In one of my previous posts I was trying to score a Mac Chinese keyboard. Sadly, no one knew where I could get one (aside from going to 中国). However, I did get a great tip about an application called OpenVanilla.org.
OpenVanilla.org lets you type pinyin (Chinese in English style characters) like shù (it even works with just shu), and then it creates Chinese characters - 树.
At first I thought it wasn’t quite what I wanted, but I’ve been using it for a few days now, and I find it fantastic. It’s helped me match sounds to characters better than I thought it would. And I can print out the characters for object and tape them to stuff (and it’s legible).
While I do want to learn how to write the characters by hand, I figured learning to write Chinese properly might be better tackled after I can actually read the characters.
Short movie on how OpenVanilla.org works / how to set it up:
This application has helped me out tremendously. So far I’ve been doing self study, but I start a proper Chinese class this Friday. Wish me luck.
(If you’re curious about the self study bit, ChinesePod is a good resource (you can get the pod cast in iTunes), and a Chinese => English => Chinese dictionary is a tool you can’t live with outshouldn’t be without.(There is a wonderful widget that does Chinese to English and English to Chinese available on apple.com). I bought a simple Barnes & Noble one.)
“I start a proper Chinese class this Friday. Wish me luck.”
G’luck! Zhu ni hao yunqi! :)
Sometimes it can be funny going from unstructured study to the structured study of a class… each has good points, has bad points.
Have you connected with Chinese TV or radio on the net yet?
http://www.tvbistro.com/cne/
http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-chinese.html#china
jd
I have been looking for an online Chinese TV station for a while now. I found the radio one, and tried to listen, but they were talking way too fast for my noob ears.
Score with the TV stations as there is lots of text along with the words and I can see the expressions.
Cheers John!
I fail to see the advantage of OpenVanilla over the ITABC input system that comes along with Mac OS X. Did you try it? Just select it in the list of keyboards in the International preference panel. More information here: http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/scim_x3.html#itabc
Hi Olivier,
No, I didn’t realize that was already built in. I just tried it, and it’s very similar. The only place where OpenVanilla is a bit better (for me as a learner) is that the character completion pops up automatically as I am typing so I can know if I am spelling the word correctly. If you are already good at Chinese, I can see using the ITABC method because you wouldn’t be bothered with the popup as much.
What I mean, is in ITABC if I type wo it underlines, but then I have to hit the space bar to get the list of characters (if any) whereas with OpenVanilla the pop up is more like “code completion” in an IDE.
It’s good to know there is a way to do it by default though. Thanks!
I REALLY REALLY want to hear your mix of the AngrySpam.mp3 :) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put it back up!
Was wondering if you could help me with this. I’ve been using the built-in Chinese input (typing Pinyin) in OS X. While this has been working fine and dandy for a while, there are some characters that just aren’t in the set database. I’m studying Chinese medicine, so some of these terms may not be as common as others. Pray tell, how do I add the other characters?
Thanks so much!
-Showing
i have a problem with itabc and i’m curious to see if openvanilla works correctly, but in itabc I am so far unable to type “female” as typing “nu” does not complete to the correct character and in itabc the accent characters are not typeable. Really this is a problem for anything in the pinyin system with the : in the vowel….there must be a way but i haven’t found it yet.
Hi James
To type 女 you have to type nv - with itabc v is used anytime there is a ü. I hope that helps.
Also, in case anyone else has this problem, with the Extended US keyboard you use v as well to create the pīnyīn tone marks on ü. To create a ü you type alt+u+u, but to create ü with tone marks you do:
alt+a+v = ǖ
alt+e+v = ǘ
alt+v+v = ǚ
alt+`+v = ǜ
Hi!
Great post! It’s a good program.
By the way your sentence has a little mistake. When you use (shenme) you don’t put (ma) at the end. “Shenme” already works as a question word.
Good luck!
Thanks Marc,
I’ve learned that since I made the movie (it’s almost a year old now :-o) - 吗 is generally used for questions that can be answered yes or no - so “What is your name - yes or no?” doesn’t really make sense.
Thank you for pointing it out - I would hate to contribute to other people making the same mistake >_<
Oh sorry. I forgot to check the date, lol.
This morning I was trying to use the program, but it only works with text edit? I can’t use it with “word” or “adium”.
The problem when I use adium with the original Mac Chinese typing system is that the characters are very small (the text I receive) and I can’t read it properly.
I would be very thankful I you know how to solve that. And also, do you watch chinese TV / programs on the internet for free? I don’t find any good system for Mac.
How is it going your Chinese?
See you!
I switched back to the built in Mac Chinese input system, and I know what you mean with the small suggestion font. There is a setting to make it bigger though. It’s not intuitive to find though - here is a movie on it: http://robrohan.com/2007/10/18/typing-simplified-chinese-on-mac/
As for TV stuff, here are a few links: http://chinesefirststep.com/node/28 and I recommend downloading VLC ( http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ ) because most “windows only” streams you find will almost always work with that program (CCTV for example)
Good Luck Marc!