Freeware vocabulary game

[haton]

Hello,

This post is to introduce Pingrid, a memory game I wrote to train my Chinese vocabulary.

The game is to find a word hidden among other words in a grid. Pingrid helps you train the character / sound / meaning association, which I found to be a very difficult part of learning Chinese.

More info at:

http://ehaton.blogspot.com

At the same place you can also find the Pablo English-Chinese dictionary.

Enjoy,

E.

[cdn_in_bj]

I am in the process of downloading Pingrid and Pablo, and I look forward to trying them out this weekend. Thanks for sharing these tools!

[cdn_in_bj]

I just had a chance to try Pablo and it is great!

I do have a small wish - it would be nice to be able to limit the searching to certain fields (ie- pinyin only or English translation only). For example, if I want to search for pinyin "che", it returns a ton of unrelated results because "che" is a very common prefix in English. The only way around this is to choose Exact matching, but sometimes this is not desirable.

Actually, I have another wish as well - it would be nice if the application could be made "trayable".

Anyways, I don't mean to come off as picky. I think you've done a really great job.

[madizi]

Thanks for sharing this! It's just that Pingrid has some kind of strange piyin. Is there something wrong with my fonts or is it wrong pinyin in program?

[madizi]

Ok, problem solved itself. I don't know what went wrong when I started application for the first time.

But there is still one problem. When I start program, computer informs me that I don't have "Chinese voice". What does that mean and what do I have to do?

[haton]

Hello, thanks all for your comments.

Here is a little bit of help.

for cdn_in_bj:

if you want to search for a pinyin, there is a way to "tell" Pablo that what you typed is a pinyin (see manual). What you have to do is either to indicate a tone mark:

che1

or to put a question mark instead:

che?

In both cases, Pablo will interpret the string as a pinyin. (Otherwise it only searches for matching pinyin if no English translation matches the word entered in the search box)

for madizi:

the Chinese voice warning means that either you don't have speech synthesis enabled on your computer, or that Pingrid is unable to identify a Chinese voice to use with it.

Personally I find that listening is a great aspect of Pingrid, so it is a pity you cannot use it.

Anyway it must be annoying to see the error message at every startup. I will remove it in the next version.

Emmanuel.

[madizi]

Yea, it is a little bit annoying, but I don't mind.

How should I enable speech synthesis on my computer?

[cdn_in_bj]

if you want to search for a pinyin, there is a way to "tell" Pablo that what you typed is a pinyin (see manual). What you have to do is either to indicate a tone mark:

Ok, thanks! Obviously I didn't RTFM.

I also had a chance to try Pingrid. I really like the concept and have left it running on my computer, playing it every so often when I want to take a break from work. I do have a few suggestions regarding Pingrid:

Firstly, when configured to use 1 or 2 character words and pinyin is enabled, it would be nice if it would only show words on the grid with the same number of characters as the "guess" word rather than a mix of 1 and 2 character words. I guess the same would apply if sound/speech is enabled.

Secondly, when "giving up", can the answer word be made more visible and maybe shown for a bit longer? Or maybe wait for user confirmation before going on to the next word? I find that the current delay is too short for me to properly "learn" the new word, and sometimes I cannot find it at all before the game goes on to the next word.

Lastly, I would like to enable both pinyin and English definition. Is this possible?

[johnd]

Secondly, when "giving up", can the answer word be made more visible and maybe shown for a bit longer?

cdn, you need to RTFM again! hehe. If you hold the mouse button down for longer, the answer will be shown until you release the button.

[cdn_in_bj]

cdn, you need to RTFM again! hehe. If you hold the mouse button down for longer, the answer will be shown until you release the button.

Damn! That's 2 strikes against me.

[johnd]

the Chinese voice warning means that either you don't have speech synthesis enabled on your computer, or that Pingrid is unable to identify a Chinese voice to use with it.

Does anyone know how to install the Chinese voice on English XP? I've been searching for a while, and starting to get frustrated

[madizi]

I'm interested in that too. Is it some kind of plug-in?

