Newbie questions

[douglasmccarroll]

Hi All,

I've just purchased Pleco for my Treo 650 (purchased in the US - no other Chinese related software installed) and it's working and looks great. I'm about to embark on learning Chinese characters (I already have a bit of verbal proficiency).

I have a few questions. I don''t know if this is realistic but I'm imagining an ideal learning scenario in which:

- I could load introductory Chinese reading materials (readers?) onto my 650.
- I could load flashcard files also, which would consist of the new characters needed for each lesson.
- This one seems less likely - I could copy characters from the reading materials into Pleco to look them up.

Is any of this possible?

If so, would I have to install other software - Chinese operating system etc. - on my 650?

Thanks,

Douglas

 

[ldolse]

Pleco 2, which is in Beta now, was designed in part to do this. Next beta is out in a few weeks, which should probably be pretty usable.

What sort of electronic introductory reading materials have you come across? That sounds intriquing.

 

[douglasmccarroll]

Actually, I haven't run into any. Perhaps my first question should have been two question:
- Do any introductory instructional materials exist in electronic form?
- Can I load them onto my 650?

Which part of my wish list is Pleco 2 designed to do?

By the way, I've now noticed the flashcard files at http://www.pleco.com/dictaddons.html which include files, broken down by lesson, for Practical Chinese Reader and Chinese Made Easier. So this is exactly what I'm looking for, except that I'd like to be able to load the readers onto my 650...

 

[ldolse]

Pleco 2 has a document reader built into it, and you can add anything from a document into your flashcards quite easily. The reader already works pretty well in the current beta aside from some punctuation handling. The flashcard interface should be pretty usable in the next beta.

There are a few documents in the flashcard or beta forum right now, mostly classical chinese literature. There is of course tons of electronic chinese content on the 'net that could easily be loaded, but not sure what's out there that's good for entry level Chinese study. I'm sure once Pleco2 comes out of beta a lot more content will start popping up in the forums.

 

[ipsi]

I've posted the texts for New Practical Chinese Reader 1 - 4 in the "Resources" forum of http://www.chinese-forums.com - just search for "Editing Help Needed". Books 1 and 2 are basically error-free, while 3 and 4 still have some issues.

Apart from that, you're mostly looking at classical texts, as they're freely (and legitimately) available.

 

[douglasmccarroll]

Idolse wrote:
> Pleco 2 has a document reader built into it, and you can add anything from a document into your flashcards quite easily.

ipsi wrote:
> I've posted the texts for New Practical Chinese Reader 1 - 4

Wow! - looks like a pretty ideal setup once the Pleco 2 flashcard functionality is working....

Thanks for the info!