For two particular reasons. Well, make that apps. I was a very very latecomer to the world of smartphones (the lime green pebble my roommate gave me 3 years ago was great!) but I have to say that my smartphone has been my faithful partner in my daily Beijing commute.
I've already read three books on my smartphone in about 5 weeks. I never used to have time to read but commuting for 2+ hours a day really changed that. Right now I'm reading Sea-Wolf by Jack London, and I haven't enjoyed a novel this much since Hunger Games (sarcasm). But seriously, it's so amazing that I find myself rereading chunks and also slowing down my pace to savor Sea-Wolf.
Next, PLECO. If you are traveling/living in China or want to learn Chinese or all of the above, this app will be your best friend. It allows you to write in Chinese characters to look for the meaning, gives you all different kinds of ways to use characters or phrases, has voice recognition, and if you have a data connection will even translate text for you after you take a photo of it. I've made lots of flashcards already of the words that I'm currently working on or that I see often, and this app is singlehandedly responsible for many characters that I've learned or re-learned in this past month. (Googletranslate ranks pretty high on the list too)
I've already read three books on my smartphone in about 5 weeks. I never used to have time to read but commuting for 2+ hours a day really changed that. Right now I'm reading Sea-Wolf by Jack London, and I haven't enjoyed a novel this much since Hunger Games (sarcasm). But seriously, it's so amazing that I find myself rereading chunks and also slowing down my pace to savor Sea-Wolf.
Next, PLECO. If you are traveling/living in China or want to learn Chinese or all of the above, this app will be your best friend. It allows you to write in Chinese characters to look for the meaning, gives you all different kinds of ways to use characters or phrases, has voice recognition, and if you have a data connection will even translate text for you after you take a photo of it. I've made lots of flashcards already of the words that I'm currently working on or that I see often, and this app is singlehandedly responsible for many characters that I've learned or re-learned in this past month. (Googletranslate ranks pretty high on the list too)
Oh yeah pleco rocks
ReplyDeleteAnd can I just say I had to jump through so many hoops to post these
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