Hi Mike Love & All,
I was at the library study room hastily studying Chinese for my class, when I heard someone practice-speaking Chinese with his PDA. I got really curious (and I needed a break), so I figured it's a good time to converse with a fellow wai4guo2 ren2 (foreigner). That's when I realized and he introduced me to Pleco v2.
MY GOD!!! Where have you been all my life, Pleco!? He showed me one by one all the features and the fact that he was still learning to use the software. My jaw seems to drop a little more each time.
I finally reached a stage of stupor and began drooling incessantly when I used the flashcards with integrated chinese I + built in voice. I frantically scribbled down all of the information (Pleco, and the flashcards needed), studied a bit more alongside him, and went home. I consequently researched my brains off, read the instruction manual, etc.
Some suggestions he had + I agreed with.
1) When moving to next flashcard, cut off sound to previous and play next. This is hands down the biggest problem with flashcards. I move very quickly through a few of his flash cards, but the program wouldn't play the next file's sound as the previous one was playing and it got annoying after the 5th time. He had a button integrated to play the sound, but I found that to be troublesome.
2) He was saying that Pleco should give the user the option to allow to add MORE than 3 entries to top "bar" in flash cards and was indifferent at first, but then I agreed with him when we tried to figure out how long we had been doing the flashcards. For example, he had 1) card #(67/137), 2)(Session C:I) 3) (Card C:I), IIRC, but I also wanted *time*. (The max limit is 3 according to the website so I hope this can be increased to 6.
Pleco bugs? questionable behavior:
3) He had the female voices (which I do not see mentioned anywhere on the site other than manual!) The voices do not 'truly' alternate in the flashcard format and this drove him nuts. Let's say the male speaks.. then you hit next button, the male speaks again. I don't know if this is intended, but I kind of liked it. I get to choose which voice (WITHOUT going to preferences) I want by hitting the voice I want to hear and then click next. Not complaining this one -- just reporting it, in case it's unintended behavior
Pleco questions!
4) Can we use this program for flash cards for "general" subjects like, say, biology? I don't see why not. If so, it would increase its usefulness ten fold, because I could also use it for all my other subjects!
5)
PS: If you were the person at the library and you see this post, make sure to POST!! *waves*
I was at the library study room hastily studying Chinese for my class, when I heard someone practice-speaking Chinese with his PDA. I got really curious (and I needed a break), so I figured it's a good time to converse with a fellow wai4guo2 ren2 (foreigner). That's when I realized and he introduced me to Pleco v2.
MY GOD!!! Where have you been all my life, Pleco!? He showed me one by one all the features and the fact that he was still learning to use the software. My jaw seems to drop a little more each time.
I finally reached a stage of stupor and began drooling incessantly when I used the flashcards with integrated chinese I + built in voice. I frantically scribbled down all of the information (Pleco, and the flashcards needed), studied a bit more alongside him, and went home. I consequently researched my brains off, read the instruction manual, etc.
Some suggestions he had + I agreed with.
1) When moving to next flashcard, cut off sound to previous and play next. This is hands down the biggest problem with flashcards. I move very quickly through a few of his flash cards, but the program wouldn't play the next file's sound as the previous one was playing and it got annoying after the 5th time. He had a button integrated to play the sound, but I found that to be troublesome.
2) He was saying that Pleco should give the user the option to allow to add MORE than 3 entries to top "bar" in flash cards and was indifferent at first, but then I agreed with him when we tried to figure out how long we had been doing the flashcards. For example, he had 1) card #(67/137), 2)(Session C:I) 3) (Card C:I), IIRC, but I also wanted *time*. (The max limit is 3 according to the website so I hope this can be increased to 6.
Pleco bugs? questionable behavior:
3) He had the female voices (which I do not see mentioned anywhere on the site other than manual!) The voices do not 'truly' alternate in the flashcard format and this drove him nuts. Let's say the male speaks.. then you hit next button, the male speaks again. I don't know if this is intended, but I kind of liked it. I get to choose which voice (WITHOUT going to preferences) I want by hitting the voice I want to hear and then click next. Not complaining this one -- just reporting it, in case it's unintended behavior
Pleco questions!
4) Can we use this program for flash cards for "general" subjects like, say, biology? I don't see why not. If so, it would increase its usefulness ten fold, because I could also use it for all my other subjects!
5)
PS: If you were the person at the library and you see this post, make sure to POST!! *waves*