4/01/06

China Update #10 by Darrol Butler

Links

Darrol's webpage (with pictures):  http://myweb.csuchico.edu/~dbutler1/

Darrol's webpage2 (with pictures): http://spaces.msn.com/members/darrolchina/

CSU International Programs website:  www.gateway.calstate.edu/csuienet

Gilman International Scholarship Program website:  www.iie.org/gilman

Peking University: http://www.pku.edu.cn/eindex.html

University Studies Abroad Consortium website:  www.usac.unr.edu

Wang Family Scholarship: http://www.gateway.calstate.edu/csuienet/faculty/wang.shtml

Chinese language learning software for PDA's http://www.plecodict.com

Dear Family, Friends, Fellow Students, and Professors:

Note for or those of you interested in learning the Chinese language:   After a year and a half of searching for an electronic dictionary designed to teach native English speakers the Chinese language, instead of the other way around, I have found something that has features a native English speaker would desire when learning the Chinese language.   In fact, it turns out that it is a software package designed for both Palm and Windows Pocket PC's that will turn your PDA into an electronic dictionary.   Like the electronic dictionaries designed for Chinese people learning the English language, this software has a built in Chinese character handwriting recognizer that allows you to not only look up characters using their pinyin pronunciations, but also by writing the character in using your PDA's stylus.   This is very convenient and time saving because without a character recognizer, when a character is encountered whose pronunciation is unknown we are often stuck with only two choices, either try to look up the character's pronunciation using a radial chart which is very time consuming as many characters' radicals are ambiguous, or ask somebody who already knows the pronunciation and/or meaning of the character to help.   This software has dictionaries for translating from Chinese to English, and dictionaries for translating from English to Chinese.  In addition it also has a flashcard feature that allows you to make your own flashcards for study, using entries from the various dictionaries, or your own self made entries.   The software is Pleco Sofware (Plecodict) and can be found and purchased online at http://www.plecodict.com . The link is also attached above.

April 1, 2006

Construction...      China is changing overnight (at least in terms of the development and improvement of infrastructure).   It is quite interesting to see the progress.  The army of cement trucks and dump trucks driving around the city 24 hours a day makes the plethora of construction cranes look small in comparison.   Sometime during the winter, just before I moved into my new apartment, new street lamps were put up on the street that runs alongside my old apartment.   A swarm of Chinese workers were dropped off with their tools, and by the time I had returned home from class, a kilometer of tiled sidewalk had been torn up and had approximately a 2 foot deep by 1 foot wide trench dug down the length of it.   The next day wiring was run down the trench and street lamps were installed.  The following day the tiles were put back down and the process was completed.   Then a week later holes were dug (approximately a cubic yard in size) by hand about every ten feet, and within two days 15 foot tall trees were also installed along the length of the street.   Many of the construction jobs here are completed in this way.  Work is done during the day and overnight, and the majority of the tasks are broken down so that they can be accomplished by many hands instead of by using one or two machines.

Until the next email update, take care, and thanks for reading,

Darrol Butler

hairyleprechaun@gmail.com

My new address:

Darrol Butler

c/o Office of CSU International Programs

Shao Yuan, Building 2, Room 101

Peking University

Haidian District, Beijing, 100871

China

1. Workers using a rope and pulley to raise bags of sand and concrete mix to the top floor of a six storey building.	A single construction crane is a rare sight here.  Notice the color of the air.  While it may look like an overcast day, in fact the forecast for yesterday when I took these pictures was smoke.
   Newly installed trees, (a different street then that mentioned in the email update).	A building constructed to provide housing for some of the workers who will be working at this construction site.   (Rectangular, white building with blue trim)
   Workers resting in front of a construction site (same as in the previous picture).   The wall behind them was put up in about a week's time.  The area will become a new garden (their word for the multistory apartment complexes.)	Big machines are used as well.
   	Dump trucks lining up at night at the same site, to remove the huge pile of dirt accumulating from the hole being excavated.