Chinese apps on my iPod

I was inspired by my friend, The Painter's Wife, when she wrote about Basti's Favorite Apps.

S bought me an iPod Touch early this year because I asked for it for Christmas. It was a toss up between that or an iPhone and since my phone was still okay, I opted for an iPod Touch...and an amazing world opened right in front of me. I understand The Painter's Wife when she said "it brought her addiction to a whole new level". LOL!


I'm an app monster. Really. I kept telling S that on hindsight, I should have gotten a 64gb instead of a 32gb. Oh well. Now I just rationalize. I guess 5 clock apps is okay. Hahaha!

One thing I've been "collecting" are Chinese apps. Those who know me know that I have two boys who I personally tutor. And I'm of the mindset that more means better...not that I use them all, because I don't.

Anyway, I wanted to share what apps have been very helpful to me, as they might be helpful to you too. These are all free apps, while some have upgrades to full versions.

The first one is called BoPoMo Help. Most of us who studied Chinese in the 80s, 90s and even early 2000s, used guoyin, the Chinese phonetic system used in Taiwan. And because of that, a lot of us who are helping our children in schools such as Xavier School, and ICA Greenhills (sa wakas), have a steep learning curve (you *do* know it's hard to teach old dogs new tricks, right?) in learning pinyin.

This particular app shows you the conversion between guoyin... 

and pinyin. It certainly makes the transition easier, if not faster. But if you were like me in highschool, and you used to write the English letters beside the guoyin, you might pick it up even faster. Hahaha!

Having spoken to friends who are Chinese nationals, S and I learned that pinyin has been taught in the mainland (China) for the past 30 or even 40 years. It's just that our books were all from Taiwan (our guess is that China was still closed to the world at that time).

So now that you've got your pinyin down, I have two apps on it. How to put the 圣母 (shengmu or consonant or the first part of the pinyin) and the 韵母 (yunmu or vowel or the second part of the pinyin) together. You can actually find a pinyin chart or table online but if you want something handy, check out this app:

Just click on the combination, such as "b" and "a"...

and you will get this! It will pronounce it in the four + 1 different tones as well.

An alternative is this, I don't remember what it's called, but it just says "Pinyin"on my iPod. 

It's made differently from the chart, easier to put together if you know what to put together...reads the pinyin for you as well in different tones.

You can also practice as the app dictates you the word and you answer with the correct pinyin and tone. Good for practicing listening skills. Authentic Chinese pronunciation. Only classmates from ICA and friends from Xavier (from the 80s) will understand. (We could never pronounce the Chinese words correctly. Hahaha!)

For additional help in honing the listening skills, try Pinyin Trainer. 

Again, the app dictates the word and the user chooses the correct pinyin and tone.

Last but not the least, are the dictionaries. I use two, one as the backup of the other. They're used in the same way. You can enter either pinyin, Chinese characters or the English word, and it returns to you the Chinese character and the meaning and how it is used.

First is Pleco.

Second is KT Dict, which always proves to be a lifesaver when we are in China. Lots of words used in the vernacular are here. This is a good dictionary to have when you're talking to someone and are fumbling for words.

There you have it. Hope these help you as they've helped me!