Conversations Help

What is ‘Conversations?’: ‘Conversations’ is a section containing dialogues between two or more people about a certain topic. You can find conversations made by nciku or users and grab or edit them, or make your own brand new conversations.

How do I use ‘Conversations?’: You can look through the Conversations section by browsing or using the search feature. If you want to use the search feature first narrow down how you would like to organize your results, (by places, topics, sentences, or titles), then enter what you would like to search for. If you want to browse, you can first select between ‘places’ and ‘topics’ from the conversations located on the left-hand side of the page; choosing a place will show you all of the conversations related to that place, choosing a topic will show you all of the conversations related to that topic. Then you can select which conversations you would like to see from the list provided.

Can I save my conversations to a file?: You cannot save your conversations to a file. If you want to keep a copy of them, you can print them out.

How many conversations can I grab?: There is no maximum. You can grab or create as many conversations as you like.

Is there a way to organize my conversations?: You cannot file your conversations like words in vocab list, but there are different viewing options available. You can view all of your conversations, only the ones you have made, or only the ones you have grabbed; and sort the list by topic, place, grabs or date. see image

Where do I find my saved conversations?: Go to your nciku page and look in the ‘Posts’ section to find all of your conversations. see image

How do I make a new conversation?: Make a new conversation by clicking on the large ‘Creat New Conversation’ button located on the left-hand side of all conversation pages. You need to fill out the title, place and topic of the conversation; and then write at least 2 sentences. continue reading

How do I edit a conversation?: You can edit a conversation in two ways. One: Click on the ‘Express this Your Way’ button at the bottom of all conversations on the site. Two: In ‘My nciku > Posts > Conversations,’ click on the edit link to the right of any conversation you have grabbed. Both ways take you to the conversation editing page. Here you can edit, add or delete anything you want. continue reading

What are the printing options for conversations?: You can print both the Chinese and the English versions of the conversations, or you can choose to print only one version.. If your learning language is set to English, you will not get pinyin on the printout. see image

Can I print more than one conversation per page?: Only one conversation may be printed at a time.

What if I don’t know the Chinese or English for a conversation?: By using the ‘Search Expressions’ feature, you can search a database of all the sentences in Chinese and in English that has been compiled from the conversations on nciku. see image

Do I have to put in the pinyin for a conversation?: No. There is an automatic pinyin generator. Just click the ‘Generate Pinyin’ button and it will enter the pinyin for you. You can revise the pinyin after it is generated. see image

What are topics?: Topics are the overall theme of the conversation, such as withdrawing money from the bank or asking someone for a date. see image

What does place mean?: Place refers to where the conversation happens. see image

Is there a sentence limit per conversation?: No. Your conversation can be as long as you like.

Can other members see my new conversations?: Everyone can see the conversations made by other nciku members.

Can I decide if I want my conversations to be private?: There is no way to make conversations private. We wish to encourage you to share your knowledge with the whole nciku community.

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