Re: Japanese voicing, and learning Mandarin and Portuguese (was Re: Keyboards)

Hi!

Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> writes:
>...
> Well, it *is* a damn fine piece of work.
Hmmm, thanks! :-)  That's what I like to read.  :-)

> > I urgently want to get the Hanzi teacher running, but I'll probably
> > have to wait until I get a new web account -- the current one has
> > quota problems and adding Chinese script with a lot of tiny little
> > .gif files will not improve the situation.
>
> Is it plausible to make either the system (or specific teachers)
> require  Unicode fonts, and use just characters instead of .gifs? It'd
> give end  users more control over the character forms they see, for
> instance.
It is currently possible to select Unicode only characters (IIRC, it
is always the left-most font choice) and then enter the name of a font
to use, which is then set in the stylesheet.  This way, you should be
able to control exactly which of *your* fonts you want to be using.

And because I am a pedant sometimes and want people with Netscape 4.7x
be able to use this, I will always include at least one set of .gifs
so that no-one needs a Unicode-aware browsers and/or fonts.  Also note
that the script works without JavaScript -- also a requirement I made
for myself.

> > Furthermore, Hanzi need a slightly different approach.
>
> I've been trying to practice on the CJK Radicals for the time being,
> in Simplified form. I'm getting a few of them, but it's been years
> since I worked my way through "100 Essential Chinese Radicals" or
> whatever the book was called.
I only systematically learned the radicals now that I have my script
teacher.  It helps *a lot* in learning Hanzi.  I'd recommend it to
everyone starting to learn Chinese or Japanese.  I wasn't taught all
the radicals systematicall when I started to learn Chinese, and I just
forgot a lot more.  Now browsing a dictionary is much more fun: ,Oh,
look!  The XY character has the Z radical!  Great!!' :-)

**Henrik

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