About.com Rating

Visit Their Website

Prior to the digital age, the only way to learn Chinese characters was by writing them out hundreds of times. While this is still a useful discipline, there are now many computer aids that can help us to read and write Chinese characters and understand them better.

Chinese characters are composed of elements called radicals. There are 214 radicals, some of which are independent characters, and others which are always used as parts of more complex characters.

Elements of Chinese Characters

Characters and radicals can be combined in various ways to make new characters. The individual components of a complex character may contribute to its phonetic or semantic classification.

For example, the character ? (yáng) is a radical and also an independent character meaning “sheep”. It is combined with the radical ? (shui - water) to form the character ? (yáng) which means “foreign” or “ocean”. The radical ? provides the phonetic element and the radical ? provides the semantic element. Note that the radical form of ? is altered to ? when it is used as an element of another character.

The above is just a small example of the logic behind the Chinese writing system. Learning about the various elements and how they relate to each other is a useful and rewarding way to study written Chinese.

Showing Relationships

This is where Hanzi Master (otherwise known as Hanzim) comes in. Hanzi Master aims to help students notice the ties between Chinese characters and how the characters make up related sets of vocabulary.

The main screen of Hanzi Master is divided into six main sections, all of which relate to the currently selected character. The bottom three sections show characters which are related to current focus character, either by sharing the same radicals or pronunciation.

The top right and left sections show two-character compounds which begin or end with the current character. Compounds of three or more characters are shown at the bottom of the screen.

So, for example, by selecting the character ? (hao), we see a list of characters which are based on the radical ? (nu), another list based on the radical ? (zi), and a list of characters which are pronounced hao.

We can also see compounds beginning and ending with ? such as ?? (zuì hao) and ?? (hao xiàng). Each character and compound has pinyin pronunciation and an English translation.

Any character on the screen can be selected as the focus character, and there is a history button so you can scroll backwards and forwards through previous selections.

Search Function

You can search for characters using the Hanzi Master Search Window. This works by clicking on buttons which represent individual radicals in various positions. After each radical is selected, the choice of characters narrows down, and the buttons for non-compatible radicals are deselected. This provides a quick, intuitive way to search for Chinese characters.

Searches for compounds (rather than individual characters) can be done by using pinyin (or jyutping if in Cantonese mode). Tone marks are not necessary, and all matching 2-, 3-, and 4-character compounds will be shown, along with their pronunciations and definitions.

Text Translations

Chinese text can be pasted in the Reader Window and translations and pronunciations appear as mouse-over pop-ups. At first glance, this seems to be one of the weakest parts of Hanzi Master, as there are other utilities (such as DimSum) which provide the same function with more features. The advantage of the Hanzi Master Reader Window is that any character can be clicked and sent to the main Hanzi Master window for further study.

A Swiss Army Knife?

According to the Hanzi Master website, “Hanzi Master's primary mission is to aid the reader in noticing the various ties among Chinese characters, as well as between them and the words they make up.” To this aim, character definitions may be shorter than in dictionaries, but this is done to minimize the clutter of the interface.

To my mind, this is a good decision. Hanzi Master does an excellent job at showing the connections between Chinese characters and words. Rather than overwhelming us with a multi-function interface, Hanzi Master allows students to concentrate on this particular aspect of written Chinese. Dictionary and word processing functions are better handled with dedicated software, and students can achieve a better understanding of Mandarin Chinese by using a variety of learning materials rather than relying on a single program to do everything.

Platforms

Hanzi Master 2.4 can run on Mac OS X (Tiger / 10.4 and above), and Windows (XP and above). There is also a Linux beta version available.

Visit Their Website