| How do you use a Chinese character dictionary | |
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| Jun 22, 2006 18:35 |   |
 | I am hand writing a letter in Chinese characters by looking up the word and copying the characters. I forgot what I wrote and now do not know where I left off. When you stop laughing and pick yourselves up off of the floor, how do I look up the characters. How would I read a sign by using a dictionary in China? I have a number of books, but so far, I have not found the answer that allows me to understand. There is a little picture of what I wrote...  |
| Jun 22, 2006 19:50 | #1 |
| Wow, I will never trust e-dictionary! Find some PEOPLE who know both languages and ask him/her to help you, please. Forget the dictionary! |
| Jun 22, 2006 20:08 | #2 |
| Cool characters!:-) Dictionary is better for reading i think. Try the google language tools, input a whole sentence and then translate into chinese. It's better maybe.:P |
| Jun 22, 2006 21:09 | #3 |
| I am using the book dictionary because the Babelfish web-based translator only creates nonsense. I believe that line says "Caveman gave" or "Caveman is giving" ...but I cannot prove it with the English->Chinese dictionary and cannot locate the characters. I did buy a book with the official Chinese method of teaching the language to students...but they come into school already speaking and maybe writing a little. Chinese is a very complex communication system. WOW! |
| Jun 22, 2006 21:18 | #4 |
| Quote: ...Chinese is a very complex communication system. WOW! Sure it is, but it's great you get it started at last, good for you! Good luck! |
| Jun 22, 2006 21:53 | #5 |
| Griz... I admire your dedication! If you are using a pin yin dictionary: To find the character in the dictionary you first need to know the 'radical'. This is a small part of the character, usually (but radicals can contain up to 12 strokes!!) the simplest 'portion' of it. Then you need to work out how many strokes of the pen the 'radical' contains. Once you know this, you can look up the radical in the radical index before the Chinese section of the dictionary. When you find the radical in the radical index there will be a number by the side. Flick through the radical index until you find this number. You will notice all the characters under this section will contain the same radical. They will be listed by number of 'strokes' (eg: how many pen strokes it takes to draw) You must then calculate how many strokes make up the rest of the character (excluding the radical). Or, search through the characters until you find the one that matches. By the side of the character will be the pin yin and/or a page ref for the dictionary. You then can easily look up the word. An example: the last character in your little picture is 俚 (li). My dictionary says this means 'vulgar'. The radical is the small part on the left. It is made of 2 strokes. The rest of the character is made of 7 strokes. Basically, you can forget looking up signs using a dictionary. It's completely pointless and would take you 100 years... May is right, forget online translations, they're essentially useless. Try the following link: http://www.mandarintools.com/ You can put in English words and it will bring up translations in pinyin, characters etc. Much luck :) |
| Jun 23, 2006 05:47 | #6 |
| Great explaination Lemoncactus. I sometimes spend hours looking up characters this way but am often none the wiser for their meaning and especially the application in everyday language. I'm hoping to access a Palm computer into which you can download a very user friendly manderin/ Pinyin-English software for learning Chinese especiall for foreigners. www.pleco.com is the website. Friends of mine are using this and are very happy with it. You can write a character on your screen and get the pinyin and then the English tranlation. There is also flash card series for learning new characters as well and so much more. Read what other users have to say about it. While this may not help translate whole sentences it may help in learning the language so you can remember and be able to wrtie intelligent letters. Forget the E-dictionaries. They must be responsible for so much unintelligable "English' signage around China today. Have you seen any today????? |
| Jun 23, 2006 12:59 | #7 |
| Thank you Lemoncactus and everyone... I have the book Chinese Characters, a Genealogy and Dictionary which works just as you described. But the problem is much like being introduced to an English dictionary when you are in school; if you don't know how to spell the word, how do you look it up. If you cannot parse out the radical and do not know how the strokes are counted, you are pretty much out of luck! ...and Reading & Writing Chinese which shows how to draw the characters with the correct strokes. ....and I picked up some flashcards for the plane ride. But I am unhappy you translated the character as the word vulgar. :( Communicating with my lady friend will be very interesting. |
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