不但能听懂很多北京人说的普通话，而且在我们回到上海的时候，我忽然能听懂更多上海人说的普通话！
在我跟中国人日常交谈以前，我以为一个人可以只读书就能掌握中文。我在中文课上学的知识是理论上的，我在中文课上的时候，因为我想要有好的成绩，所以我怕说错，写错，因为我常常只学习课本里的内容。过了很常时间，我发现如果我继续用这个方法学习中文，我很难和中国人进行自然的日常对话。现在想起来，我觉得我岳父说的：“学语言的人应该像盲人一洋。如果看不见就只能用心去听”很有道理。
我去中国的经历让我了解了一个道理：“读万卷书不如行万里路”。这句话的道理是：比较读书，生活的经历能让我们学到更多书本上学不到的东西。
It begins with the idiom "读万卷书不如行万里路" and goes on to explain how my experience in China convinced me that the idiom describes a truth: "One cannot learn everything from books".
I wonder how it goes down at the Confucius Institute?
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On Friday I emailed in my entry for the New Zealand Chinese Essay Writing Competition. As I'm a university student, I entered that category. I would have much preferred to enter the in the High-School Category, as I'm sure that'd increase my chances of winning.
As I've been extremely busy with university work and trying to get my new plugin ready for release, I didn't have as much time to devote to the essay as I would have liked. Still, I managed to finish and hand it in.
I thought I'd post it here, in case anyone felt like reading what a Westerner entering a Chinese essay competition writes about...
在我中文学了两年以后，我感觉我中文说得很好。每天，我都练习我的发音，和写汉字，念课文，做作业。因为我很努力地学习，所以我以为我在中国的时候，一定能和中国人交谈。可是当我到中国的时候，我发现现实并不是这样的。我甚至不能听懂岳母问我：“你们三点半下飞机的吗？”我脸红了，我以为她说：“你什么时候开始工作？”那时侯我有一点害怕！
一开始的一个月里，我和我太太常常跟家人一起吃饭，唱歌。虽然我听不懂他们说的上海话，但是大部分时候他们说的普通话我也听不懂，那个时候我很泄气！我太太总是要把他们说的话翻译成英语，然后为他们翻译我说的“中文”，所以虽然是简单的会话，却要用很长时间！因为我们的口音不太相同。虽然后来我的中文有进步，但是我还是很难过，因为我的中文水平没有我以为的好，所以我有些灰心。
第二个月，我们去了北京旅行。我们座了那列“奥林匹克”号火车，从上海到北京用了十一个小时，特别快！我们在北京五天，看了很多名胜古迹。我发现我能听懂北京人说的普通话！这件事让我很开心，也提高了我的信心。我不但能听懂很多北京人说的普通话，而且在我们回到上海的时候，我忽然能听懂更多上海人说的普通话！
在我跟中国人日常交谈以前，我以为一个人可以只读书就能掌握中文。我在中文课上学的知识是理论上的，我在中文课上的时候，因为我想要有好的成绩，所以我怕说错，写错，因为我常常只学习课本里的内容。过了很常时间，我发现如果我继续用这个方法学习中文，我很难和中国人进行自然的日常对话。现在想起来，我觉得我岳父说的：“学语言的人应该像盲人一洋。如果看不见就只能用心去听”很有道理。
我去中国的经历让我了解了一个道理：“读万卷书不如行万里路”。这句话的道理是：比较读书，生活的经历能让我们学到更多书本上学不到的东西。
It begins with the idiom "读万卷书不如行万里路" and goes on to explain how my experience in China convinced me that the idiom describes a truth: "One cannot learn everything from books".
I wonder how it goes down at the Confucius Institute?
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My China Start
14/09/08 20:57
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The Internet is a big place - finding good information can be difficult, sometimes impossible. When I first started learning Chinese, I spent a bit of time with Google, searching for some tips made by other westerners who were further down the path than I. I found a lot of crap, but among it there were some real gems. These are sites that I, and many other 学中文的老外 return to regularly.
I thought I'd write a little review of each site that has made it to my bookmark list, giving a brief outline of why the site is useful, what it offers, and why I return.
If you're learning Chinese, I know you'll find these sites helpful!
The first site is My China Start. I decided to start with this site because it is a directory of top-quality China and Chinese Language related web pages.
