I am not at all Taiwanese, but I love this ad. Do they have space for the "white" people to write in " I am second generation Swedish and Russian German"? "White" is as bogus a label as "Asian" or "African" or "Hispanic" and I wish that every background across the world was recognized... maybe some of the white racists would see they are not one blanket group, and neither are those they hate. And all these people who lose who they are, or see others as "ethnic" would see they are just as ethnic. In any case, I think this ad is great, and the reasons behind it.
We had our session with our Chinese tutor tonight and showed her the eReadbook pen and some books (Little Red Riding Hood, the English Chinese Dictionary, and 600 words books) and she said that the speaking was very good, the accent is good as is the choice of words/grammar. She is from Beijing. I am glad to have a native Chinese speaker's positive opinion.
Hi!
Glad you took the plunge to try the pen! It is true that it speaks rapidly in mandarin, but I haven't found that to be a huge problem re the instructions as at this point we are just pointing to listen, not doing the included games.
I didn't have the startup problem that you did, in that I bought the pen through http://bigreach.ca, and I requested that they upload the files for me onto the pen before sending it with the books. My pen was ready to go right out of the box, so we just had to turn it on, touch and listen. I carefully checked out the books on their website (there are video samples as well as page examples for each book) to choose which books would be best for our level (my son is a prereader fluent in English who understands a bit of mandarin, I am just past beginner in Chinese and can read some characters and pinyin).
We chose the 600 Words books (set of 3) which is for learning characters and has pinyin and English for every character, as well as the English Dictionary, which has pinyin, and also English translations for everything the pen says, both the sentences and the images (the images speak). You are right, the Fairy Tales are a real challenge. Though I am finding that at my level I can understand a lot of it by listening over and over, and starting with stories I know well, ie Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, instead of the Happy Prince and Pinocchio. It is great for hearing common ways of speaking, as every wee animal and character drawn on the page "talks"! "Da hui lang lai le!" (the Big Grey Wolf is coming!) "Xiao Hong Mao, ni mama zai jiao ni ne!" (Little Red Riding Hood, your mama is calling you!)
Anyone interested in a bit more customer support can look at my blog for info on bigreach.ca and also use my Pen ID # to get a $10 off credit for their next purchase (after buying the pen). Congrats on your purchase! I'll try to get a proper review done in the near future!
I am not at all Taiwanese, but I love this ad. Do they have space for the "white" people to write in " I am second generation Swedish and Russian German"? "White" is as bogus a label as "Asian" or "African" or "Hispanic" and I wish that every background across the world was recognized... maybe some of the white racists would see they are not one blanket group, and neither are those they hate. And all these people who lose who they are, or see others as "ethnic" would see they are just as ethnic. In any case, I think this ad is great, and the reasons behind it.
We had our session with our Chinese tutor tonight and showed her the eReadbook pen and some books (Little Red Riding Hood, the English Chinese Dictionary, and 600 words books) and she said that the speaking was very good, the accent is good as is the choice of words/grammar. She is from Beijing. I am glad to have a native Chinese speaker's positive opinion.
Hi!
Glad you took the plunge to try the pen! It is true that it speaks rapidly in mandarin, but I haven't found that to be a huge problem re the instructions as at this point we are just pointing to listen, not doing the included games.
I didn't have the startup problem that you did, in that I bought the pen through http://bigreach.ca, and I requested that they upload the files for me onto the pen before sending it with the books. My pen was ready to go right out of the box, so we just had to turn it on, touch and listen. I carefully checked out the books on their website (there are video samples as well as page examples for each book) to choose which books would be best for our level (my son is a prereader fluent in English who understands a bit of mandarin, I am just past beginner in Chinese and can read some characters and pinyin).
We chose the 600 Words books (set of 3) which is for learning characters and has pinyin and English for every character, as well as the English Dictionary, which has pinyin, and also English translations for everything the pen says, both the sentences and the images (the images speak). You are right, the Fairy Tales are a real challenge. Though I am finding that at my level I can understand a lot of it by listening over and over, and starting with stories I know well, ie Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, instead of the Happy Prince and Pinocchio. It is great for hearing common ways of speaking, as every wee animal and character drawn on the page "talks"! "Da hui lang lai le!" (the Big Grey Wolf is coming!) "Xiao Hong Mao, ni mama zai jiao ni ne!" (Little Red Riding Hood, your mama is calling you!)
Anyone interested in a bit more customer support can look at my blog for info on bigreach.ca and also use my Pen ID # to get a $10 off credit for their next purchase (after buying the pen). Congrats on your purchase! I'll try to get a proper review done in the near future!
Oh those dragon dancers are so cute!
These are the cutest. I need to take a class on working with marzipan so I can figure out how to make all of this cuteness. :-)