This site is a prototype, but it's decently usable in its current state. Feel free to see the
(currently
at a
hackathon level of quality) code or
contact
the author on github.
The idea is to emphasize the word-forming connections among hanzi to help learners remember them.
I've
found
this more fun and effective than other methods, like studying stroke order, learning radicals or
components,
writing each character out 100 times, or doing spaced repetition on cards mapping hanzi to
pinyin
and
English.
Is there an app?
The site is a progressive web app. This means it uses modern browser APIs to make an
installable
app. Follow the
directions for your platform to install it. A truly native app downloadable
from
the app
stores may be a future work item.
Where did the examples come from?
The examples came from Tatoeba, which releases
data
under CC-BY 2.0 FR, and
from OpenSubtitles, pulled from opus.nlpl.eu.
Definitions and pinyin transcriptions of individual words were pulled from CEDICT, which releases data
under
CC BY-SA 4.0.
Accordingly,
some of the files in data should be considered released under that same
license.
Which characters are present in the graph?
That depends on which character set you choose. The simplified and traditional choices
should include everything present in CEDICT.
Cantonese should also include everything in the CC-Canto project.
The HSK set should have all the old HSK 2.0 words and characters.
Ping on
github
with any issues. More examples and definitions will be added in the future.
How does study mode work?
When you add words to your study list, they will be presented to you as flashcards.
You'll
be
shown the sentence and asked what it means; click "Show Answer" to see how
tatoeba
translated it. When you click "I didn't know that", the card will be
added
back to
the
end of your to-study list. When you click "I knew that!", it will be shown
one
day
later,
then two days if you get it right again, then four, and so on. It is meant to be a
very,
very
basic
spaced repetition
system.
What does the export button do?
The export button downloads a file that can be imported into a different (better)
spaced
repetition
system, like Anki.
Where are the flashcards stored?
All data for the site is stored in localStorage.
It
does not leave your browser, and clearing your browser data will clear it.
What does "You've seen" mean?
As you search, click, or tap hanzi or connections in the diagram, you are shown
example
sentences. Then, when you add words to your study list, the examples are converted
to
flashcards.
This section indicates how many times you've
viewed examples for each of the characters in a given word, and how many cards
contain
those characters. The numbers are based on how things were when you viewed the
examples,
so if it's your first time seeing examples for a character, it'll say seen 0 times.
What do the word frequency and character frequency stats mean?
In most languages, there are some words that are used much more frequently than others. If you
learn those words first, you'll be able to understand more of what you hear and read than if you'd start
with less-common words. With Chinese, the same is true of characters: the most common ones are
used an outsize proportion of the time, and they are the best ones to start with.
HanziGraph tries to help learners know how important a word is via color-coding in the diagrams
and by surfacing raw frequency stats alongside the definitions and examples. This way,
learners can concentrate on words that provide the biggest 'bang for your buck', so to speak.
Both word and character frequency data is based on analysis of millions of lines of subtitles, wikipedia
articles, UN declarations, and website text. Particularly for words, the subtitles are given priority,
since they tend to be more colloquial.