Vocabulary software (not just flashcards)?

[Katja_84]

Hi everyone,

I've spent ages looking for an appropriate vocabulary software and would love some advice on software which does the following:

- Allow you to add your own words and practice them (so not Pingrid or ZDT, both of which meddle with the words you add by requiring you to use words from a dictionary or only allow one-character words).

- Allow you to practice games (multiple choice or something, so not just flashcards like Anki)

- Ideally allow you to import and export word lists.

Have used Chinese Homework Trainer before but I can't actually get it to work so looking for an alternative.

If anyone has any ideas I'd much appreciate it!

Thank you in advance,

Katja

[Shelley]

Hi ya,

You didn't say if it was for a handheld or desktop. If you have a smartphone or other handheld I would recommend Pleco (again :rolleyes: ) because it has lots of practice variations and allows you to add characters in a few ways. It has handwriting input too, and flashcards with multiple character words, the demo is worth a go but no handwriting input. It is very reasonablebly priced if you go for the basic package. the main difference between packs is the number of dictionaries. you can add them later if you find you need them. See the link on Chinese forums homepage (top of left sidebar). Try it I think you will like it. Shelley

[Katja_84]

Thanks Shelley, it is for a desktop though so I'd have to wait until it comes out in a computer version

[Iqbar]

While I appreciate these will not fulfill all of your requirements, ZDT does allow you to add your own custom flashcards. Instead of entering items in the dictionary section and then transferring them to a category, right click and 'Add Entry' in the category view. You can then edit the whole entry as your would like it to appear.

[abcdefg]

ZDT does what you are looking for.

Yellowbridge has some good word games, but they are based on pre-made textbook lists, not items you input yourself.

I would suggest you forget about trying to find that elusive "one perfect software program" and just use several to achieve your goals.

[Katja_84]

I'd clearly given up on ZDT too soon, I had not realized it was possible to input your own words into it and now that I've figured it out I'm getting good use out of it!

Many thanks for your help - much appreciated!

[PengHaoShi]

Hi Katja, I am using Skritter (www.skritter.com or www.skritter.cn) since quite some while, and I really love it, as it helped me to better memorize characters and words, trains definitions, handwriting, pinyin, tones, has a lot of ready made vocabulary lists (e.g. textbooks or imports the lists from ChinesePod lessons), allows you to create your own lists or even own definitions, export - import function, example sentences, mnemonics, ...It runs as a web application, so you can use it on different devices. It also provides quite a number of different languages than English, so if you are a non-native English speaker (I was guessing from your name), it may allow you to study in your mother tongue, which I always found to be a better way than using a foreign language to learn another foreign language. Cost: below 10 USD per month.

Drawback: you might get addicted to it - I was spending much time on Skritter during the last year and less on reading, which I should do - but I will change that now, as Skritter helped me to reach 3000 characters and almost 6000 words with a retention rate of over 90%. Now it's time, to move from "character recognition" to real reading.

What is not has is a sort of game study mode.

In parallel, I use Pleco on a handheld, but mainly as dictionary. If I look up unknown words or characters, I put them into a list in Pleco and then later export this list to Skritter.

[towelie]

*

Edited July 18, 2011 at 11:24 AM by towelie