Stroke Order Hints

You can now do three things with the "Show" button (or the "S" key):

1. Press it to see the character.


2. Hold it down to see the stroke animation.


3. Hold it down briefly to get a hint.

Let me know if that satisfies the hint feature you were asking for. The idea for #3 comes from John Pasden; thanks, John!

By the way, this may be a bit buggy, so if you see anything weird going on with the phantom, please let me know.

AmericanPod

We've been meaning to post this for a long time. Back in April, Praxis' OpenLanguage blog featured an episode of the fictional "AmericanPod" intended to highlight how not to make a podcast. In their own words: "find out the hard way all the things that you absolutely shouldn’t do when behind that mic!"

Ever since hearing it months ago we've been quoting it and saying things like "this new front page mockup looks FIERCE by the way." Alas, we just kept forgetting to blog about it. So here's the link. The episode is 5 minutes long and we all three endorse listening to it repeatedly.

Maksym Has Left the Building

Maksym Taran, our illustrious summer intern left Ohio yesterday amid fanfare and heavy hearts. His arrival in June marked a new era for Skritter, an era marked by higher productivity and greater language diversity. His absence will be missed.

He accomplished much this summer. He completed a large chunk of the work needed to optimize our spaced repetition which we will finish. He created the entire Japanese kanji database, corrected about a thousand would-be linguist errors, checked our Japanese textbook vocabulary lists, advised us about design issues, and provided us with a way to search our character database by radical components (especially helpful when we've made a consistent mistake in stroke order). So Maksym, if you ever need a good reference for your resume, give 'em my number and I'll be glad to sing your praises.

In other news, Scott has been studying and I have been procrastinating like mad. Scott is somehow able to study for hours at a stretch while I max out at about an hour and a half. Past that I just can't concentrate. Skritter is great for practicing, but what I need to do right now is go over the grammar and start listening to spoken Chinese (ChinesePod, here I come).

The Semester Begins

Oberlin starts classes in one week, and 学生 are returning to campus. The once deserted green spaces of the college where once only solitude occupied the plentiful sunlight are being filled with younglings here for orientation. This migration bodes poorly for both Scott and I who have been avoiding our language textbooks all summer, plaintively living in the last few moments before Japanese and Chinese 2 start up and we have our pride handed to us on a silver platter.

I went into the summer without any high expectations that I was going to study, and so I'm not frustrated with myself, but I am frightened to discover just how much I have lost. I tried reading the first chapter of A New China on Friday only to discover my ability to read has apparently gone down the tubes. I recognized most of the characters, but my memory of Chinese grammar has eroded significantly. My listening comprehension is toast, but I expected that. I'll have to buckle down and start listening to ChinesePod.

To further incite panic into my brain, there's the knowledge that second year at Oberlin marks the switch from traditional to simplified characters, which is neither gradual nor measured. Essentially Oberlin teaches traditional characters exclusively the first year (in case students want to study in Taiwan or Hong Kong) and then in second year students are suddenly allowed to choose whether you'd like to use simplified or traditional. For most, it's not really even a choice as traditional is markedly harder. For me, although I appreciate the simplicity that the newer standard affords, I find myself rather attached to some traditional forms. For instance, the simplified form of 刚 is fine but the traditional version is a little more . . . dignified? Perhaps my love for the old standard is partly due to my interest in mastering difficult skills and less about the characters themselves.

Scott, for his part has been studying Japanese frantically in preparation for the beginning of the semester. Both he and I skipped out on our finals last semester. We are both auditing the courses, which means grades are meaningless, and we were launching the paid version at around the same time, which sucked all of our time. Now we're both realizing how much value finals really have. They temporary solidify the information in your brain and make it more easily accessible later. I for one intend to do my midterms and finals this semester.

In other (non-company-related) news, Nick and I made a rope swing in a nearby park. The project started out as a mission to create an enormous slingshot, but morphed into a rope swing. Go figure. Here's me climbing into the tree to setup the rope and Nick using our creation. The pictures don't capture it well, at the time of this photo nick was about 5-6' off the ground.

Backstroke of the West

Last night we had guests over to the house and we viewed Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. We had all of course seen the movie before, in fact, I have seen it several times, but this viewing was special. About a year ago we learned of a subtitles track to the movie that was so poorly translated as to warrant a full viewing. The script had apparently been poorly translated from English to Chinese and then poorly machine translated back again. The title was translated as "Star War: the Backstroke of the West."


It was very funny for all the Engrish but it was also fun to try and figure out how the heck a lot of the mistranslations occurred. It was a lesson in both English and Chinese! Here are some examples:


“Anakin” is translated as “.gold,” “Allah gold,” and “the peaceful.” Haven’t figured those out.


Anakin: “What kind of nonsense is this, put me on the Council and not make me a Master?!”
Allah gold: “I was just made by the Presbyterian Church.”
Explanation: “Jedi Council” -> 基督教 – Jīdūjiào: “Christianity” -> “Presbyterian Church.”


In other contexts, “Jedi” is translated as “hopeless situation.” You know, “hopeless situation warrior,” “hopeless situation elder.” Here “Jedi” -> 绝态 – Juétài: “desperate; hopeless” + “condition; situation” -> “hopeless situation.”


