Learn Chinese 2007 – User Documentation
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Learn Chinese 2007 v5.1
User Guide
Copyright © 2003-2007 Jerome Dangu, All Rights Reserved
Presentation
What is this software good for?
Learn Chinese 2007
is a learning tool for Chinese vocabulary. This software is working based on
personalized lists in order to follow tightly the needs and progress of the user. It is also able to
analyze Chinese texts and automatically extract vocabulary from them.
Who could use this software?
This software is addressed to all people eager to learn Chinese and in particular to progress quickly in
the assimilation of the vocabulary. It is also relevant as a support for collective courses (all level
scholar courses) or individual (particular course, self-training).
On which platform does this software work?
Learn Chinese 2007 works under Windows XP, 2000, 2003 and Vista with any recent PC. It requires
approximately 20 MB of disk space available. It also correctly runs under Linux via the Wine emulator.
Distribution
The downloadable trial version is free, letting anyone evaluate the features of the software. The
original set-up file can be redistributed at will.
To be able to benefit from all features without limitation, it will be necessary to buy an Activation
Key on the Internet site http://www.lchinese.com/purchase.html
Installation
The latest version of the setup file is available on http://www.lchinese.com/download.html. Once you
have downloaded it on your computer, you have to execute it once to proceed to the installation. At
the end of the installation, a confirmation message will propose you to start the software.
During normal use, you will have to start the software using the Start button, in your
programs list. The setup file will not seem useful anymore but you might want to store it on a CD-
Rom as a backup.
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Enter activation key (registered customers)
You need to enter your first name/name and activation key in the registration wizard. It usually pops-
up when the software starts. If it is already running, you will find a Key button on the main window's
tool bar.
Your activation key is name-dependant. Please be careful and respect upper/lower-case characters
and accents. Once you've confirmed your activation information by clicking OK, you should get a
confirmation message. You might need to restart the software for the activation to take effect.
Terminology used in Learn Chinese 2007
List:
A list of Chinese characters or words which is used as a basis for practicing quizzes
The lists are created by the user according to his needs.
The lists are extracts of libraries and each list is attached to a library.
It is necessary to save the list in progress before leaving the software.
Library:
A library is a list of characters or words which has vocation to gather the whole of the vocabulary on
which the user wants to work. A multitude of lists can be created starting from a library.
Dictionary:
The dictionary contains approximately 25.000 Chinese words (Ci) and 16.000 individual characters
(Zi). It makes it possible to perform searches in Chinese, English, pinyin. It also makes it possible to
choose between traditional and simplified Chinese. This is a project carried out by the CEDICT
Internet community. You can use the dictionary to copy words of your choice in your own libraries in
order to use them in quizzes.
The Lists/Libraries/Dictionary units offer a modular system (extensible ad infinitum) to learn the
Chinese vocabulary at your own rhythm.
Text
Learn Chinese 2007 allows loading texts in Chinese from Internet (using copy & paste) or Chinese text
files (most encoding formats are supported). Texts are automatically annotated with pinyin and by
clicking on any character you will have access to writing animation, pronunciation, and translation.
Another possibility is to create a library from the vocabulary contained in the text and then practice
quizzes on it.
This feature is only available in the Advanced version of the software.
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First steps in the software
Main window
The current list appears directly on the main
window. You can simply click on a word to obtain
details on it. To edit a word, double-click on it.
A right click will allow a fast
access to the various menus
related to your list and your
selection.
Any moment, the word selected in your list, library or in
the dictionary is posted in the main window.
You obtain pinyin and translation of the character of your
choice just by clicking on it. From this interface you can
also listen to the pronunciation of the character or view
the character writing animation.
In the same way, information on the radical (or key) of
the character is also available.
Lastly, tab buttons allow easily reaching the
library and the dictionary and quickly feed the
lists.
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Lists management
New list
The simplest step to create a list is to associate an already existing library with it and to gradually add
words, from the simplest to the most complex ones.
The default library contains the 400 most used characters in modern Chinese. This list was called
SMIC-400 or essential minimum system of characters and was established by French Chinese
teachers.
