 | | | Chinese Learning |
The Chinese language is one of the most fascinating surviving languages you can learn today. With its pictographic roots, learning Chinese often feels less like language class and more like art class. Besides the aesthetic appeal of its characters, the Chinese language also has a long history spanning some 5000 years. With over a billion people speaking some variant of Mandarin Chinese, one out of every six people on Earth, Mandarin Chinese is fast becoming a global language in travel and business. Indeed, some experts estimate that as many as 100 million people will be undertaking Chinese study by 2010. Chinese is, with good reason, often cited as the single most imposing obstacle of traveling or doing business in China. The language sounds impenetrable and the written language impossibly alien. But by investing some time in learning to speak and read Chinese, you will find your investment paying off handsomely over time. Though challenging, Chinese study can be fun, and you will find your status rise in the eyes of the Chinese you meet. They believe that anyone who makes an effort to learn Chinese is showing admiration and respect for China. For those who are interested in learning Chinese, it’s important to understand the idiosyncrasies and differences Chinese has with English. For example, the basic unit of the Chinese language is not the letter, as Chinese has no alphabet. Neither is it the word, as most Chinese words are paired. Rather, the basic unit of the Chinese language is the “character”. Many novice Chinese learners will be confused by the differentiation between “word” and “character”, as this is a relatively foreign concept in English. Many “words” in Chinese are actually pairings of two or more “characters” to form a new meaning, with each character representing one syllable. A classic example (both in describing this concept and in illustrating how easily westerners can be confused by Chinese) is the common misconception that the Chinese have the same word for “crisis” as they do for “opportunity”. The Chinese word for “crisis” is 危机. The misinformed will then say that the Chinese, in their optimistic wisdom, crafted the word “crisis” by combining the word for “danger” and “opportunity”. While危 does indeed mean “danger”, 机 most certainly does not mean “opportunity”. By itself, 机 has a multitude of meanings, most commonly “machine”. Only when机 is paired with 会, or “occasion”, does 机会 mean “opportunity”. When learning Chinese, it is important that the student approach Chinese not just character by character, as one might in English, but also maintaining awareness that most words in Chinese are actually composed of a pair of characters. Another major difference is in grammar. Chinese grammar as you know it in English is practically non-existent. There are no tenses for plurals, prepositions, or verb conjugations. There are no masculine or feminine tenses, nor are there “the" or "a". There are no past or future tenses, and often most surprising to Chinese learners, there are no explicit words for “yes” or “no”. The only rules are those of word order. | 
| | Over millenia, however, the pictographic characters became more and more stylized to create the characters in the second column. The evolution of the character for “horse” is shown. |  | | In addition, these pictographic characters comprise of only 4% of modern-day Chinese. Their ties to an ancient history and culture, however, are valued far more than just for their number. |
| | | Main Features: |
| Whether Chinese is your passion, or merely your summer trip, you can't go wrong with the NC200 Express Chinese. The NC200 includes everything you'll ever need to study Chinese, no matter what your level, no matter what your need, from simple phrases (such as "Where is the bathroom?" or "How much does that cost?") to more complex grammar phrases ("The reporter gave an objective account of the problems facing foreigners.") It includes a comprehensive Travel Guide, with all the information you would ever need to plan your vacation. It includes no less than three dictionaries, and numerous cross-translation tools. If you need a break from all that, you can also store mp3s and movies on your NC200, to bring with you wherever you go. | | Specifications |
Display: 3.0 in. LCD touch screen TFT real color display 320x240 resolution, 26K color
Media Playback：Supports MP3, MP4, Midi and Flash formats
System：LINUX OS
Capacity：1G internal memory with 1G memory card included.
Expandable storage：Supports up to 4G storage via standard SD card.
Processor: 32 bit 400MHz processor
Connectivity：High speed USB 2.0 port
External output：Built-in Φ30mm speaker with super sound range and clarity
Internal output：3.5mm high quality stereo headphones
Battery life：Icon indicates battery life，Low battery will show an alert.
