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Chinese Character Learning Software

Learning Chinese characters is by far the most difficult part of mastering the Chinese language. The Chinese written language, of course, has no alphabet. Instead, each character is an ideographic symbol representing a single, one-syllable word. Characters are combined into compound words of two, three, and sometimes four characters. A student must learn between three and four thousand distinct characters and tens of thousands of compounds in order to read a modern newspaper with any proficiency.

Clavis Sinica is a powerful new software package that makes the task of learning Chinese characters and compounds far more efficient, rational, and enjoyable. The program combines a Chinese text reader with an extensive Chinese character dictionary, enabling the student to read and translate any digitized Chinese text with relative ease. Clicking on an unfamiliar character in a Chinese text instantly displays the pinyin pronunciation and meaning of both the character and the compound word in which it is being used. Clicking again brings up additional information about the character, including an analysis of the character into its radical and phonetic parts, stroke count, etymology, usage frequency, and links to lists of other characters using the same radical or phonetic and compounds using the character. The program will also pronounce any character or compound included in the dictionary and create custom vocabulary lists of characters and compounds learned using the program.

While the program is not designed to be an automatic translator, its built-in Chinese dictionary of over 25,000 entries is fully searchable and can be used to help with the translation of Chinese texts into English and vice versa. The user can type in an English word or phrase to get a list of Chinese words--both characters and compounds--that include the search string in their definition. If the pinyin pronunciation of a Chinese character or compound is known, it can be used to search for all of the characters or compounds matching that pronunciation in the database. If the pronunciation of a character isn't known, it can still be searched by entering the number and/or order of strokes making up the character. Once the desired character is found, clicking on it will display the pronunciation, meaning, and other information about the character.

Clavis Sinica Character Learning Features:

• Built-in Chinese text reader provides instant access to the meaning of any Chinese character and its associated compound in any digitized Chinese text
• Character information window displays the following information for every character in the database: simplified and traditional character forms, pinyin pronunciation(s) and corresponding English definition(s), radical and phonetic parts, usage frequency, stroke order, stroke count, Xin Hua radical number, and Kangxi radical number. For 500 of the most commonly used characters, a brief etymological note is also provided
• Radical information window provides a list of all characters using the same radical as a selected character
• Shared phonetic window provides a list of all characters using the same phonetic as a selected character
• Compound window lists all compounds and phrases using a selected character.
• Comprehensive analytic dictionary of more than 25,000 entries includes over 4,000 characters and over 21,000 multi-character compound words, phrases, and idioms
• Dictionary includes complete vocabulary from ten commonly used textbooks at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels
• Powerful search functions permit searching the dictionary by character or compound pinyin, radical number, number and/or order of strokes, or English word or phrase
• Audio functions allow user to hear the pronunciation of characters, words, and phrases in the natural voice of a native speaker.
• Custom vocabulary lists allow user to keep track of characters and compounds learned using the program. Lists can be viewed within the program, printed out, drilled with the built-in flashcard tool, or saved for later use.
• Built-in flashcard tool allows you to drill yourself on groups of radicals, characters, or compounds that you want to learn. You can use the flashcard sets provided with the program, or create your own sets based on unfamiliar characters and words in any Chinese text.

• The Chinese Character Test is a free Java applet you can use to determine how many Chinese characters you already know.
• Chinese Flashcards enable you to drill yourself on the 800 most commonly used Chinese characters and the 189 Xinhua radicals.
  
  

Other Program Features | Sample Screen Views | User Comments
How many Chinese characters do you know?

For complete information about other program features, please visit our Product Information page. If you'd like to order Clavis Sinica or download a free demo version of the program, please click here.