General Grievous: “Ahhh, Jedi scum!”
Space general: “Smelly boy”

Some of them were clearly impossible:
Count Dooku: “Good. Twice the pride, double the fall.”
the D: “You are a sacrifice article that I cut up rough now”

Anakin: “I don't need his [Palpatine’s] help . . . Our baby is a blessing, not a problem.”
Allah gold: “I do not need the child’s help. Our baby blesses god’sly.”


Here are some easy ones:
Obi-wan: “Hello there!”
ratio .tile: “Everybody is good”
Here it was likely translated as 大家好 – dàjiāhǎo: “hello everyone”, but 好 then became “is good.”

They also translated “Mustafar system” as “wood method star,” first phonetically using 木 for “Mu” and法 for “far” (out of order), and then reverse-phonetically pulling in 星 for “sta.”


Some harder ones—if you can figure them out, post a comment:
Padme -> “the plum of I”
C-3PO: “Is there anything I might do for you, my lady?”
Padme: “Yes, make sure all the security droids are working. Thank you, Threepio.”
-> “Lady, have what can I help of”
-> “Have no, thank, blow the skin.”


Obi-wan: “He is like my brother ... I cannot do it.”
ratio .tile: “He the my brothers in elephant is similar”


Of course, the final “NOOOOOO!” of Darth Vader (west host) becomes “Do not want” in a classic manner.

You can see some more screenshots here, including ones with foul language, from the Finder: http://winterson.com/2009/01/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west-redux.html

Genki 2 and Other News

A handful of news items:

Japanese textbook Genki 2 is here: As promised, Genki 2 has arrived! Integrated Intermediate is up next, followed by Progressing to Advanced. And then after those there are another set of textbooks that are more popular internationally: Minna no Nihongo. Any other Japanese texts that people would like to see?

More characters, added sooner: We've streamlined the system for uploading new characters. We're just about caught up with all the characters people have requested that previously we didn't have the strokes for. And from now on it should be much quicker making and putting up new requests.

New logo: We swapped out the new logo for another of the several we had made for us. What do you guys think of this one? Slightly less demonic we hope?

Vocab List Design: George and I chatted at length, pondering ideas for a new vocabulary list user interface. We came up with a design that will hopefully feel a lot less crowded as well as more intuitive. George is making some mockups in photoshop now, and will be putting them on the forum for you guys to have a look at and tell us what you think. This will be the fifth design of that page I think so we'd like to get your guys' opinions and ideas. It's really important this part of the site be understandable!

Sci Fi Concert

Last night Scott, Maksym, Trina and I went to a Cleveland Orchestra and choir concert featuring music from famous sci fi movies and television shows. We brought our dinner, picnicked on the lawn, listened to the music, and I got my picture taken with this dashing Darth Vader impersonator.



George Takei (Sulu from the original Star Trek series) made a cameo that was cornier than all US farm subsidies combined, and the conductor of the orchestra gave away an incredible lightsaber (this kind of saber, not your everyday kid plaything).

It was nice to get out of the house and it was doubly nice to hear some live music. Although I have heard most of the material before (and in the case of the Star Wars theme, several hundred times before) and it did sort of devolve into a John Williams fest, it sounded different enough performed live to keep my interest level high. Oh yeah, and attendance was very high. I read in the pamphlet that the concert area can fit 13,000 spectators in on the grass and ~5,500 nearer the orchestra. Whoa.

Styling Ch-ch-changes

As you probably already noticed, we've changed the overall style of the site a bit, and put in our brand new logo. But this is only the beginning, as we settle in to wrestle with the interface and design demons that have been haunting us, some old, some new. Pages are going to get shuffled around a bit and with any luck, it will make more sense, especially to newcomers.

One of the things we'll be doing is hiring outside help. We already got someone to draw us some spiffy new skritters critters, including the one in the logo. Check out one of the many that will be showing up here and there.



Isn't he adorable?

We're also currently working on the front page. We've got a new alternative front page we're going to be comparing in terms of effectiveness with our current front page. We're going for a simpler setup, which hopefully will be less confusing. We'll also be making revisions to the try it page and the vocabulary page, at the very least. And what redesign would be complete without yet another version of the vocabulary list page? One day we're going to make that page intuitive...

So tell us about your least favorite parts of the site, so we can make them suck less!

Teaming Up with ChinesePod

Yes, it's official: ChinesePod is awesome. They've been providing audio and their lesson data to Skritter for a while, but the action's been all over here. We've always wanted to share a little Skritter writing goodness over on ChinesePod itself. Now we're being given the opportunity as part of a closer partnership.

As a first step, you'll soon see the Scratchpad being integrated into some places on ChinesePod for premium subscribers. We'll be making more cool stuff available on ChinesePod as things progress. ChinesePod content plus Skritter practice tools equals great learning.

I'm excited! What would you like to see in terms of Skritter and ChinesePod cooperation? Let us know.

