H anyu

Hanzi and pinyin practice

hanyu screenshot
 
 
C  ontents
 
 
D  ownload
 
The latest version of Hanyu is 1.5.0, released 14/09/2006.

This is a TongJi data update to get all the hanzi up to Lesson 37 (..., ying, ci, bang).
Simply save this file to the folder where hanyu is installed (normally C:\Program Files\Hanyu).

This is a CLT year 2 update to get all the hanzi up to guan, gen, nan (26/12/2006).
Simply save this file to the folder where hanyu is installed (normally C:\Program Files\Hanyu).

 

History

    Version 1.5.0
  • Added data files for TongJi DaXue A-course
  • TongJi hanzi are up to Lesson 4 (.. wo, na)
 
 
D  escription
 
Hanyu is an easy program to practice Chinese hanzi characters, and pinyin. There are many such programs, but Hanyu has the following advantages :
  • The hanzi set matches the course at the CLT in Leuven (as of 2004-2005). If that's not where you study, the program can still be useful because the hanzi roughly follow the progress in the New Practical Chinese Reader 1 textbook;
  • A separate hanzi set follows the beginner course at TongJi DaXue in Shanghai (as of 2005-2006). These follow the progress in the Hanyu Jiaocheng textbook;
  • You can focus on particular lessons, or skip characters your class hasn't seen yet;
  • You don't need to have a Chinese font on your computer;
  • You don't need any other downloads, such as a Java SDK or things like that;
The last two items make it practical to run this app on machines where you can't (or don't want to) install too many things, and/or don't have administrator rights.

Using the program is very simple. You will see five hanzi characters, and one pinyin text. Move the mouse over the character that you think has that pinyin as its pronounciation, and click. If you're right, you get a point, and new hanzi are chosen. If you're wrong, the program will show what the right answer was. Press the "Next" button to continue.
You can also reverse this quiz : you will get five pinyin words, and only one hanzi. To use this mode, click on the "Ask pinyin" radio button in the lower right.

As a "bonus", you can also..

  • Do a quiz asking the tones, with or without pinyin as a hint;
  • Play a game where you need to answer faster and faster to stay in the race;
  • Practice Japanese hiragana and katakana;

WARNING !!! It is very well possible that there are mistakes in this program. Always use your coursebook or dictionary to learn; only use this program to practice after you learned. Don't blame me if you fail an exam because the program lied to you.

The Mac OS X version is experimental : it may or may not work, the installer may or may not work, you may or may not have to run X11.
Please note: I don't have access to a Mac in Shanghai, so the Mac version is stuck at 1.4 for now. This means no TongJi DaXue support at the moment :(

If the mac version complains about "image not found", download and extract this file to /usr/local/lib
If you can't get to /usr/local/lib using the Finder, then put the extracted file on your desktop, open a Terminal window, and type the following :
cd /usr/local
mkdir lib
cd lib
cp /Users/yourname/Desktop/libfreetype.6.dylib .
where yourname is your login name. Note the "space and a dot" at the end of the last line !
Screenshot of this operation (the error is from a machine that already has the file).
Credits :

 
 
M  ailing list
 
There is a mailing list for users of the hanyu application. There shouldn't be much traffic, it is mostly intended to announce updates and bug-fixes. Users can also use it to report bugs, so other people are aware that they may be learning something "wrong" until the fix is out. To subscribe, use the form at the list's homepage. To post, mail to hanyu@bpeers.com (you need to be a member first).