Kapian means "cards" or "flash cards" in Chinese. The use of flash cards has long been considered an important part of studying European languages. A word from one language is put on one side of the card and the translation of that word in a different language is put on the other side. This is repeated for all the vocabulary you want to study. The deck of cards is then shuffled and the student looks at one side and tries to remember the other word. But the student of Chinese has been faced with a more complicated problem. Here you need to study 1) the Chinese character (either Long or Short Form), 2) the romanized sound, in the particular dialect you want to learn (Mandarin for instance, romanized perhaps in Pinyin), and 3) the English meaning. You needed either a three-sided card or three decks of cards at the very least. Now there is a third choice. You can use the computer program KAPIAN: Chinese Flash Cards to study this age old language. Let the computer shuffle the "Cards" and show them to you. Kapian provides easy to follow menus, offers a great assortment of study methods, and presents an attractive appearance on the screen. Requirements: CGA, EGA or VGA.
