Mnemonics are a powerful way of learning things in general and Chinese and Japanese characters in particular. In the article published here on the Skritter blog last week, we looked at the basics of how …
Using mnemonics to learn Chinese and Japanese, part 1
Mnemonic is a fancy word from ancient Greek used to refer to a learning technique that helps us remember things. It’s common to believe that a good memory is something we’re either born with or …
A brief history of the Japanese writing system
Unless you’re studying Japanese (I assume most of you are!), you may not realize that Japan uses three unique writing systems, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. If you count English which is a mandatory class in …
Improve your character writing by enabling raw squigs
One of the main goals with Skritter is to help you learn to write characters. We believe that using Skritter’s unique combination of real handwriting, corrective feedback and spaced repetition is far superior to using …
Sensible character learning challenge 2014: The Big Finish
After 101 days, the sensible character challenge 2014 has now come to an end. It’s time to hand out the last prizes and wrap up the challenge. If you’ve participated, I hope you have …
Skritter for Android Beta Release
The wait is over, and Skritter for Android is finally here! The app has come a long way since the alpha version released late last year, and now after several several weeks of internal testing, …
Sensible character learning challenge 2014: Milestone #3
One of the most powerful ways of staying motivated is doing things with others, preferably during a limited amount of time with a clear goal. That is exactly what the sensible character challenge 2014 is …
Vending Machines in Japan (自動販売機)
Vending machines (自動販売機； じどうはんばいき), or just 自販機 （じはんき） for short, are a convenient way to grab a small snack or a quick drink to keep you going throughout your day, but in Japan vending machines …
How Skritter Helped Me Stop Worrying and Love Writing Characters
I have studied Chinese for almost seven years now, but I have only been an active Skritter user for the last year or so. Today I want to share with you the story of how …
Sensible character learning challenge 2014: Milestone #2
Establishing good habits is a key ingredient in any successful learning strategy. It’s not that hard to focus on learning something specific for a week or two, the real difficulty lies in long-term stamina . …