Missing Dictionary radical lookup. Missing anything good?

[xyz123abc]

Hi, again!

With pleco's handwriting recognition I can look up unknown characters (U-50 atm) by writing them. I don't know how to look up the characters by their radicals as I don't have much time to learn yet another skill.

is this a good approach?. Am I likely to miss radical lookup sometime in the future? Pleco REQUIRES a PDA. I haven't found any GOOD character recognition software for the PC, which would REQUIRE a computer, and that's where my uneasiness come from

Thanks, pals!

[Shelley]

I understand how using pleco makes using a paper dictionary redundant, but I would say IMHO that it is a skill worth having. Being able to look up characters in a dictionary is one of the basic skills I had to learn towards my exams.

I think it a useful thing to be able to do, but not actually needed with all the technological help around these days.

When you look up a character in pleco it tells you what the radical is, if you just get use to them and practice looking up in a dictionary you will find its not so difficult.

And if you find yourself without anything but a paper dictionary you will at least not be so uneasy

[mikelove]

FWIW, you can try radical lookup in Pleco if you choose the "Rad" input method option (on Android it's a puzzle piece icon) instead of HWR/Key. It works almost exactly like a printed radical table in that you have to count the number of strokes in the radical / find it / tap on it / count the number of remaining strokes / scroll to that section of the table / tap on the character; it's just a tiny bit faster since you don't have to flip pages to get from the radical to the list of characters under it.

[xiaoxiaocao]

It's definitely worth the time getting to know the Chinese radicals. I spent the best part of a year with a paper dictionary when I first started studying, and while it is hard work at first I wouldn't change a thing. It will be of benefit later, and you'll get really familiar with the components in no time.

[trevelyan]

Good riddance to paper-based character lookup with multiple tables! I think half of the things I ended up memorizing my first year with a paper dictionary were the actual pages in the dictionary associated with various radicals. Most dictionaries have pinyin lookup anyway, which is faster anyway.

[skylee]

Good riddance to paper-based character lookup with multiple tables!

Most dictionaries have pinyin lookup anyway, which is faster anyway.

What if you have to look up a word whose pinyin you don't know?

[roddy]

There aren't that many radicals / components to learn, and you're going to end up noticing them as you go along anyway (oh, look, that bit at the bottom-right side of 前 is in 别, wonder if it means anything). Spend an afternoon reading up about them, look 'em up if you happen to notice anything interesting.

[renzhe]

nciku.com offers handwriting recognition for individual characters (well, mousewriting). Mdbg.net and xiaoma.info both offer radical-based lookup which is useful for practicing.

In terms of learning how to look up characters by radicals, it's one of those things that just comes naturally after you learn enough characters. You'll see elements which are repeated, remember them, learn their meanings, etc.

The actual skill of looking up things in a paper dictionary after you have identified (or guessed) the radical, however, is something that you develop with practice. You can get much faster after a while, but I still find it a nuissance, and often just try to guess the pinyin from the phonetic component and find the character like that. In my experience, this is often faster than looking up the radical number, then counting the strokes, then finding the character, then finding the page. Regardless of how fast you are, that's a lot of looking.