Rollin' Skritter Style

In between all the progress that has been made to the site in the last week, a lot has been happening. Last Wednesday Nick, Maksym, Alex (my brother), and I visited Cedar Point together after which I went to Chicago to exhibit at the Homeschooling Expo, where I fell explosively ill.

But let's start from the beginning. Last Wednesday we took an excursion to Cedar Point, one of Ohio's premiere roller coaster meccas. Maksym, Alex and I were all into roller coasters, but Nick came on a whim to face his daredevil fears. And oh boy did he face them. See the pictures below to observe the before and during shots of Nick on the Millennium Force. Scott did not join us because he doesn't like coasters, and his absence was probably for the better because we pretty much went on roller coasters all day. We all four somehow avoided getting sun burnt despite the cloudless day.




The following day (Thursday) I left for the Chicago Homeschooling Expo. It was held in Schaumberg, which I quickly discovered is a long way outside of Chicago proper. Schaumberg is to Chicago what Jersey is to Manhattan. You can see our conference setup below. Generally the conference was a bust, conference attendance wasn't high and I came to the conclusion that homeschooling isn't a terribly profitable market for us to be in. So we learned something, but it was sort of a downer. If anyone out there is a teacher and has any conference suggestions for the upcoming months, we'd be happy to hear your ideas!



Finally, I spent Sunday with some friends in Millennium Park in Chicago. Between Millennium Park and the Millennium Force I've been pretty thoroughly subdivided into units of 1000 lately. It was a pretty hot day to be out of doors, the heat index in the city was something like 104 degrees Fahrenheit. I enjoy the heat, but it was a little much for even me. To make matters worse, I had eaten shellfish the night before and it had really upset my stomach so I wandered around in a sickly heat-augmented haze, keeping close track of where each flower bed and trash can was in the event that I needed to unload the contents of my stomach discretely. The picture is an artist's rendition of my day in Millennium Park.



We have some exciting news coming up about a partnership we've been working on, Nick has been making progress on the pinyin and definition practice, and I'll be redesigning the homepage shortly. Up up and away!

Stroke Order Animations

A little while back, I changed the phantom to animate a character's strokes in order instead of showing up all at once. Some liked it, some didn't and wanted the old, instant phantom back. Now you can have both.

If you press down the "S" key or Show button, the phantom will start to animate; whenever you let up on the key, it finishes immediately.

So the old behavior is identical: press "S", see the phantom. But you can also hold it down to have it animate.

Additionally, you can now hold down "S" while writing if you really don't want the phantom to fade out. (Several people have asked for this, but it's dangerous because it makes it surprisingly impossible to learn anything if you're tracing it).

Later on, animation speed control will be coming as well.

Genius Bug Fixed

I have fixed the eternal Genius bug! No more shall the blue to-review bar stick, and skip over thy items, and vex thy studies. Now you really can tell when you are done with your scheduled reviews for a day.

The green added bar has similarly been fixed up. I still need to do some serious tuning of how early new items are added while practicing, but now I have the tools to do it.

It feels really good to have finally fixed that bug. Please be on the look out for any further misbehavior from those bars. I guess if you see any, you should even tell me. But do it gently.

Genki's Here

The first Genki book has arrived! Along with that we've already done a fair amount of tweaking to Japanese this past week, mostly to the backend, just making sure things work the way they should, and improving the prompt interface. Still more work to be done, but we're making progress.

One thing that Japanese lists have that Chinese lists don't have is the ability to distinguish between words just for learning the reading and definition, and words where you want to learn the Kanji too. In Genki, the sections are divided up this way. So when you add from Genki 1, it will quickly pass over the larger vocabulary sections and just add from the Kanji sections. However, I just added an option for Japanese users to override this so they can learn the Kanji for all words in a list, not just the ones that are designated for it. So if you're feeling ambitious, go ahead and use this option to study above and beyond what the textbook calls for.

Genki II is on the way! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bunch of reviewing to do...

Japanese Alpha! And Practice Tweaks

It has arrived! Nick, George, Maksym, I, and two of our fellow Oberlin grads have been working throughout the summer to arrive at this point. We've been making characters, putting together a dictionary, constructing lists, and weaving logic, and now we have it online for people to start trying out. To test it out, switch from Chinese to Japanese in your vocabulary options page.

We currently don't have any textbooks up, but very soon we'll have Genki I. This is Oberlin's first year textbook, so we wanted to have that available first. We have more lined up and will be adding them in the near future, especially Genki II. Any particular text you want us to build? Tell us!

We're calling this alpha to say it's still in the preliminary stages. It can only be used to study kanji, not hiragana or katakana. It probably has some bugs still, and there are plenty of ways it can be improved and optimized. One of the main ways that will make it better, and Chinese as well, is reading/pinyin and definition practice, which we'll be working on next. So until then, give it a try, and as always, tell us what you think and how we can improve it. We'll be in beta before you know it.

A couple other pieces of news in terms of new prompt interface: if things get really long (which they do a lot more often in Japanese) the prompt will move down so there's more space. We've added underlines to show which character you're on. And also, when you use the phantom, it quickly goes through the stroke order animation. What do you guys think of that? Is it helpful or does it slow you down? We'd like some feedback on that in particular.

And now, time to get some Indian food in celebration!