Been experimenting with my Android phone to try to level-up my Chinese learning. Here’s one workflow that seems beneficial.
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Install Firefox web browser, Pleco Chinese dictionary, Hanping Chinese dictionary, and Google Translate apps on Android phone. Use Firefox browser to open a Taiwanese news site like tw.yahoo.com. Click on any news article. The Chinese-language news article is displayed. Long-tap the first paragraph to select the Chinese text. In the pop-up menu, select “copy” to copy it into the clipboard.
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Split the Android screen to open two apps at once, open a Chinese-language dictionary app (Pleco or Hanping), and paste the first paragraph of the article’s text into the dictionary. The dictionary app separates the pasted text into a sequence of Chinese words, and displays a long scrollable list of each Chinese word followed by its English definition. Because both apps (Firefox browser and Chinese dictionary) are open and on-screen at the same time, you can now focus your attention on the dense wall of Chinese text from the news article in the Firefox browser, and glance upwards at the other app window (the dictionary window) to see the definition of each word in the article, in sequence. As you “read” the article (training to recognize characters in context and associate them with meaning), you scroll the dictionary window to see the next words and the next definitions in sequence. Reading the article this way is extremely slow, but instructive, as you try to piece together the meaning from the sequence of words. In Firefox, with the text selected, you can also click “Read aloud” in the pop-up window and Firefox will then read the Chinese text aloud, so that you can practice listening. Firefox highlights each word as it is read aloud. You now have a piecemeal, fragmented understanding of the first paragraph of the article.
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To get a full understanding of the text, in the Firefox window with the text selected, click “Translate” in the pop-up window to send the text to Google translate for a full English translation. Read and understand the meaning of the paragraph in English.
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Having now fully understood the intent of the paragraph, go back to step 2 and try to read the Chinese-language paragraph again. Again have Firefox read the article text aloud in Chinese, listen closely to identify the key words in context, visually watch on-screen as the words are highlighted while being read aloud, and mentally connect the sounds/appearances of the words with the meaning that you understood from step 3. Repeat over and over and over again until you are able to understand the meaning of the paragraph’s text both visually and aurally – then move on to the next paragraph.
For example, spending a harrowing 20-30 minutes on the first paragraph of 聲援巴勒斯坦 王毅：以色列已超出自衛範圍 , I was able to learn to recognize by sight some key words by sight and sound, like “衝突”, “未歇” or “問題的出路”.
By going through this laborious exercise, I get a small “breakthrough” feeling at the end, and for a fleeting instant I have some limited ability to visually and aurally understand a native-level text. Given the large amount of effort required to reach this condition, it remains to be seen how long I can maintain motivation for this study method, and if the results will eventually get transferred into long-term memory. Naturally, to help with long-term retention, I am also using flashcards (Anki app) to drill on the words that I learn in this way.