chat function on zhongwen.com

[so.many.words]

Do you have any experience using the zhongwen chat function ...watched a couple of conversations yesterday and can offer a couple of observations ...

No tone use. Is this common between language students? Watching and translating was driving me 'nuts' especially as I am more character-based and am not so slap happy with pinyin. Were they lazy? or is this just the way it is done? and do students heavy on pinyin neglect the tones because classroom study is this a more forgiving world than the real one?

I was really surprised that I could still identify gender in conversation. In particular I could still spot the 'surly' style of a teenage girl (no apologies to any teenage girls, your parents know what I am talking about , and I am blessed with boys ).

The request to go off-line to MSN or gmail ...I can only guess that this is for a more social than language experience ....and am I at risk of being picked-up by some teenage schoolgirl (that should catch crazymeiguo's attention).

Are there any other chats (as opposed to posting) ...I love the pace of the chat, it simulates the need(the need for speed) in real life and to be able to respond with something more creative than bu dong when someone frightenens you with a very tricky ni hao.

My only other concern was that whilst translating, I would hear a little bit more than I would care too:oops: Although I wonder if that was my translation, is there an innocent character in 'going to the toilet' that might translate as lifting your skirt:roll:.

[Lu]

Haven't been there for ages, but when I did go there most people used no tones. Except sometimes when it was necessary for understanding. Tones are mostly either mafan to type (if you want the tone to appear on top of the word) or mafan to read (if you put a number behind the word). So generally, no tones is the way it's done there. If you prefer characters, the zhongwen.com chat is just not the right place to go.

I'd recommend skype for character chat with real Chinese. Put in your profile that you speak Chinese, and/or just find anyone in China and start a chat, if you don't have a picture up, see how long you can fool them into not guessing you're not Chinese. If you prefer typing over talking, tell them your microphone is broken.

[imron]

Tones are mostly either mafan to type

ānzhuāng pīnyīnput jiù bù máfan le

[so.many.words]

imron ....nǐ shì língli-kúzi

[Meng Lelan]

I've been off the chat thing for years now - back in 2004 MSN was popular for Chinese character chatting. Now is skype more popular for chatting in Chinese characters? I'd like to try skype but I don't know where to start or what to do, do I have to download something first or what?

[Lu]

You'll first have to download skype (just www.skype.com I think). You can then chat with friends already on skype, just like with msn, but the good thing about skype is that you can also make phonecalls over the internet, and with other skype users this is free. So perfect if you have friends abroad.

You get to make a little profile of yourself (you don't have to though), with your name, where you are, what languages you speak. You can also search other people's profiles. So basically you can do a search for anyone who speaks Chinese, or anyone in China, and throw them a ni hao and see if they want to chat. I've never actively looked for people this way, but people have found me on occasion (guys, mostly, but since they were all in remote corners of the world I figured there was no harm in just chatting with them).

Another very popular program seems to be QQ, but I never tried that.