Is there a chinese audio dictionary?

[sleepy eyes]

I know Pleco has real audio for entire words, not just syllables. I don't know to what extent though, and anyways I just gave buying an Iphone 4 for good, thanks to the insane people who work for Ch Unicom. (I'm so insanely pissed-off at those people I shouldn't even comment on that.)

Anyways, are there other alternatives? I'm interested in actual words, not just individual syllables, like besta dictionaries and such.

Happy new year, everyone!

[across]

I use the dictionary of My Chinese Coach on Nintendo DSi. Most video game systems are illegal in China, but the Nintendo DS is an exception. It's English to Chinese and Chinese to English. I do notice that the pinyin spellings are different than what I find in some other sources, but I guess that's the case with all Chinese dictionaries to some extent or another.

[sleepy eyes]

How extensive is it? Could you elaborate further? Sound quality, pronunciation etc. Thanks!

[across]

I think it's about 10,000 words. you can look up words using pinyin or English. After doing so, you have a sound recording of the word available to you, as well as the translation in both simplified or traditional characters. So, it's quick and easy to find 1) the English translation 2) the pinyin translation 3) the simplified translation 4) the traditional translation. The pronunciation is fine to me, but I'm not Chinese, so that means nothing. It sounds like it's spoken by a Chinese female with a cutesy voice, which some people might like, because it's, well, cutesy. But I'm a guy, so I prefer learning Chinese from men. There are no male voices, though, but a female voice still does the trick. There's a lot more to the software than just a dictionary. But the flashcards and dictionary are my favorite parts. My least favorite part is where you have to write the characters, so I just skip that. Basically, it writes a character at the speed of light, then expects you to repeat what they just did. Not gonna happen. There is YouTube footage of the program, but YouTube is illegal in China as far as I know. You could use a proxy server, though, or see some footage from another site.

Here are the Amazon reviews. I use the DSi (which is bigger than the original DS), and got that right when it came out. But the DSi XL is now out and is even bigger. That could make the characters easier to read.

[sleepy eyes]

This all sounds terrific! Once I get the DS, how do I buy My Chinese Coach? I'm looking at DSi XL prices on taobao right now.

[across]

You can order it from HK here. Good luck.

[across]

I thought I should mention that the Nintendo 3DS will be released in March (February for the Japanese version). The screen won't be as large as the DSi XL screen, though. So, if you're using it only (or mostly) for My Chinese Coach, the DSi XL still might be more attractive to you.

And come think of it, since you were thinking of buying an iPhone, my Chinese Chinese Coach is also available on iOS, meaning that you could use it on an iPad. iPad 2 will probably come out in 2011, though.

[sleepy eyes]

Thanks again and again! I wonder if the item could be taxed, coming from HK?

[across]

Not sure on tax issues, but it probably wouldn't be much tax, since so much of HK's livelihood is due to its intimate business relationships with the mainland. And of course, there would be no shipping charge at all if one were to use the iOS version, because they would download it from the net and use it on one of their Apple devices.

And you could always try to get the DS version of My Chinese Coach from the mainland, either by ordering it or just buying it somewhere.