If you have seen Chinese writing before, you probably noticed that it requires us to learn characters rather than the roman alphabet we know from English. First, you learn a character’s meaning, reading, and tone; then practice writing it!
Before you know it, you’ll want to learn thousands of characters, and words like these two happy users:
Guest accounts enjoy free access to select decks forever!
Unlock Review mode, and study anything you want with a premium subscription, which is available for purchase in the app. Manage your subscription from your iTunes App Store settings where you can turn off auto-renewal at any time.
Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable.
How to use Chinese handwriting recognition on the iPhone
For iPhone / iPad users learning Chinese, it is possible to enter characters simply by writing them on the screen. Some apps have their own handwriting recognition functions, but to get you started you can try the built in system you already have first. Then go ahead and write a Chinese character on the screen in the box at the bottom.
Format Chinese, Japanese or Korean text in Pages on iPad
Format Chinese, Japanese or Korean text in Pages on iPad You can enter text in many different languages, including several different writing systems for Chinese, Japanese and Korean, using the international keyboards available on your device.
Important: The instructions below assume you’ve set up at least one Chinese, Japanese or Korean keyboard on your device. For example, using a Chinese keyboard, you can apply Boten dots below or above the text, or a wavy underline.
How to type Chinese Characters with Pinyin Input
Select your operating system for a guide on how to enable Chinese text input. Open theApplication, SelectSelectSelectSelectSelectTap or tap and hold the globe icon on the keyboard to switch between English and Chinese.Type in Pinyin, and select the Correct Chinese characters.Another fun input method uses handwriting recognition.
How do I type Chinese on my iOS device?
The Simplified Chinese Pinyin keyboard is listed as 简体拼音. NOTE: The Pinyin and Handwriting keyboards allow you to type the Chinese language by spelling out the Chinese characters’ pronunciation with the Roman alphabet or drawing the characters with your own handwriting. Tip: Some Chinese pinyin words are spelled using ‘ü’ which you might not have on your keyboard.
Learning to Write Chinese Characters on the iPad
One of the reasons I rushed to get an iPad for my own company is that the iPad is the leading tablet computer device, and tablet computers, with their relatively large touch-driven screens, seem uniquely poised to offer a great learning experience for a new generation of learners. Now that the iPad has been out for a year, developers have had some time to dig into iOS and create some cool apps for learning to write Chinese characters. Significant effort has gone into Pleco‘s iOS handwriting recognition and OCR function, but neither of these teaches writing. To effectively teach the writing of Chinese characters in a comprehensive way, an app would need to do the following:
Introduce the building blocks of Chinese characters, calling attention to how they function is a part of a whole. This issue goes way beyond the scope of this blog post, but the point is that most of the apps out there now stick mainly to #5.
Because most of the apps are largely about practicing writing, I’m going to talk mostly about the concepts of tracing and feedback. The issue of stroke direction takes center stage in this app, as a star in a green circle tells you where to start, and a series of numbers in little circles show you which way to make the strokes.
On the plus side, I actually met with the main developer in Shanghai, and he seems quite open to suggestions for improvement, and has plans to make the app better. Feature Description Tracing Yes, in game form Feedback Yes, a big red “X” tells you when you make a mistake but gives you no immediate clue where you went wrong.
The timed aspect also adds another dimension which makes the “trace the strokes” mechanic a bit less monotonous (at least for a while). The way the game works is that characters slowly drop for the top of the screen.
If you’re too slow or keep getting the strokes wrong, the character eventually drops off the bottom of the screen, and that’s one strike against you. Feature Description Tracing No Feedback Yes, the correct stroke flashes on the screen when you make a mistake.
In theory, the app is fine, sort of a simpler version of the Skritter system. When asked if it will stay free, his reply was, “I can’t see changing the price, although you should tell people it will be $99.99 next week so GET IT NOW!”
Chinagram is not free and contains a very limited number of characters, but in many ways, it’s my favorite of these apps. This simple combination of options makes for a quite satisfying range of writing practice possibilities. Chinagram offers an attractive and appealing, although somewhat limited, introduction to the writing of Chinese characters. I have a student intern at AllSet named Lucas, who kindly gave me his own feedback on the four apps above. Word Tracer: “Helpful for learning stroke order, but a bit over-sensitive, which can be frustrating.” 3. trainchinese Chinese Writer: “Kinda funny, I guess, but I don’t like the time pressure.”
Be First to Comment