How I Study Chinese Online

This is a quick rundown of what programs I use to translate text, hear text and practice online with language partners.  It’s kept me steadily learning for quite awhile!

Programs I use:

• Lingoes – this allows you to highlight words on screen for instant translation (written: English / spoken: Chinese).  Below are the elements you need to make it work.
  • Essential dictionaries:
    • Vicon Chinese-English – This is essential for PinYin tones
    • Vicon English Chinese
    • CEDICT – Another dictionary necessary for PinYin help
    • 21 Century English-Chinese Bidirectional Dictionary – Large amount of terms to double check your translations
  • Install all dictionaries under Index and Text Capture
  • For Index I have, in order:
    • Vicon
    • CEDict
    • 21 Century
  • For Capture I have, in order:
    • Vicon
    • 21 Century
    • CEDict
    • Instant Translation
  • The best Audio Translator I found (female) was here:
    • Chinese Text to Audio – Download, install and it will appear on your list of speech options

After this is all installed, you should be able to right click on your bird (in lower corner of your screen) and check off: Translate selected text.  Now, whenever you highlight selected text it will read it to you.  Chinese text will be read aloud (in Chinese) and a little pop up (the Instant Translation) will appear over your highlighted words and translate it into English for you as you listen to the Chinese!

Now, for some live practice!

The largest instant messenger in China is QQ.  You can download it, sign in and participate in groups specifically for language exchange.

• Download QQ International
• After you sign up, click the middle icon under the Penguin, the 2 person icon.
• Select Language.
• Join some groups!

Now, as people type in the windows, you can highlight what they say, listen to it, and practice.  Are you a total noob and have trouble responding back?  Me too!  But that can be fixed, too.  Double click the Lingoes bird, select “Text Translation” from the bar and type in what you want in English.  Hit enter and let Google Translate help you out.  I like to highlight the result after I finish, to hear it read to me.. and to make sure the translation is what I want.

I also like to keep an ongoing text file with phrases I learn, everything from good morning to .. see you next time… I am a beginning student… and on and on.  That way, I can highlight and copy over to new chat windows.