1
   

Script tutorials

 
 
Reply Tue 9 Mar, 2004 09:25 am
I'm wondering if anyone knows of any online (or CD-ROM based) tutorials to teach the various scripts of the various languages which don't use the 'standard' Roman alphabet.

I'm particularly interested in learning how to write -- rather than just read -- these scripts, but I'd be happy with almost anything at this point.

So here's what I'd personally be interested in learning via some sort of computer-based training:

Korean (read only)
Russian (handwritten cursive script as well as the printed letters)
Simplified Chinese
Japanese (very close to traditional Chinese)
Hindi (read only)
Arabic (read and write)

The reason I'm interested in computer-based instruction is because I would like something that (or someone who) would grade the quality of my own writing (or reading), and there don't seem to be many humans with a great deal of interest in doing that.

As for why I want to learn all these different scripts, in most cases these are a prelude to learning the associated language (although I included Korean because I'd just like to be able to order from a Korean menu for a change).

Regarding I/O devices, though, there's an obvious problem. I can read without having to enter any text into the computer (or I can translate what I see into the Roman alphabet), but writing is a challenge of a different order, and I don't know of any elegant solution to the problem. My Chinese friends enter text into the computer my typing in the pinyin, then picking the correct character from a pop-up menu. Not only is this pretty far removed from the act of writing characters with a pen or pencil (the only Chinese who really excel at entering text into the computer in this way seem to be under twenty years old - probably because the translation into pinyin is not automatic for older Chinese), but it really just reduces to a reading exercise: it doesn't train me to be able to write the characters when I'm away from the computer.

The best I/O device might be something like the stylus for a PDA, entering the characters onto a PDA screen. If someone knows of something like that, I would cheerfully buy a new PDA, just in order to have that. The software would have to evaluate and perhaps even critique my writing, though, and not just attempt to recognize what I write and pop up choices for what I 'really meant to say'.

So, does anyone know of something like that? It seems that this might even be a good business idea -- the older Chinese I mentioned would certainly find this a far better way to enter Chinese text into a computer than the way it is done now.
Rolling Eyes
  • Topic Stats
  • Top Replies
  • Link to this Topic
Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,007 • Replies: 1
No top replies

 
Mile-O-Phile
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Mar, 2004 08:24 am
For Russian Cyrillic there may be something on the Master Russian website. I know it has the alphabet with handwriting next to the letters.

The discussion forum on that site also caters for Chinese, Japanese, an Arabic.
0 Replies
 
 

Related Topics

deutsch anyone?? - Discussion by tell me why
Languages and Thought - Discussion by rosborne979
english to latin phrase translation - Discussion by chelsea84
What other languages would you use a2k in? - Discussion by Craven de Kere
Translation of names into Hebrew - Discussion by Sandra Karl
Google searching in Russian - Discussion by gungasnake
 
  1. Forums
  2. » Script tutorials
Copyright © 2024 MadLab, LLC :: Terms of Service :: Privacy Policy :: Page generated in 0.03 seconds on 05/01/2024 at 09:23:44