Basic instructions

See the help text in the app <https://infinity0.github.io/lcra/>_.

Other functions

• You can hide the article panel using the (⇤) button, and instead directly read an article in another window. Then, select words there, and drag them onto the add (⊕) button.
• You can also input new words by clicking (⊕) when nothing is selected.
• You can select several words and add them all at once, if they are separated by spaces or newlines. Separating normal Chinese text into words is almost as hard as translating them entirely, something we cannot achieve in this simple program.
• Double-click the Pinyin box to reset it to our autogenerated Pinyin for the selected word. (It may be wrong.)

Limitations

Inside the reference panel, the interactive functionality of certain references (such as Baidu Baike) are disabled or limited due to browser security policies. The link at the bottom of the panel opens the reference in a new window, which will lift these limitations.

Guide to references

All references have occasional mistakes and incompleteness. The only true definition of Chinese is what is actually spoken by Chinese people. Seek truth from reality, don't rely on just a few sources or books!

Purple Culture, HanziCraft

• Good set of basic info for each item, beginner friendly.
• HanziCraft can only look up single characters, Purple Culture can also look up multi-character words.
• PurpleCulture can only look up a character's constituents (decomposing), HanziCraft can also look up its derivatives (composing).
• Not super up-to-date on the latest slang, memes, or tech.

Wiktionary, Baidu Hanyu

• Very detailed dictionaries, probably overwhelming for a beginner.
• Contains niche words and phrases missing from Purple Culture and HanziCraft, as well as niche usages of common words.
• Baidu Hanyu is in Chinese. Wiktionary is in English and includes etymology, radical categories, phonetic series, pronounciation in different dialects, etc.
• Not super up-to-date on the latest slang, memes, or tech.

Baidu Fanyi

• Contains the latest slang, memes, tech, niche phrases, celebrity names, etc, that are missing from traditional dictionaries.
• Can help break down complex sentences into its constituent words and phrases.
• Can help guess the meaning of rare technical jargon and hapax legomena.
• Dictionary results are taken from Chinese-Chinese dictionaries, and sometimes do not include English definitions. (Translation results are always in English.)
• Slower than Google Translate, Bing Translate, due to "security" throttling our app.

Baidu Baike

• Contains the latest slang, memes, tech, niche phrases, celebrity names, etc, that are missing from traditional dictionaries.
• As a wiki-like encyclopedia, contains detailed background information about each topic, in Chinese.
• IMPORTANT! Many entries have multiple meanings. If so, there will be a banner at the top of the page that mentions "多义词", which you can expand to select between all the meanings.

Baidu Search

• Similar for language learning purposes to Baidu Baike, but more complete, yet less structured.
• Sometimes slower than Baidu Baike, due to "security" throttling our app.

Google Translate, Bing Translator

• Similar to Baidu Fanyi, but less complete for Chinese cultural phrases or other concepts that are less common in western culture.
• Faster than Baidu Fanyi, due to less/no "security" throttling.