Learn Chinese 2007 has a certain number of filters to ease the creation of lists:
Traditional or simplified characters (via the dictionary)
Filter characters by minimum and maximum number of strokes
Only show the characters having the radical (or key) selected
The button "Add this selection to my current list" will copy the selected word(s) or character(s) in your
list. To carry out multiple selections, use the Shift (
) or control (Ctrl) keys of your keyboard. You
can also use the “drag & drop” feature: drag your selection in the library window and drop it on the
list tab.
Attention, it will be necessary to save your list before exiting the software
Save a list
You can save your lists using the floppy disk icon. Just input a name and save your list for future use.
Open an existing list
From here you can reopen your saved lists
Create your own vocabulary libraries
To go further in your learning experience, you will want to add new words/characters from your
course material. Learn Chinese 2007 provides a number of sources to find Chinese vocabulary.
Search in the dictionary, in libraries
From the dictionary you can add infinity of words and characters in your lists.
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You can search in your libraries just like in the dictionary
Find a character by drawing it with your mouse
To find a character if you don't
know the pinyin or the
translation, it is possible to
draw it with your mouse,
stroke by stroke. The system
will immediately interpret each
stroke and propose the best
matches from what you have
drawn.
The tool also allows undoing
the previous strokes in order
to correct possible errors. You
can then try and retry until the
character is recognized and
then easily get the meaning
and pronunciation of a
character met randomly on a
paper medium for example.
Since version 5.1, you can optionally predefine the number of strokes of the character that you’re
looking for. This helps finding characters even if you don’t know precisely how to draw them. You can
draw a few strokes and then look at the potential matching characters for a given number of strokes.
You can also choose between simplified and traditional characters
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Import/Export libraries
Share your libraries on Internet!
In this menu you can select one or several libraries
(use the Ctrl key when selecting) to be saved in an
LCP file. These LCP files can be uploaded on the
Internet to allow other users to use the libraries you
have created.
You can visit the page http://users.lchinese.com to
consult the libraries currently available. Please note
that this service is reserved to registered users.
Import vocabulary from Excel or .txt files
If you prefer to create libraries in Excel or already have data in Excel or in text format, this feature will
let you import all this data to Learn Chinese 2007.
You should preferably organize your data as such:
-
First column should contain the Chinese word itself
-
Second column should contain the Pinyin (with tones as numbers or accents)
-
Third column should contain the translation
This order can be changed in the options before importing.
You have to save your Excel file as “Unicode Text (.txt)”. Other formats are not supported.
If you don’t have Excel you can use Notepad or WordPad (packaged in Windows) to create a multi-
column text file. Columns must be separated by tabulations. Please make sure to save your text file as
Unicode Text.
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Make a flashcard from your vocabulary list
Learn Chinese 2007 allows you to create
customizable flashcards that you can
printout to study your vocabulary away
from your computer. Several styles are
available (flashcard templates) but you can
also create new styles with Word or
Wordpad very intuitively.
You can choose which fields you want to
see in your printout (Chinese word, English
translation, pinyin, alternative character, a
second Chinese word appearance).
Once you’re satisfied with the preview, you
can choose to save as an RTF file (for
further use in Word, Wordpad or any text
processor) or directly printout the
document from Learn Chinese 2007.
Practicing exercises and quizzes on your lists
The quizzes are optimized in order to store the good and bad
answers on each word or character. Thus, for each random
selection, the least known words have priority (high number of
errors as well as low frequency). This feature makes it simple to
concentrate on the least known words (and/or the hardest ones).
NB: By default, 20 questions are asked during each quiz session.
The number of questions is adjustable in the options.
Character grid search
Depending on the options you choose, the quiz can be based on the translation, pinyin or
pronunciation of a randomly chosen character. The goal is to find the matching character among the
multitude of characters placed on the grid.
When the list in progress is made up of compound words (several characters), one of the characters is
randomly selected. This character is hidden behind the [?] symbol.
GigaHanzi
This is an alternative to the above quiz as a board game. In the same way, it is thus based on the
translation, pinyin or pronunciation of a randomly chosen character. This character must be guessed
and placed on an empty square of the board (with a left click of the mouse). The goal is to associate
identical characters to make them disappear from the board. The more characters you memorize, the
more easily you will clean-up the board.
