To Install ---------- Install Python with SQLITE (http://python.org) Download cedict_1_0_ts_utf-8_mdbg.txt from: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cc-cedict Put it in the same folder as these files. If you aren't running a Posix shell maybe you need to change the encodings... From the folder with the files in, run python make_db.py To Use ------ Open a command prompt and go to the right folder The lookup.py script does its best to translate a word or standard phrase from either English or Chinese. Examples: python lookup.py to question closely 叮问 [ding1 wen4] to question closely/to make a detailed inquiry/to probe/to ask repeatedly 追问 [zhui1 wen4] to question closely/to investigate in detail/to examine minutely/to get to the heart of the matter 追询 [zhui1 xun2] to interrogate/to question closely python lookup.py 叮问 叮问 [ding1 wen4] to question closely/to make a detailed inquiry/to probe/to ask repeatedly python lookup.py ding wen 叮问 [ding1 wen4] to question closely/to make a detailed inquiry/to probe/to ask repeatedly The translate.py script looks up all words (as far is at can recognize them) in a chinese text and gives English translations. Example: python translate.py 戈瑞安 戈 [ge1] spear/surname Ge 瑞安 [rui4 an1] (N) Rui'an (city in Zhejiang) You can also give it a file name, and it looks up all the words in that file. The file name must have only simple English characters, so that it isn't recognized as chinese text. The longest possible word is chosen at any given point. That saves you looking up a character only to discover it makes no sense on its own, and was really the second character in a word. This sometimes finds overlong words. For example: translate **人民 **人 [zhong1 guo2 ren2] Chinese person (中國人) 民 [min2] the people/nationality/citizen should have given: ** [zhong1 guo2] China/Middle Kingdom (中國) 人民 [ren2 min2] the people/CL:個|个[ge4]