We picked our top 10 Taiwanese movies and discuss the historical context in which they are set. In this two-part video, Iona and Teacher Yoko pick their favorite 10 Taiwanese movies. We have organized these …
What to Call Your In-laws?
In this #SkritterChineseTips lesson, we teach terms for family members in Mandarin Chinese. After getting married to your significant other, it’s best to use these terms to refer to your new in-laws since it’s unusual …
An Easy Way to Learn Japanese Hiragana
Hiragana is pretty easy to learn, and these mnemonic images make it even easier! We have graphics for each kana (both Hiragana and Katakana) directly in the Skritter: Write Japanese app, which you can use …
6 Strategies for Learning Success (Chinese w/Eng Captions)
In this video, Jake uses Chinese to discuss 6 strategies for learning success. Recently, Jake has found that his Chinese has regressed, so he has set a new goal to have regular 1 on 1 …
Katakana country names in Kanji
Some country names in Japanese are spelled only in Kanji (like East Asian countries), but other countries are spelled using Katakana, which is used for loanwords in Japanese. For instance, America is アメリカ (Amerika). Canada …
Ghost Month Customs
On the southern coast of China and in Taiwan, the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the day when the ghost door opens. According to folktales and common beliefs, the …
What’s New at SkritterHQ
Along with the usual updates via our monthly newsletter, forum, and social media accounts, here is a video summarizing some of the stuff we’ve been working on over the last few weeks and months. 3.4.9 …
10 Useful Japanese Expressions for Beginners
Here are some polite phrases that are very useful when just starting to learn Japanese. This assumes you’ve already learned things like はい (yes)、いいえ (no)、and ありがとう (thanks)！ Learn these and you’ll be able to greet …
High-quality audio recordings for HSK 1-4 words and sentences + all single syllables
During the spring and summer, we have gradually upgraded and replaced audio for the most commonly studied items in Skritter. We believe that having high-quality audio is important, because just like neat characters provide a …
The Family Tree in Chinese
In this #SkritterChineseTips, we’re taking on the topic of the Chinese family tree which confuses even native speakers! ⠀⠀But don’t worry because you don’t need to memorize all the different titles. There are prefixes and specific …