The site is split into various pages, with pages for individual Chinese cities (Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing being my favourites), the Chinese language, food and museums, to name a few. The site is incredibly well organized: the home page consists of a selection of small boxes, each box representing a category of Chinese sites. At first I did think this was a little weird, I'm used to sites having a main content area with either a vertical or horizontal navigation menu. After clicking around the site though, and discovering the amount of information that has been packed in, I understand why the creator chose this method of displaying the information. Now I'm used to it, I can't see why more sites haven't copied the layout!
To illustrate my point: clicking on the "Chinese Dictionaries" link that is within the dictionaries box on the homepage will take one to a new page filled with more little boxes. Each box is a sub-category of its own: Chinese-English Dictionary sites, Chinese English Character Input, Nature and Science Glossaries are a few box titles - there is also a box for sites containing Legal Glossaries! My favourite link on this page, however, is to the MIlitary English site. It really is quite amusing.
The page I use most is the Learn Chinese category page, which lists links to sites aimed at helping one ... learn Chinese.
This is the page that helped me find most of the sites that I plan to write about in future posts, but if you want to go check it out now instead of waiting for me to write about them, and ruin the surprise; please go right ahead.
My China Start is an excellent place for anyone with even a passing interest in China and its wonderful Culture. The Learn Chinese page is one that anyone learning Chinese must visit, it is that good.
Go there now!
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The Internet is a big place - finding good information can be difficult, sometimes impossible. When I first started learning Chinese, I spent a bit of time with Google, searching for some tips made by other westerners who were further down the path than I. I found a lot of crap, but among it there were some real gems. These are sites that I, and many other 学中文的老外 return to regularly.
I thought I'd write a little review of each site that has made it to my bookmark list, giving a brief outline of why the site is useful, what it offers, and why I return.
If you're learning Chinese, I know you'll find these sites helpful!
The first site is My China Start. I decided to start with this site because it is a directory of top-quality China and Chinese Language related web pages.
The site is split into various pages, with pages for individual Chinese cities (Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing being my favourites), the Chinese language, food and museums, to name a few. The site is incredibly well organized: the home page consists of a selection of small boxes, each box representing a category of Chinese sites. At first I did think this was a little weird, I'm used to sites having a main content area with either a vertical or horizontal navigation menu. After clicking around the site though, and discovering the amount of information that has been packed in, I understand why the creator chose this method of displaying the information. Now I'm used to it, I can't see why more sites haven't copied the layout!
To illustrate my point: clicking on the "Chinese Dictionaries" link that is within the dictionaries box on the homepage will take one to a new page filled with more little boxes. Each box is a sub-category of its own: Chinese-English Dictionary sites, Chinese English Character Input, Nature and Science Glossaries are a few box titles - there is also a box for sites containing Legal Glossaries! My favourite link on this page, however, is to the MIlitary English site. It really is quite amusing.
The page I use most is the Learn Chinese category page, which lists links to sites aimed at helping one ... learn Chinese.
This is the page that helped me find most of the sites that I plan to write about in future posts, but if you want to go check it out now instead of waiting for me to write about them, and ruin the surprise; please go right ahead.
My China Start is an excellent place for anyone with even a passing interest in China and its wonderful Culture. The Learn Chinese page is one that anyone learning Chinese must visit, it is that good.
Go there now!
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Besta TA-3000 Electronic Chinese-English Dictionary (Review)
15/06/08 15:50
-> Updated (17/09/08) <-
While attempting to read a Chinese sentence, if I come across characters that I haven’t seen before, I usually can’t understand the meaning of the sentence. Sometimes I can guess, but that has often resulted in some hilariously wrong translations. My desire to read Chinese improved with my ability, and this problem became more intrusive the more I tried to read - like it fed itself. To solve this problem I bought a Chinese-English electronic dictionary while I was in Shanghai. We went to “Cybercity”, which is on 徐家汇路 (xú jiā huì). Cybercity is my favourite place in all of Shanghai. After perusing the selection, I decided to buy the Besta TA-3000, which looks more like a PDA than a dictionary.
Before buying the Besta, I had purchased a cheaper model. I thought I was being really clever - an all Chinese menu would help me learn more Chinese, right? Wrong. With the first dictionary, instead of looking up words I didn't know I'd just skip over them. I didn't want to spend 5 minutes fumbling through the menu, followed by the realisation that as I didn't know the pinyin, I couldn't look up the damn word anyway! A few weeks after buying it, I realised that my “cleverness” had resulted in a reduction in my desire to learn new characters, which was no good at all.
