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Seeking feedback on idea for Chinese practice chrome extension


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Posted

I'm thinking about making a free chrome extension to help practice Chinese. As you browse the web it would translate specified words into Chinese, to keep your memory fresh. Does the design of this make sense? For example a user might want to remember robot is "机器人" so they would put in robot -> 机器人 and then whenever they encounter robot online they would see the translation. I'm also thinking of a optional mode where it replaces the English word entirely.

 

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Posted

I think this is a pretty interesting concept, I think you should check out the chinese popup dictionary chrome extension

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Posted

Maybe you can try a popular translation chrome extention. It's popular in China because it can translate entire pages, and even provide subtitles for youtube video. It's called "Immersive Translate - Translate Web & PDF". It saves people time and is better than the built-in Google Translate feature built into Chrome. 

Another one I'd suggest is called "Pinyin Annotator". Even though I'm Chinese, I think this extension is helpful for Mandarin learners.

Lastly, Flashcards are a popular method with language learners to build their vocabulary. There're many Chinese apps that provide this feature and a foreign company I'm aware of is called Brainscape. But to be honest, learning Chinese would require more effort than just memorizing characters - because, just like English phrasal verbs, Chinese characters can have very differnt meanings in different contexts. That's the reason why it's not easy to provide an accurate translation from Chinese to English or vice versa.
 

Posted

Yes @becky82, it's similar to toucan :) . The difference is my extension allows you to focus on practicing specific words instead of randomly translating words. This gives you more control and makes browsing the web with the extension turned on a nicer experience.

Here's how I'm configuring the extension at the moment:
 

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@ez @Tinker25 Thanks for the recommendations! Those aren't the same as what I'm thinking of, but sounds like they could be useful to advanced learners! I'm still at the stage where I'm learning basic vocabulary words.

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Posted

I see, I didn't thought you're learning Mandarin yourself. Your extension is more like a tool to check if you memorized the correct phrases or characters in Chinese. 
I personally don't recommend this way of learning Mandarin, instead I would suggest reading longer text to help you better master the usage of different characters or phrase in different contexts. 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I agree with @Tinker25—learning Chinese through isolated, unconnected characters isn't the most effective approach. Context is key for really grasping how words and phrases are used in real life

  • 1 month later...
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