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Character writing
This exercise is helpful to practice writing Chinese
characters. From the translation and pinyin, you
have to draw the character stroke by stroke with
your mouse. The system checks the exactitude of
the writing in real time and assistance is available
whenever needed.
Pinyin from character
A character from the list is posted randomly and the user has to input the pinyin for this character.
Translation from character
A character from the list is posted randomly and the user must determine the correct translation
among several proposals (multiple-choice questionnaire).
Tone from pronunciation
A character is randomly selected from the list. The user has to listen to the pronunciation of the
character and choose the correct tone.
Consult statistics
The statistics are detailed for your library (total evaluation) and lists it words in progress (your daily
work represents rather)
Known words
Started but still to learn
Not started yet
Taking into account these statistics will help you to have rational objectives and to follow your
progress in a daily way.
Personalize options
In the options, it is possible to adjust the number of questions per session of a quiz, choose the fonts
to be used, define a default list to be loaded when the software starts, and more.
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Reading texts with Learn Chinese 2007
The text analysis features appear in the “Text assistant” tab button.
This module allows plain beginners in Chinese to start reading and understanding Chinese texts. It
features automatic pinyin annotation (for pronunciation purposes) and instant translation look-up. It
can even create an automatic library from a text by extracting all words based on a few simple
criteria. You can then use this library to practice quizzes.
This feature is only available in the Advanced version of the software.
1/ Open a Chinese text file
Learn Chinese 2007 is able to load Chinese text files in the following formats and identify them
automatically:
-
Unicode (UTF-16)
-
Unicode (UTF-16) Big-endian
-
Unicode UTF-8
-
GB2312 (simplified Chinese, mainland China)
-
Big5 (traditional Chinese, Taiwan, Hong Kong)
-
HZ (simplified Chinese, mainland China)
You can make sure the format has been recognized properly using the preview window. If no text file
appears or if it appears wrong, you can select manually the proper encoding format.
2/ Save your Chinese text file
Produces an RTF or TXT file that can be opened in MS Word or WordPad. RTF files cannot be loaded
back in Learn Chinese 2007.
This is where your texts
are displayed with pinyin
annotation and instant
translation look-up.
Pinyin annotation can be
disabled with button
The vocabulary of your
text is extracted using
button
.
This pane can be
hidden or shown with
button
Open a Chinese text file
Save the text in RTF (Word / Wordpad) or TXT (plain text)
Copy to clipboard
Paste from clipboard
Printout the text
Pinyin annotation
Show/hide vocabulary pane
Vocabulary extraction
Save the vocabulary as a vocabulary library in Learn Chinese 2007
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3/ Copy & Paste text
You can paste the formatted text in MS Word, WordPad, etc, for further editing. You can also paste
text snippets from your Internet navigator, MS Word, etc. It is assumed that the pasted text is
encoded in Unicode UTF-16.
4/ Print
Prints the current text as it appears on screen, including pinyin annotation (if enabled).
5/ Disable/Enable pinyin annotation
Pinyin annotation is enabled by default but can be switched off at any moment with this button.
Warning: this feature is very time consuming. Please be careful to disable this feature with very large
texts or be ready to be patient!
6/ Show/hide vocabulary look-up
The vocabulary look-up pane can be set as hidden with this icon. This is the right pane of the Text
assistant module, where the results of the vocabulary look-up are listed (see below).
7/ Look-up vocabulary in the text
This feature allows you to
automatically look-up all the
vocabulary of the text based on a few
simple criteria. It will allow you to
define filters such as character
frequency (exclude very frequent
characters from the list) or word
length (by default the maximum word
length is 6).
Click “start” to run the look-up.
Create a word library from the look-up list
Once the vocabulary list is ready you can delete entries at your will: Simply select them in the list and
hit the Del keyboard key. Then you can create a library than can be used to create lists and practice
quizzes. You will simply have to enter a name and a comment (optional).
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User License and Legal Information
License is granted for personal use. Activation keys are nominative. Under no circumstance is the user
allowed to share this registration information with anyone. If you plan to install the software on
several computers, we have special terms of agreement. We also have special prices for education.
Contact us for more information.
You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except and only to the extent
that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. The author
declines all responsibility for any loss caused by the use of this software.
More information on the net
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