[haton]

Hello,

yes, speech is actually a plugin. And yes, it is practically impossible to find!

After googling for 20 minutes, I found the following site, where you can get the speech engine and the Microsoft Chinese voice.

http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/speech.htm

That voice is free but quality is not so good. I know that third-party companies offer better voices, but as far as I know, none is free. If anyone knows about a quality freeware voice, I am interested.

[johnd]

After googling for 20 minutes, I found the following site, where you can get the speech engine and the Microsoft Chinese voice.

Your link has got lost in the ether, please update us

[haton]

message updated!

[madizi]

Link still dead andi it also isn't possible to access your blog.

[johnd]

Madizi, the link is just blocked. You can access it with a proxy, and here's where you can find one of those.

[stephanhodges]

I looked at the threads on Pingrid, and chose this one (original introduction) to comment on some possible feature enhancements.

Just downloaded today.

1) The program does not have a way to tell you it's version. It should also list the "version" of the CeDict dictionary, IMO.

2) Have a way to repeat the voice. With single syllable words, it's sometimes a little quick.

3) Able to increase the size of the word/font. The pinyin is just too small for my "old" eyes!

3b) Able to change fonts on the characters shown. Ideally, I personally would like to be able to have multiple fonts, with different characters randomly shown in different fonts. It's too easy for me to memorize an "exact" image only, and still not recognize the character when I see it "in the wild"..

4)

I'd like to be able to define a pattern for memorization, very similar to this one: http://www.chinese-forums.com/report.php?p=154580

That is, I need to stay on a set of characters / words until I have them fairly good, then advance to another small set (say 10-12), etc.

5) I'd like the ability to give it a list of words, and have it drill both words, and individual characters.

[stephanhodges]

One more improvement would be to match the number characters shown with the word to match.

I.E. If I am looking for a single character word, then all the displayed words should be single character ones, etc.

[haton]

Hello Stephan,

thanks a lot for the feedback. Here are some answers. As you will see, my ideas pretty much coincide with yours.

1) The program does not have a way to tell you it's version. It should also list the "version" of the CeDict dictionary, IMO.

--> the version is given by the presence of a "version XX.txt" file in the package. I may include a way to show it from inside the program.

As for the CEDICT version, that's a good idea and I'll do it.

2) Have a way to repeat the voice. With single syllable words, it's sometimes a little quick.

--> Very good question. A way to do this is to press the key corresponding to the game mode. Say you are playing in (B)lind mode, then press B and the word is repeated! (I use it all the time).

3) Able to increase the size of the word/font. The pinyin is just too small for my "old" eyes!

3b) Able to change fonts on the characters shown. Ideally, I personally would like to be able to have multiple fonts, with different characters randomly shown in different fonts. It's too easy for me to memorize an "exact" image only, and still not recognize the character when I see it "in the wild"..

--> Changing the font and font size is possible in recent versions by manually editing the 'preferences.txt' file.

'Random font' is a nice idea, and I may give it a try. I agree with you that there is a risk of memorizing only one image. (This is also the reason why personally I use a 'handwritten' style font).

4)

I'd like to be able to define a pattern for memorization, very similar to this one: http://www.chinese-forums.com/report.php?p=154580

That is, I need to stay on a set of characters / words until I have them fairly good, then advance to another small set (say 10-12), etc.

--> Wow, This one is a big one! Working on the training model is actually on my mind these days.

Let me give it a thought.

5) I'd like the ability to give it a list of words, and have it drill both words, and individual characters.

--> Good idea. I may add that as an option. (Give me some time though, Pingrid is basically an amateur effort and I work on it by rashes...)

6) One more improvement would be to match the number characters shown with the word to match.

--> This has been a request of several users, that I have always resisted.

The main reason is that I don't like the visual aspect of the screen with only words of the same size (too square for me).

In fornt of popular demand, I may add is as an option, though

Cheers,

Emmanuel