Power：Rechargeable 1100mA large capacity Li-ion battery |
| | | FAQ |
Express Chinese
General
 | Does the NC200 come with a warranty? |  | NOAH offers a one-year limited warranty on your NC200 from date of purchase. |
| Will NOAH provide updates for the NC200? | | Yes, check NOAH’s website (http://en.noahedu.com.cn/) for periodic updates. |
| My NC200 shut off in the middle of upgrading! Help! | | Calm down, there’s most likely been no damage. Simply check your upgrade.bin file on your SD card, make sure the NC200 is plugged into an external power source, and re-insert the SD card with the upgrade file into your NC200 to re-upgrade. |
| If I return my NC200 to its default settings, will all my files and personal information be deleted? | | Yes, so if you’re returning the NC200 to its default settings, make sure you have copies of all files and personal information before doing so! |
| Study | What are the main features of the Study section? | | The Study section includes Courses by topic complete with videos and exercises, a complete guide for learning Pinyin (the phonetic spelling of Chinese words), interactive tutorials for writing Chinese Characters, vocabulary lists with pictures, Test and sentence building sections to check your progress, and multimedia learning features. |
| Are there audio examples of how to pronounce Chinese words? | | Absolutely. Not only is there a complete audiovisual guide to Pinyin which lets you hear the sounds, see how to form your mouth to make them, and gives you feedback on your pronunciation, but all lessons and vocabulary lists also have audio and videos to boot. |
| What level are the Chinese courses? | | There are courses for all levels from a beginner who has never heard a word of Chinese before to advanced learners. There are also difficulty settings on the various games and activities to provide a suitable challenge for any level. |
| Do the lessons teach functional Chinese, or mostly vocabulary lists? | | The lessons are designed as dialogues, teaching proper grammar and sentence structure as well as vocabulary. There are also vocabulary lists on various topics in addition to those used for lesson content. |
| Can I substitute formal study with these courses? | | While you are certainly free to do so, NOAH suggests that these courses be used as excellent supplemental material rather than formal study. These courses are, however, excellent as reference material and as a resource for basic Chinese study. |
| Travel | What are the main features of the travel section? | | The travel section includes a Practical Chinese section with loads of useful travel phrases by category, a full China Guide for traveling including hotel and restaurant information for your destinations, Survival Chinese for getting around, easy to navigate city maps, and fun reference materials about China such as cultural explanations in the e-Magazine and 2008 Olympics information in the e-Book. |
| Does the NC200 include advice on accommodations, dining, etc? | | It does indeed. In the China Guide section, you can browse destinations, hotels, and restaurants all over China and choose those which are suitable for you. The descriptions include prices and contact information to help make your life easier! |
| How many cities does the travel guide cover? | | The travel guide covers over 150 attractions in approximately 100 cities throughout China. |
| When was this guide written? Will it be up to date for the 2008 Olympics? | | This travel guide was researched and written in 2008, mere months before the 2008 Olympics, making it ideal for use throughout the Olympics and afterwards. |
| Is there a search function for all those hotels and restaurants? | | Absolutely. We wouldn’t think of making you trudge through all those pages of restaurants. Simply navigate to the search function near the top of the screen, and you will be able to perform searches on hotels, restaurants, and attractions. |
| Dictionary | Can I look up a word using English as well as Chinese? | | You can look up a word using English, as well as a number of other languages, to get the Chinese translation, and vice-versa. |
| How do I look up a character if I don’t know how to pronounce it? | | If you know how to pronounce the Chinese word, you can enter the pronunciation to find the English translation. If you do not know the pronunciation, you can use your stylus to write the character on the screen and the device will recognize your writing! |
| What’s the numeric lookup method? | | The numeric lookup method is the method used in older style Chinese dictionaries, where the stroke counts of the character’s radical is used to look up the locale of the character. If you have never used this method, just stick to pinyin and handwriting, they’re both much simpler. |
| Is there a way to save words or phrases I have looked up in order to access them more easily later? | | Yes and yes. You can even build your own dictionary bank with words you have saved. This doesn’t just go for the dictionary; you can make notes for yourself and save things you find useful or that pique your interest all over the device from useful phrases to destinations, restaurants and hotels in the travel section! |
