Comments on: On Electronic Chinese-Language Guides http://mattschiavenza.com/2008/02/09/on-electronic-chinese-language-guides/ From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:30:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: matt_schiavenza http://mattschiavenza.com/2008/02/09/on-electronic-chinese-language-guides/comment-page-1/#comment-3955 matt_schiavenza Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:15:50 +0000 http://mattschiavenza.com/?p=190#comment-3955 Matt, You're absolutely right- tools like Wenlin are remarkably cheap when you consider how valuable they are. When I first got Wenlin a friend told me it would change my life and she wasn't half wrong. And critical comments, provided they aren't malicious, are always welcome here. Cheers Matt,
You’re absolutely right- tools like Wenlin are remarkably cheap when you consider how valuable they are. When I first got Wenlin a friend told me it would change my life and she wasn’t half wrong.

And critical comments, provided they aren’t malicious, are always welcome here. Cheers

]]> By: Matt Worley http://mattschiavenza.com/2008/02/09/on-electronic-chinese-language-guides/comment-page-1/#comment-3951 Matt Worley Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:23:55 +0000 http://mattschiavenza.com/?p=190#comment-3951 Thank you for the clarification. I thought it might be tongue-in-cheek but I felt compelled to say something regardless. Since some of these products are a little pricey some people mistakenly apply the Microsoft mentality to them. (If you think about the amount of time you would have to pay for from a teacher or tutor to get the same knowledge these tools are infinitely cheaper) Behind each of these businesses is a person who made huge sacrifices to make it happen, just wanted to point that out. I also appreciate your allowing dissenting opinions and /or misinterpretations of your writings to be posted. :-) tongue-in-cheek noted. Still a great write up! Thank you for the clarification. I thought it might be tongue-in-cheek but I felt compelled to say something regardless. Since some of these products are a little pricey some people mistakenly apply the Microsoft mentality to them. (If you think about the amount of time you would have to pay for from a teacher or tutor to get the same knowledge these tools are infinitely cheaper) Behind each of these businesses is a person who made huge sacrifices to make it happen, just wanted to point that out. I also appreciate your allowing dissenting opinions and /or misinterpretations of your writings to be posted. :-) tongue-in-cheek noted. Still a great write up!

]]> By: matt_schiavenza http://mattschiavenza.com/2008/02/09/on-electronic-chinese-language-guides/comment-page-1/#comment-3942 matt_schiavenza Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:54:12 +0000 http://mattschiavenza.com/?p=190#comment-3942 Matt, The torrent part was tongue in cheek, not an explicit advertisement for software piracy. Just a joke! Matt,
The torrent part was tongue in cheek, not an explicit advertisement for software piracy. Just a joke!

]]> By: Matt Worley http://mattschiavenza.com/2008/02/09/on-electronic-chinese-language-guides/comment-page-1/#comment-3908 Matt Worley Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:13:47 +0000 http://mattschiavenza.com/?p=190#comment-3908 Great write up and we use these tools in our school here in China. In fact they are so useful we purchase a copy for every student (Pleco) or at least have them available on a shared computer. I do take exception to one statement: "too wimpy to download them off of a torrent" Wenlin & Pleco are two small companies. They are not Microsoft. They work very hard and a lot of work goes into the product. Please support their products and let's not talk about Torrents. It's not easy for these niche products to stay in the market. Let me quote from Tom Bishop of Wenlin Institute here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=16907&postcount=12 "Let me confirm that Beirne is right: without the financial support of Wenlin users, we couldn't continue to develop the software, dictionaries, and related learning materials. Most of our income is from individual users, not from institutions. We're very grateful to all of our loyal customers. . . . As long as we can earn enough money to stay in business (and we're still struggling to do that), we will keep doing our best to make Wenlin as useful, and affordable, as possible." Matt Worley Great write up and we use these tools in our school here in China. In fact they are so useful we purchase a copy for every student (Pleco) or at least have them available on a shared computer.

I do take exception to one statement:

“too wimpy to download them off of a torrent”

Wenlin & Pleco are two small companies. They are not Microsoft. They work very hard and a lot of work goes into the product.

Please support their products and let’s not talk about Torrents. It’s not easy for these niche products to stay in the market.

Let me quote from Tom Bishop of
Wenlin Institute here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=16907&postcount=12

“Let me confirm that Beirne is right: without the financial support of Wenlin users, we couldn’t continue to develop the software, dictionaries, and related learning materials. Most of our income is from individual users, not from institutions. We’re very grateful to all of our loyal customers. . . . As long as we can earn enough money to stay in business (and we’re still struggling to do that), we will keep doing our best to make Wenlin as useful, and affordable, as possible.”

Matt Worley

]]> By: Jason http://mattschiavenza.com/2008/02/09/on-electronic-chinese-language-guides/comment-page-1/#comment-3740 Jason Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:15:37 +0000 http://mattschiavenza.com/?p=190#comment-3740 Thanks for the heads up on Kingsoft. I hadn't heard of it until I read your post. More Chinese tool deliciousness. Thanks for the heads up on Kingsoft. I hadn’t heard of it until I read your post.

More Chinese tool deliciousness.

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