1 Is there a tablet on which I can use perapera? At present I’m restricted to using it on Chrome on a windows desktop. But I study Chinese only when I’ve nothing better to do. At such times, what I usually have on me is an iPhone or iPad. Seems like even in 2020 perapera is the only useful mouse over dictionary. I must be missing something
2 what expat forums are there in Beijing or Shanghai where I could ask a question? I’d like to do daily language exchange online. What platform is suggested?
Sorry, perapera is desktop only afaik… But there are some apps that are just as good.
I use pleco (available on iPhone and Android).
For Android, you can:
- Turn on the “screen reader” that will let you touch characters. The definitions will pop up. However, the screen reader is a bit annoying… because if you tap a link, it won’t click it because it’s showing the definition. You’ll need to turn off the screen reader to use your phone again. So, I personally prefer to…
- Use the Google assistant. Long press the home button and say “what’s on my screen?” Then, send your screen to Pleco. This works for any app. Sometimes I don’t know a character used by my bank’s app and it’s nice to run my screen through Pleco.
On both Android and iPhone, you can:
- Copy and paste text into Pleco’s clip reader
I’m not sure how you copy and paste Chinese characters if you’re using an app on iPhone. Maybe with Siri?
When I want to know something from someone in China, I usually use Zhihu (it’s ok to ask questions in English… but I normally write my question in Chinese), Yahoo Answers, or Quora.