I first found out about 
E-Readbook from the blog Big Boy and Xiao Chien. E-Readbook is a system that features a touch-reading pen that reads English or Chinese words for you when you point at the words in a special book. Fantastic, right?
I found the system on Amazon.com, and I bought the Beginner Package. It came with the pen, an adapter, a USB cable, & 8 books. When I received it, I was all confused because I couldn't read the instructions--they were all in Chinese. Luckily, with the help of my Chinese-literate friend, I learned how to download the sound files from the E-Readbook website, and I learned how to use the pen. Now, it works great, and I'm so happy!
Basically, you turn on the pen by pressing the button, then you sync the pen with the book by touching the pen to the logo on the front cover of the book. Then, you can start using the book.
This system seems to be designed for Chinese-speaking students to learn English, rather than for English-speaking students to learn Chinese. The pen often gives instructions in full sentences in rapid Chinese, and it's hard to understand it unless you are fluent in Mandarin.
However, the system can still be useful for those of us with limited Mandarin skills in that you can touch the pen to a word or phrase, and the pen will speak the English or the Chinese word or phrase that you're pointing to. The key is in choosing the right books.
In all, I'm happy that I got the E-Readbook system. However, it would've been extremely difficult if I didn't have a friend who was able to read and understand Mandarin in order to help me learn how to use it. I later discovered that there are some instructions in English that you can download from the E-Readbook website.
These are the books that I received with the Beginner Package:
New Concept English/Chinese Beginner Series
The orange book called "PQR" contains a few greetings, family members, animals, fruit, drinks, movements, parts of the face, colors, & clothing with English & Chinese words, as well as small sentences & poems. There are also some short songs in English. No pinyin is provided.
Disney's Scene Series
Disney's Home goes over family members, household items, garden tools, & food with some well-known Disney characters. There are English & Chinese words, but no pinyin. There's also a "Can you find?" game.
World Classic Fairy Tales Collection
Pinocchio is a storybook with Chinese characters and pinyin, but no English. The pen reads the whole page in rapid Chinese with accompanying music. Not a good choice if you're not fluent in Mandarin.
Learning Joyfully Series
The pink "A" book teaches the words for animals, food, vehicles, play structures, and household objects in English and Chinese (no pinyin). There are blank spaces for you to practice writing these words in English.
The orange "zi" book teaches parts of the face, animals, household objects, vehicles, and things in nature with Chinese characters and pinyin. There is no English. There are blank spaces for you to practice writing in Chinese.
The blue "pin" book teaches sounds. There are Chinese characters and pinyin. No English is provided. There are blank spaces to practice writing alphabet sounds in English.
The green book with an abacus on it has you practice writing numbers and do simple addition. There are only numbers and Chinese characters. No pinyin or English is provided.
Happy Coloring Series
The orange book with a compass on it has you color in pictures and guess what the picture will be. The pen speaks sentences in rapid Chinese. There are only Chinese sentences. No pinyin or English is provided.
If you have tried the E-Readbook system, please let us know what you thought of it and which books you enjoyed.
tobuy
Myinspirasian.com
My silverware all seems so boring now. I kind of want to replace all of it immediately.
omg that is funny as all heck! thanks for that! I can so relate! (to the closed-elevator part only!!!!) :D
omigod I LOVE it! love it love it love it! :D
thanks!
They lost me in the Da Vinci Code when they started blabbing all their top secret info in a taxi cab (who have radios don't they?) when they knew that they were wanted by Interpol, FBI etc... really. duh?
And then when a cryptologist, an expert on languages and an expert on Da Vinci didn't, like myself, simply read the backwards English and were arguing for several pages what ancient language it could be? Hard to stomach after having simply read the text in question as easily as all the other text. I was surprised Dan Brown didn't have a Renaissance paintings lecturer, an art museum curator and an expert on Da Vinci arguing whether the Mona Lisa was perhaps an ancient cave painting or something found in an Egyptian pyramid. At least if he had made the taxi driver or the janitor not know what the writing was, and be enlightened by said experts, he would have kept the reader's credulity in his characters and their wisdom.
(Wikipedia in "Mirror-writing" entry says: "Leonardo da Vinci is famous for having written most of his personal notes in mirror..... He may also have wanted to protect his ideas from theft or hide them from the Roman Catholic Church (with whom his scientific findings sometimes collided). However, the latter idea, popular among conspiracy theorists, is highly unlikely: it is (and was even at the time) clear, even to a child, that the text in question could be easily read "backwards" (either directly or through its reflection, such as in a mirror)." Exactly, clear even to a child)
Sorry, as someone who used to write her diary backwards in grade 10, DID take art history (and saw the exhibit at Montreal Museum of Art with all Da Vinci's handwriting originals written backwards) and is interested in languages, Dan Brown's "mysteries" are like knocking my head against concrete while drinking roofing tar. But surely someone else will love it!
ROFL! I saw that commercial once before, and it has me rolling all over again!!!