A complete guide to Computer-aided Chinese Reading

[Hofmann]

I'd imagine that book would serve its niche. It will have a hard time finding it, however, if its contents are not clearly described.

Meanwhile, the best translation software I can think of is this plugin. I think someone's writing a new version which can popup Cantonese (source).

[JustinP]

I don't think this will work. I tried using Yahoo translator to translate some contents from Chinese Web sites before and it just gave me some very funny results which are totally useless.

[gkung]

I don't think this will work. I tried using Yahoo translator to translate some contents from Chinese Web sites before and it just gave me some very funny results which are totally useless.

Using translation software is just the general idea. There are some techniques you will need to know. You can't just randomly pick a software and expect it to work like that. To make this process work, the critical thing is in the details.

[HashiriKata]

Using translation software is just the general idea. There are some techniques you will need to know. You can't just randomly pick a software and expect it to work like that. To make this process work, the critical thing is in the details.

I believe there's a market for your book/ techniques, if you can find ways to genuinely correct all the nonsense output by non-specialist, free machine translation programs. The biggest weakness that I found in your approach is you seem to depend on the output by other (rather than your own) translation programs, especially those that still churn out "把基础" as "hits the foundation". Do you have reliably ways to predict problems that may be encountered by your targeted audience (who knowledge of Chinese is, as assumed, non-existence) and solutions to help them? I'd be very interested to know how you deal with these (and not just promises such as "the critical thing is in the details" )

[BrandeX]

Well, I don't think there is. Who is going to d*** around for X amount of minutes to just translate each word/sentence just to read a book? They will be back to reading books in their native language before they finish the first page.

[roddy]

George, would you like to donate a free review copy to a forums member?

[gkung]

I believe there's a market for your book/ techniques, if you can find ways to genuinely correct all the nonsense output by non-specialist, free machine translation programs.

The technology has not reach that level yet. My other point is that If the MT (machine translation) is perfect then there is no need for this book, is it?

I'd be very interested to know how you deal with these (and not just promises such as "the critical thing is in the details" )

The details are described in the book

There are also some preview (free sample pages) you can download at GeorgeKung.com

[gkung]

Who is going to d*** around for X amount of minutes to just translate each word/sentence just to read a book? They will be back to reading books in their native language before they finish the first page.

The software can translate the whole document (or web page) in a blink so it's not like you need to do sentence-by-sentence translation. However, I think you had a valid point regarding people would not be interested in spending extra time in doing this.

[gkung]

George, would you like to donate a free review copy to a forums member?

How do I donate a book to the forum members? I thought everyone is in different location.

[HashiriKata]

How do I donate a book to the forum members? I thought everyone is in different location.

If you'd donate, I'd review it for you. Your work needs to be known and if it has merits, it deserves success and if it's not there yet, then you'll need to rethink but this is not at all a bad thing.

The technology has not reach that level yet. My other point is that If the MT (machine translation) is perfect then there is no need for this book, is it?

This is exactly my point when I posted my earlier post. As the IT technology's not there yet, you'll have the opportunity to help your target audience to correctly understand written Chinese without learning it. This is your unique contribution and is also your selling point, and so I hope your book focuses on this. Edited August 12, 2008 at 09:40 PM by HashiriKata
typo

[simonlaing]

Wow

When I first read the title of this post I was very excited. But it seems that you are writing about how to use google translate or other tools to read chinese online or digital texts.

(also my home town is also Newton, MA, I grew in Oak hill Park. I now live in Nanjing, Jiangsu China, Yeah newton).

I think a much more interesting book would be how to use Computer parsers and translation tools to help you learn chinese in an organized way. This type of book would have much more demand and be so much more interesting to us posters in Chinese forum.

I think if would start out with describing the way characters are formed out of radicals. The usual phonetic right side and meaning left side. Build up short text with words and have ways of selecting words that you don't know for flash cards later. the Popjisyo, did this somewhat but I think it's dictionary isn't that great.

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=charquiz has a great flash card system, and parser, but it uses the character as the basic unit when sometimes I would like the 2 part Chinese word. This site also has great way of taking the characters you have wrong and giving a list of the words that use this weird character.

Rikai, hmarty.free.fr/hanzi, and Adso also have quality parser software as well as radical lists.

At Nanjing univerisity I had a internet newspaper class where they taught these techniques in very basic form but only to advanced students. I think there is a huge potential for those who would expand on them. Or tailor a course to beginner and intermediate students as well.

Since most chinese now is typed in with pinyin now rather than handwritten learning to use the computer to learn Chinese could be very powerful.

If the book was about using tech tools to study chinese (rather than as a mediocre replacement of learning the language) do agree with me that it could be very useful?

Have fun,

SImon:)

[imron]

How do I donate a book to the forum members?

Find a forum member who would like to review it (HashiriKata put his hand up first), then PM them to find out their contact details and arrange things like postage etc. It wouldn't be the first time books have been donated to forum members for review.

[gkung]

If you'd donate, I'd review it for you.

OK. I see, so this is to donate to "one" member. But I thought it is Roddy that was requesting it.

Your work needs to be known and if it has merits, it deserves success

and if it's not there yet, then you'll need to rethink but this is not at all a bad thing.

I was wondering how would you be able to help me achieve that?

[roddy]

Oh, I don't review stuff, I just sometimes try to persuade people to donate review copies to whoever wants to review it.

[imron]

OK. I see, so this is to donate to "one" member.

You're more than welcome to donate to more than one if you like Just beware though that a review may or may not be positive, and that reviews from long-standing members will carry more weight than reviews from someone just signed up.

[HashiriKata]

I was wondering how would you be able to help me achieve that?

There is no promise attached to my offer to review it really. It should be you, the author, who is responsible for the improvement, if there is such a need, and you should count any useful suggestions by the reviewer only as bonuses. Here I'd like to review it purely out of interest and goodwill, and I'd post what I think reasonable on the board but there are other, more formal ways to get your book reviewed & to give it exposure:

- Ask your publishers to send it out to appropriate reviewers (Publishers should have a list of reviewers in particular fields).

- Submit it to relevant specialist journals for reviewing.

- Give talks about your book & methods in academic conferences.

- Organise Chinese reading classes using the book to get realistic feedbacks of its use.

etc.

Cheers,

[JustinP]

I was wondering how would you be able to help me achieve that?

Send a copy over here, George. I can post a good review for you in amazon.com and bn.com - if it's really good, that is, but I think your approach is interesting.

[gkung]

You're more than welcome to donate to more than one if you like

OK. I guess I can give out a couple if people are really interested, but I hope they can read the sample chapters on my website (www.GeorgeKung.com) and let me know if they readlly want to read more of it.

[gkung]

If the book was about using tech tools to study chinese (rather than as a mediocre replacement of learning the language) do agree with me that it could be very useful?

I was actually working on such a book (using tools for studying Chinese) - talking about using of scan pen, writing pad, e-dictionary, etc. However, I then doubt that people will want to read a book for these things.

[Hofmann]

If you put it on Amazon, people you give it to can write reviews there.