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This is a simple web application that helps me learn Mandarin Chinese vocabulary. It could easily be adapted for other languages. Learning from a textbook, I found myself remembering the contexts of words instead of their meanings. This application randomizes the order; it also lets you show and hide meanings by clicking on them.

• The Quiz
• Code as of 2005-06-25: mandarin-20050625.tgz

How to use it

Initially, the words are listed along the left of the screen. Clicking on a word displays its meaning to the right. Go through the list of words. If you know a word, click it and leave the English showing. If you don't know it, display the meaning, try to remember it, then hide it again. Go through the list repeatedly, ignoring those words for which the English is visible, until there are none left to learn.

There are also keyboard commands to substitute for the mouse. Hit the H key to show the meaning for the current word and move on - use this if you know the word. Hit the T key if you don't know the word: the English will show, but it will disappear again when you move to the next word. Each of these keys moves on to the next word in the list. If you make a mistake, hit the N key to go back. (I use a dvorak keymap on my keyboard, hence the odd key assignments: H, T, and N are together on the home row.)

The vocabulary list is woefully inadequate. I only just started using this again, and for now it's only a reduced list.

Oh yeah, this runs fine on Firefox or Safari, but I'm nearly certain it won't work on Internet Explorer. If Microsoft updates their browser with standards compliance, it might. But it's a personal project, so I just don't care enough to go through the pain of trying to coax Exploder into cooperating.