The Problem in Learning Chinese . . .

Most would agree that learning to read well in any language requires spending a significant amount of time actually reading. This is as true with Chinese as with any language, but for those learning Chinese as a second language, reading Chinese is particularly troublesome. Looking up a Chinese character in a traditional print dictionary is far more complicated than looking up a word in English, or in any western language (with an alphabet). The ordering of letters in an alphabet facilitates the lookup of words. With Chinese, however, there is no easy ordering. (There is an ordering, but it’s definitely not easy.) The problem is compounded by the number of characters one has to deal with in Chinese. Whereas in English there’s a mere twenty-six basic units (letters) with which words are formed, in Chinese there are many thousands of basic units (characters). Most  characters are words in themselves, but they are also the basis for forming other words.

The modern solution to learning Chinese, at least for the last 10 or so years, is to use computer software to look up the meanings of characters and words when you can. If the text your reading is not digitized (print material or signs), you need to use more traditional means to find the meanings of characters. There are a number of programs and websites that allow you look up meanings for digitized Chinese text. Many of these provide very robust collections of information to help you understand Chinese meanings. But no other website or software focuses on reading in any way similar to Chinese Toolbox READER.

and the Chinese Toolbox Solution

Chinese Toolbox READER 10 (coming later this year) covers all the basics you would expect in a modern computer program for learning Chinese, a Chinese reader. But Chinese Toolbox READER is not merely Chinese dictionary software. Sure, it supports automatic lookup of characters and words, but it goes far beyond that. Very simply, Chinese Toolbox READER provides a unique set of tools available nowhere else that help you to learn Chinese through reading. Of course, the program provides access to dictionary definitions, but it is designed to help you depend less and less on the built-in dictionaries through what’s called tagging for unassisted reading. This system allows you to mark characters and words as “Known” so that you’re not always looking up meanings. The program keeps track of the number of characters and words that you know, and helps you to focus your attention on those that you don’t know so well.

If you were using Chinese Toolbox READER, you could press Ctrl-v in the reader to paste any Chinese text you had previously copied to the Windows clipboard. Chinese Toolbox READER parses the text and identifies all words (multi-character combinations) by underlining them. Then as you move the cursor (a box surrounding the current character) through the text, characters and words you haven’t yet learned appear in the dictionaries. Eventually, after encountering a character or word frequently enough, you will recognize it without dictionary assistance. At that point, you can press the spacebar (Ctrl-Spacebar for words — a CTR 10 feature) to mark the character/word for non-assisted reading. Thereafter, the character appears in the reading window in gray, and the underline (for words) are removed. Characters you have not yet learned to recognize appear in blue. Gray (or known) characters are not displayed in the dictionary windows when they are selected (via keyboard direction keys) in the reading window. As you mark more and more characters and words for non-assisted reading, you begin to reduce your dependence on dictionaries and truly begin to read in Chinese. The program keeps track of the number of characters and words (CTR 10) you’ve marked as known. The gradual increase in this number is most encouraging.