Navigating Chinese menu - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 03:54:06 am
content: I bought a $20 MP3 player that is probably OK.I was looking for something that could play music/books from an SD card instead of uploading, etc.And it comes with an FM radio, as well. So looks great so far.But the menu is operating in some kind of CJKV characters (presumably Chinese Han?)Since it is a logogram language, I don't know even how to enter them to attempt online translation.The gadget came with an English~ language instruction sheet which has no information about changing the menu language.There are likely dozens of people where I work who speak one or more of those languages, so I am hoping I can find somebody who can navigate through the menu to find the language selection for me.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:15:00 am
content: Thanks, blue. I didn't know I could enter handwriting.I tried some characters but they are rather small and complex.So I'm not sure I am entering them correctly as the translations are rather random.I don't have any good way of capturing images of them.I will ask around the office tomorrow.

author: nidlaX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:23:40 am
content: If it's anything like what I've seen in the Amazon product photos, then you want to start on the home screen and select the icon with the wrench and screwdriver (bottom right). Then, look for a menu item labeled "??" to change the language.EDIT: Since I can't display Chinese on the forum, I'll link you to Google instead:https://translate.google.com/#zh-CN/en/%E8%AF%AD%E8%A8%80

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:27:35 am
content: Thanks, nidlaX! I just started scrolling through all the sub-menus and found it!

author: nidlaX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:37:03 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on January 21, 2016, 04:33:37 amYeah well, we wouldn't wanna steal away all of 38hot's user base now would we?

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:48:22 am
content: Just a test of Japanese:?

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:50:15 am
content: Quote from: Tomorokoshi on January 21, 2016, 04:48:22 amThat sure didn't work. It showed up properly in the preview.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 04:54:03 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on January 21, 2016, 04:18:24 amBut I couldn't even get it to recognize the characters.It kept displaying similar characters, but never the correct one.Either I didn't understand what parts of the character are important to recognition,or perhaps the screen is such low resolution, and the font so small, I didn't see the proper character?

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 06:59:26 am
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on January 21, 2016, 04:15:00 amAha... that's why Chinglish manuals are so much fun...Translated: Manuel is fun better when much goodle online.You maybe even be able to drag a jpg image of the symbol onto Google image search or google translate

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 08:17:47 am
content: If you can recognise pieces of the characters, this could be useful:http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=radicalsIf you spend enough time trying to navigate the (very interesting) Chinese Internet, especially the electronics sites, you'll start recognising some characters.Thisis likely to be the first.

author: m98
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 10:38:14 pm
content: Have you tried the google translate app? It just does live character recognition and translation. Should be good enough to get to the right menu.

author: suicidaleggroll
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 11:09:30 pm
content: Quote from: m98 on January 21, 2016, 10:38:14 pmI've used this before to navigate a restaurant menu in Peru (Spanish). It worked pretty well!

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2016, 11:19:23 pm
content: Much easier for you to take a picture and ask people what it means.

author: Alexei.Polkhanov
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 12:31:34 am
content: If you install Cangjie as keyboard input method by choosing Chinese Traditional Hong Kong (not simplified Penyin!) language support in Windows and then try to "unroll" your symbol from top to bottom left to right like described herehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangjie_input_methodyou will see symbol that you are looking for in a list of choices. Copy paste to google translate and voila.I typed "MC" - M for horizontal bar and C for stroke going down. First symbol that came out is for "?" (face). So you don't need to know Chinese to enter Chinese symbols.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2016, 02:19:51 am
content: Quote from: Alexei.Polkhanov on January 22, 2016, 12:31:34 amCangjie is a very unintuitive input method, that Chinese people take ages to learn. Instead of following the stroke order rules properly it is a mass of inconsistencies you need to learn by brute force. Outside Hong Kong it isn't very popular. Someone who can't read Chinese at all will get a lot farther trying to write the characters with the handwriting input method on Google translate (or their phone). Even if you don't know the stroke order rules to draw the character in the right order, I still think you are going to do a lot better with that than with Cangie.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2016, 05:35:55 am
content: Well, now trying to use it for a couple of weeks, I find that it is very nice to be able to load and organize things on the SD card in my computer, and then just plug it into the player.However, the User Interface (even in English!) is to terrible that I'm glad it cost <$20 because I am ready to abandon it. I have never got the feel for exactly how long to hold down a button to engage the desired action. It takes 10 times as long to do something as it would on a more user-friendly UI. VERY disappointed.