| Is English the only language represented on the NC200? | | No. The World Languages section provides 2-way dictionaries between Chinese and Japanese, French, Russian, German, and Spanish. |
| Will I be able to download and use other dictionaries besides the ones pre-loaded on my NC200? | | Yes. Check the NOAH website for additional dictionaries, lessons, and other updates and supplemental material to keep your NC200 working better and longer! |
| PDA | Can I store my own music and videos, etc? | | The PDA is fully equipped with video, audio and flash players, a voice recorder, and photo albums, plus a painting program and memo section. Load up anything you need while on the go! |
| Can I use the NC200 as a flash drive? | | Absolutely. Simply connect the NC200 to your computer with the USB cable and copy the files to the NC200, then disconnect from your computer. You can now transfer your files like you would with a flash drive. |
| Does the NC200 video player support divx files? | | The video player does indeed support divx files, up to version 3.x and some 5.x files. |
| Tools | What are the main features of tools? | | Here you can customize all of your settings, keep track of your schedule, set alarms or a stopwatch, and find useful tools such as a calculator, and currency and measurement conversion tables. |
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| | | Testimonials |
 Very easy to use! I like this little machine! It feels less like a dictionary and more like a PDA!
 freegirl83 | I was in the market for a dictionary, and decided to buy this model at the electronics market in ZGC. The dictionary’s great, just what I was looking for. I like the extra little features too, like the travel guide and the study lessons. What’s with the main character though?
wanderingsprit | Agree with the above post about the guy in the lessons. The chick is hot though! Really appreciate the travel section though and the dictionary’s good. Also like the mp3 player, makes long bus rides go by faster.
hurtzcatter69 | I totally love the travel guide, its great i take it everywhere with me when i travel around china. last week i went to qingdao and i didn’t know anything about the place except the beer. this thing had all this information on qingdao, really useful. i also like the part with the chinese phrases, i use that a lot when i speak with the locals. great job Noah, keep up the good work!
master_chief | The NC200 is small and with lots of features. I like the lessons, I find them helpful because I am learning Chinese now. Many things I can do on NC200, look up restaurants in Beijing for good food, or study Chinese so I can talk to Chinese people. It also has a Korean-Chinese dictionary, very useful for me! It is great that I bought the NC200, I am very happy with my choice.
jinsoonlee |  It’s great that NOAH finally built a dictionary for us expats! Too many times have I looked at dictionaries in my University bookstore to find that it’s all in Chinese, or really bad English. This dictionary actually seems like it was written by native English speakers, which is great! The study section’s good, but I really like the Practical Chinese section, you can practically create your own sentences when you need them! Also, the translator is really fun to play around with, in case you’ve always wondered how to say “Who farted?” in Chinese. All in all, I’m glad I gave this a try, and I’m looking forward to lots of updates on the NOAH website.
 Steven
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 Good learning resource is like a fine cup of tea. With every taste, you discover something new and surprising. Here we provide users with continuous updates and learning content for download. We have the book Boya Intensive Chinese Learning, which is divided into three levels; easy, medium and difficult with each level having 15 lessons. The lessons are designed for students of zero Chinese ability or of any ability and covers topics like daily practical Chinese and all the most common scenarios and topics. For NC200 plays the function of a powerful Chinese search engine, here you can download an an extensive database of characters, sentences, Pinyin, grammar, useful sentences, and articles for your search in both Chinese and English. Need a basic vocabulary for daily life in China? Then Survival Chinese is the answer. “Survive” with a complete database of practical everyday language covering all aspects including, clothing, food, travel and accommodation, and more. There are complete road maps, shopping, hotel, and dining guides, as well as useful phrases. Find the best travel hot spots and, the best local cuisine. You can also download the pictorial dictionary, a dictionary of terminology, a multi-language dictionary freely. |
| NC200 | ·汉字学习，拼音学习
·听说全能，汉语考堂
·旅行百科，电子杂志
·电子地图，图解词典
·汉英专业词典 |
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