Learning to read

The annual HK book fair is an event I look forward to each year. Even though I had only finished half of the books I had bought at least year's fair, I'm convinced I can do better this year. I realized that I started to lose interest in some of the psychology/social books because I getting stuck on a lot of the Chinese. And even though there were interesting observations about social behaviors (e.g. like how people tend to fill up seats on a public bus) and there really wasn't a hook for me to continue reading.

This year's reading list for CharK and I 

So this year I decided to try some Chinese novels which have been translated from popular Japanese young adult novels. These light-hearted novels have a romantic comedy theme which seem to have interesting storylines. Also CharK found a great dictionary app that'll help me get through the Chinese. I'm confident I'll do better with this year's reading list!

Rather than just reading a definition from a typical Chinese-English dictionary, this Cantonese Phonetic app can actually pronounce the word. In addition to pronouncing the different ways the word can be sounded, it gives the definition (in English) as well as common phrases of that word. The app is actually based on the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Chinese Character Database website. Having it on my phone is really handy, especially since I can use input a word directly via my touchscreen keyboard.

A great Cantonese-English translator tool for your mobile phone

This app has been pretty easy to use so far and I have made it through the first page of my novel fairly easily. I think this is going to be one of my favourite apps on my phone. It will be especially helpful for getting around HK on a daily basis and I won't have to worry about not being able to read something on a sign or restaurant menu!