Please re-read the original post, maybe I didn't make myself clear. Typing the characters in simplified IS the problem.
The phonetic input system allows me to type the phonetic spelling of a word, but then I must choose which character I want (as there are many homophones in Chinese). Only simplified characters come up. I often don't know which character I want, because I don't know which simplified character corresponds to the traditional character that I intend to type. for example, I may want to type "祇" and so I input "zhi" in the phonetic typing function. But, since only simplified characters are given as a choice, I don't recognize the simplified equivalent "只" among all the choices, and so I don't know which character to choose. Try it yourself to see what I am talking about. Roughly a third to a half of the common Chinese characters vary significantly between the two systems. This makes the function very problematic for students of the traditional Chinese character set. Hope that's more clear, ~Paddy On Jul 12, 9:20 am, node wrote: > The traditional issue is easily solveable. Google Translate has a > function where you can translate from Simplified Chinese to > Traditional Chinese. So just type the characters in in Simplified, and > click to translate to Traditional. > > On Jul 5, 5:36 am, P Kinkead wrote: > > > > > > > > > Google Translate is one of the biggest resources I use for studying Chinese > > vocabulary and characters, though I always double check meanings and words > > with other programs its great for being so fast and responsive. I don't > > know how else to contribute feedback so I'll post here. > > > First problem is a glitch. When translating into Chinese, if I correct the > > translation to another character or pair of characters the phonetic typing > > (pinyin) changes at first to match the new chosen translation but then after > > entering another word or hitting [enter] the phonetic pinyin will change > > back to the original translation not matching the characters, and remain > > that way. This is a big headache when I am generating lists of characters > > with pronunciations... > > > Second thing is less of a glitch and more of an oversight. Simplified > > Chinese may be the character set of choice for the majority of Chinese > > speakers but there are still a lot of us learning traditional Chinese > > characters. When entering Chinese using phonetic typing, only simplified > > characters are available. This greatly hampers my use of an otherwise > > extraordinarily useful function. Since only simplified characters come up I > > am often lost as to which one corresponds to the traditional character I > > need. This really cant be a difficult feature to add, as its usually a one > > to one relationship between traditional and simplified characters. If I > > could type phonetic pinyin and get traditional characters in google > > tranlslates input box, I would likely use google translate to type in > > Chinese for general use. (which would be a great cross-over feature in > > google docs and email, btw.) > > > Ok otherwise, thanks for a great product. > > (and my apologies, if this is not the best place give feedback) > > > ~Paddy -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general?hl=en.
