Free Beginners iPad App: Fun With Chinese Characters

[Sinolingua]

Hi all! Chinese writing developed as a system totally different from many Latin languages. Compared with alphabetic writing, the biggest characteristic of Chinese is that it shows the sense.  At very first beginning, Chinese characters are graphs of certain objects (i.e. water, sun and moon).

 

Fun with Chinese Characters is a free iPad App using interactive games to present the characters transformation.   You will learn 50 characters in all, and the characters include 日, 月, 明, 春, 竹, 山, 云, 雨, 龙, 水, 鱼, 马, 羊, 牛, 毛, 兔, 丝, 目, 眉, 口, 耳, 开, 门, 田, 众, 人, 立, 木, 果, 休, 心, 手, 从, 虎, 舌, 车, 刀, 衣, 安, 子, 母, 好, 鼠, 光, 火, 灾, 舟, 网, 多 and 羽. 

 

Players learn the fundamental meaning, the pronunciation, historical origin and development of the characters once they achieve to the next level. 

 

 

Also, this app borrows the idea that words are within paintings, so that players could indulge themselves in the world of Chinese pictographs.

 

 

We can also create our own work by ourselves.  

 

What’s the best, there are plenty of free trials unlocked for the users!

 

If you want to try this app, click this link:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/fun-with-chinese-characters/id760030894?mt=8

 

 

Your feedback is important to us. In case of any problems/errors, please feel free to give your valuable feedback!

[Hofmann]

What is the purpose of this application?

[OneEye]

Chinese characters usually represent concepts rather than sound.

 

Oh, come on. It's really hard to get correct information out there when big publishers like Sinolingua are spouting this kind of nonsense. It's bad enough that Shaolan Hsueh's book has gotten as much publicity as it has, why continue to mislead people down the same old path?

[roddy]

Lets not scare people off by being confrontational. 

 

Oh, come on. It's really hard to get correct information out there when big publishers like Sinolingua are spouting this kind of nonsense. It's bad enough that Shaolan Hsueh's book has gotten as much publicity as it has, why continue to mislead people down the same old path?

 

Let's try again...

 

It's not really true that Chinese characters represent concepts rather than sounds. I understand it's a common idea in China, but as you're marketing to Chinese learners it might be preferable if you....

[Nathan Mao]

So take the character 日.

 

How is it pronounced in Mandarin? In Cantonese?  In Shanghai-ese? 闽南话?  

 

It seems to me that the answers to those questions indicate any given character does have a much closer objective relationship to "concept" than the subjective relationship to a specific sound.

 

Now, within a given dialect, there are certain groupings where you can get indications of a family of sounds associated with what is often (but not universally) the "pronunciation" portion of a character (usually the right half of a bilateral character, I think).

 

In light of that, I don't find sinolingua's statement objectionable or misleading.

 

What am I missing that you are basing your objection on?

[Hofmann]

Hey, I asked for their objective because maybe it isn't supposed to be educational or accurate but only entertaining, although I would much prefer them to make it educational, i.e. recognize that the vast majority of Chinese character are phono-semantic compounds (形聲字) and choose characters that are representative thereof. In the OP I only see one 形聲字: 春, and I highly suspect it will not be explained correctly.

[OneEye]

Fair enough, roddy. I just get tired of the same old misleading information being bandied about when it's widely known to be false. Unfortunately, many beginners (and even those with higher levels, including native speakers) don't know any better, making it all the worse for a large, respected publisher to be saying this stuff.

 

Nathan Mao, yes, there are some characters which have no sound component and can thus be considered to be 表意字. The vast majority, however, contain a phonetic component. All characters, by definition, refer to a spoken word or morpheme rather than a concept divorced from language. So to say that Chinese characters "usually represent concepts rather than sound" is categorically incorrect. Maybe they represent concepts by way of sound, but certainly not independent of it.

[roddy]

And to think beginners sometimes find this site intimidating and inaccessible. You all know where the new topic button is, lads...

[Hofmann]

Has anyone tried it? I can't...no Apple ARM devices.

[Nathan Mao]

 

 

The vast majority, however, contain a phonetic component. All characters, by definition, refer to a spoken word or morpheme rather than a concept divorced from language. So to say that Chinese characters "usually represent concepts rather than sound" is categorically incorrect. Maybe they represent concepts by way of sound, but certainly not independent of it.

I see what you are saying, but I have to admit: I'm not following your point completely.

 

Yes, no argument there is a phonetic component to most characters, but when you take any character, the only common point across all the different Chinese dialects is the meaning, not the sound. It is the meanings of the written characters that unite the Chinese language...despite the fact that the sounds are often mutually unintelligible.

 

However, I would never say that characters are completely independent of sound, and I don't think that was what Sinolingua was saying, either.  

 

I think the point was that the some of the characters we see today developed from symbols that actually looked more like the original object. Rather than go into a long explanation of the different sources anways of developing characters that would probably confuse an inexperienced learner just starting out, Sinolingua simplified for the sake of brevity.

 

But maybe I'm just missing the point all the way around.

[Hofmann]

I think it is misleading because of Sinolingua's choice of words. What he/she meant was probably

 

"The Chinese writing system is different from that of alphabetic languages. Chinese characters are logograms instead of letters. The first Chinese characters were pictograms, e.g. 水 "river," 日 "sun," and 月 "moon."

[Shelley]

Oh that's a shame i thought it might be the Straits Times Collection - Fun with Chinese Characters Vol 1,2 + 3. This is great little series of books.

 

It is much more rooted in actual etymology than the ipad offering.

 

I suppose its title is Fun with Chinese characters so perhaps this is exactly what should have been expected. Although the original series managed to have this title and did not appear childish.

 

They might want look into changing/clarifying  the name, it is confusing.

[Sinolingua]

Hi guys, to be honest, I didn't expect a scholarly academic debate...but I think it is very good!    In the ancient characters, people used the method of "image description" to show meanings, but this did not break the unity of sounds and meaning. From the forms of some of the characters we can see the meanings and from the meanings we decide the sounds, on the other hand, for the alphabetic writing, we get the sound from the form and from the sound we decide the meaning. 

 

I think the point was that the some of the characters we see today developed from symbols that actually looked more like the original object. Rather than go into a long explanation of the different sources anways of developing characters that would probably confuse an inexperienced learner just starting out, Sinolingua simplified for the sake of brevity.

 

Nathan Mao has explained what I meant perfectly. To be more accurate, I modify my disputed sentence. 

Chinese characters usually represent concepts rather than sound.

 

Here is the repair work:

Compared with alphabetic writing, the biggest characteristic of Chinese is that it shows the sense. 

 

This App lays stess on the biggest characteristic and it is both educational and entertaining. We just chose the most representative pictograms and ideogrammic compounds. 

 

Has anyone downloaded this App? If so, please feel free to give your comments on this App, thank you!

 

P.S. Our App has nothing to do with the Straits Times Collection - Fun with Chinese Characters Vol 1,2 + 3 except for the name. Its design rationale is different from Shaolan Hsueh's book and we  focuse on giving the correct etymologies of the Chinese characters.

[Demonic_Duck]

It looks like an attractive and, very probably, fun app, and a nice first introduction to Chinese characters. I don't think it's comparable to Chineasy or any of that crap, because it doesn't make false claims about being a self-contained system which will allow you to read Chinese literature.

 

Having said that, I won't download it myself as I don't have any Apple products, and I don't think I'm a member of this app's target audience anyway.