Still working hard on bringing the Skritter iOS app to you! Here’s a third story in our iOS app tester experiences series. Last week we had the story of Alex Louis in Gansu, and now we have Giff Ransom in Xi’an.
My family and I live in Xi’an, China, with our three boys (ages 7, 5, and 3). We’ve been attending a small language school specifically geared to the needs and learning style of foreigners for about six months now. I’ve been a fan of Skritter for years, but only recently have I been using it with the commitment of a full-time language student.
A few months ago, I sent Nick a fairly tongue-in-cheek email begging him to be on the alpha list. My wife and I are both language students, I said, but my tablet PC is currently the only Skritterable device in the house. Without having immediate access to Skritter via an iOS device, this was sure to end in marriage conflict over Skritter time. I implored him to have a heart–to think about the potential consequences of this added stress in addition to the insanity of living in China with a family–the breakdown of our family would forever be on his conscience. Nick laughed, and agreed to let me join up, “for the children.”
As it turns out, my time testing the iOS app has indeed been “for the children” in some surprising ways. My iPhone is an older one, so the only available option for us was the larger iPad the grandparents had given to the kids for games. This means I don’t have neat photos of Skrittering on the bus, or in an obscure noodle joint, but I assume many of these are forthcoming. I’ve found instead that the biggest difference the app has made is Skrittering the boys to sleep at night.
The younger boys inevitably ask either me or my wife to lay down with them until they fall asleep, and on many nights we’re inclined to indulge them. My tablet PC’s fan is pretty noisy, and might keep the little monsters awake, but the iPad is wonderfully silent. And so, curled up with one of my sons, I now find myself getting a good half-hour of studying in each night.
The boys like the app. There are times when my oldest puts me to shame–remembering the pronunciation to a character that I just can’t seem to get right (he’s eager to have his own account). My youngest gets impatient with the pronunciation/definition prompts, constantly asking, “Can we do a drawing one now?” My second son keeps asking me what each of the radicals mean. We’ve agreed that, after five minutes, no talking is allowed during bedtime Skritter.
It’s nice for my own bedtime as well. My wife is a light sleeper, and couldn’t stand my tablet PC in bed, but she puts up with the iPad OK. I often struggle to fall asleep myself, so the iOS app lets me make use of that time ’til I finally drop off.
The app itself is quite usable and intuitive. It’s gotten to the point where I prefer it to the browser version (even though I have a tablet pc). I’m sure I end up going faster. In the end, the iOS app is a natural extension of what Skritter does so well: making learning Chinese characters fun and even addictive. Now I don’t even need a noisy device or an internet connection, which means I find study time that I never knew I had. Having learned my 1000th character before the end of 2011, the goal of being able to finally make heads or tails out of the signs I see every day is no longer a pipe dream. It hasn’t exactly saved our marriage, but it is playing a part in helping us bloom where we are planted, blurring the distinction between family time and language time.
If you haven’t already, go check out the Skritter iOS app teaser page and sign up to get an email when we launch the free app. You’ll also be entered to win a free iPad to Skritter on.