As soon as I started using the Besta TA-3000 (sounds like a term from The Terminator, right?), I found things were different. To search for a word using a standard dictionary, one must know the pinyin, and enter it using the keyboard. There are two problems with this: the keyboard is usually too small for fat fingers like mine, and more often than not I don’t know the pinyin of the word in question. The Besta dictionary avoids “sausage finger” issues by utilising a touch-screen interface. It circumnavigates the pinyin problem by allowing the user to write characters directly into the search box! It even recognizes “human” writing, by which I mean it doesn’t require one to write the character precisely to recognize the character. And if it’s unsure, it shows the user a list of “guesses” to choose from:
Sorry, I cannot display the flash slidehsow for one of the following reasons.
1. Your browser does not support Javascript.
2. If you are using RapidWeaver, please make sure your theme is using the most up-to-date version of the javascript include file.
1. Your browser does not support Javascript.
2. If you are using RapidWeaver, please make sure your theme is using the most up-to-date version of the javascript include file.
This method of searching is completely hassle-free, and exceedingly useful.
After entering the characters and pressing the Search button, the user is taken to the following screen:
The device has a few built-in dictionaries, and it searches each one for a given search term. If it finds the term in a dictionary, a link to the entry will be displayed here, in the results page. Select an entry and part of it will be displayed in the bottom-half of the screen. Double-tapping an entry will load the full text. Another great feature of this dictionary is that if one comes across an unknown character or term within the entry (happens often), one may simply select the word/term and look it up!
On top of all of this: the dictionary is capable of displaying any character's stroke order as well. To do this, simple select the character and press the "Str." button that should appear. This will display a page like that shown below:
Sorry, I cannot display the flash slidehsow for one of the following reasons.
1. Your browser does not support Javascript.
2. If you are using RapidWeaver, please make sure your theme is using the most up-to-date version of the javascript include file.
1. Your browser does not support Javascript.
2. If you are using RapidWeaver, please make sure your theme is using the most up-to-date version of the javascript include file.
The first time I tried this I got quite a shock: as soon as it opens, the animation begins, which is accompanied by a voice that counts out the strokes. Prior to testing this feature, I was playing with some settings and must have turned the volume right up. I was on the bus at the time, and got some pretty funny looks. When practicing characters, I do find myself forgetting the stroke order often. This feature reminds me of the correct order, and gives me a chance to practise it before going back to writing it out again and again in my little math book.
This dictionary comes with a boatload of other features, but what really matters is how well it performs at its main task: being a dictionary. After using it for over four months, I can honestly say that it performs this task well - it is an excellent dictionary. It is easy to use and packed with really helpful dictionary-related features. The main ones I've talked about above, but there are more:
- Search for all sentences containing the target word/s, which is great for those words you've learned but don't know how to use
- Input search terms using Pinyin, Smart Pinyin, English Keyboard (on-screen), and of course: Chinese Handwriting!
- Four different languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English - for the menus)
- Downloadable updates
Out of the box dictionaries (user may select which to search - default is all):
- Oxford Advanced Learner’s
- English-Chinese
- Chinese-English (for some reason these are listed as different dictionaries)
- Contemporary Chinese
- Cambridge Encyclopedia (unfortunately all Chinese)
- Neology
- Terminological Dictionaries (I found a lot of terms here, very useful)
- Graded Dictionary
- DIY Dictionary (apparently one may make custom diciontionaries - I haven’t tried this)
So there you have it: the Besta TA-3000 is the Chinese Language Learner’s best friend! I know mine has been tremendously helpful - unlike other electronic dictionaries that I have tried, which can be troublesome and irritating to use, the Besta has always performed brilliantly, and been a pleasure to use. The only thing I’d change about it is its name: “The Besta TA-3000” sounds a bit ... ‘80’s sci-fi?
Great dictionary, puzzling name.
Update:
The dictionary's menu can be changed to English easily.
First, press the "back" button repeatedly, until nothing happens with further presses. This means you're at the main menu.
I've highlighted the position of the back button in the image on the right.
Now just follow the slideshow below to change the language. I haven't been able to find any English documentation for this dictionary, so until I do, I'm afraid this is the most help I can give. I think with the menu in English, a manual is not as necessary, though it'd be nice! If anyone knows of any English documentation for this dictionary, please let me know!
Sorry, I cannot display the flash slidehsow for one of the following reasons.
1. Your browser does not support Javascript.
2. If you are using RapidWeaver, please make sure your theme is using the most up-to-date version of the javascript include file.
1. Your browser does not support Javascript.
2. If you are using RapidWeaver, please make sure your theme is using the most up-to-date version of the javascript include file.
The dictionary's software may be updated also, which improves the interface and stability. I will post instructions on how to do that when I get some time, hopefully later this week.
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