PDA Chinese Dictionary- umm . . helps me learn chinese!

[hbuchtel]

I didn't see any topics about PDAs (forgive me if I missed something) so here is one option for pda/dictionary combinations-

I have a Palm (Tungsten W, $300) and bought ($50) a program called the Oxford Dictionary www.pleco.com

Basically a Palm PDA is like a tiny simple computer with a touch screen. They are very small (shirt pocket size) and light (less then 5 oz.) The cheapest new model is about $100 (Zire 21). All palms come with basic software for addresses, calendar, and memos.

To sum up what I can do, the main dictionary is the Oxford Concise C-E-C, and the free dicts CEDICT and UniChin can be added on. You can enter chinese using pin-yin, radical look-up, or writing the character on the screen. There is also a simple flashcard function included.

I am working in China and studying Chinese and use this program all the time. I have good paper dictionaries but don't use them anymore, for two main reasons-

1. Writing an unfamiliar character on the screen of the pda is much faster then looking it up by a dictionary's radical index.

2. Portability! I find most learning is done on the street or while traveling, and a palm is much lighter then an equivalent sized dictionary.

I am a really big fan of this dictionary and of PDAs in general, am happy to answer any questions!

There is also a forum at the dictionary website (www.plecoforums.com). The folks there are working on a new program that will include the ABC C-E and NWP E-C dictionaries. Oh boy!

Henry

ps- CEDICT www.mandarintools.com/cedict.html

UniChin www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html

[beirne]

EDIT: This was a reply to a message that has since been deleted.

There are advantages to using a PDA for flashcards. The main one is that you can carry them with you wherever you go and work on them when you have some free time. I have 7351 flashcards stored in Supermemo and am able to review them while waiting in line and other idle moments.

Another advantage of a PDA is that a good program will adapt the flashcard presentation to your abilities. It is difficult to use 7000 paper flashcards. You can't go through them all and picking some randomly will give you the difficult ones that you should work on as well as the easy ones that you don't really need to work on. While you can sort out your paper flashcards manually, a good program will manage this for you much more accurately.

[hbuchtel]

I have to admit that when I have a headache I do not want to look at my pda . . .

Not that a book full of tiny text is much better . . .

If someone came out with an 'old folks e-z-read C-E-C dictionary' I'd be all over it . . .

Henry