Skritter + Wacom Tablet = Faster Hanzi Learning

Just over a month ago I bought two new Chinese learning resources. These are a subscription to Skritter and a Wacom Touch Tablet.

   += Faster Hanzi Learning

Things I like about learning with Skritter:

• Keeps me interested and motivated 
• Allows me to track progress and time spent learning 
• Makes learning Hanzi enjoyable 
• Allows me to focus on words I need or want to learn 
• Integrates with MDBG allows lookups and adding 
• Allows me to add new words from websites with one click 
• Helps me revise 
• Gives a sense of satisfaction and achievement 
• Has ready made sets of vocabulary for NPCR texts 
• Can work on computer or iPad 
• iPad App allows offline practice and syncs when connected Am able to use my Wacom tablet to write hanzi with a pen
• Plus many more reasons to use Skritter

The Wacom tablet allows me to write hanzi with a tablet pen. I feel that this to be better than writing with a mouse. I can also use the tablet to write hanzi in Evernote, Windows journal, Photoshop and other programmes that use ‘Ink’ input.


The only disadvantage the tablet is quite sensitive and I feel it makes my hanzi 不好看Bù hǎokàn (unattractive) Looking at my sample tablet written hanzi below I think you will agree. 

我的汉字不好看。Wǒ de hànzì bù hǎokàn. 

Still it gives me satisfaction to be able to use technology to learn and practice hanzi.


I am interested to know how others are using Skritter. It is has many features and I am not sure that I have found them or use them all yet. I know that Skritter is a very popular hanzi learning tool. I wonder how many people are using it?


It would be good to know if anyone else is using a tablet to hand write hanzi on computers.


Does anyone use iPads for hand writing hanzi? I have not been able to find a satisfactory App to do this properly.

How to talk about "movies" in Chinese 电影 diànyǐng

How to talk about "movies" in Chinese - photo and dicussion of 电影 diànyǐng

Found this great post about how to talk about films in Chinese. Why is great?  Because it is about my level of Chinese.  I think it is the first time I have read something outside of my study / course materials and have understood the meaning of everything and can answer all the questions. I was able to do this with easy and quickly. So I must be making some progress in my studies.

电影院 diàn yǐng yuàn

Study more Chinese is a great site for;

• Learning Chinese at all levels
• Connecting with other learners
• Chinese Resources
• Seeking help and information about Chinese 
• Chinese Grammar
• Links to resources
• Discussions
• Blogging within the Study More Chinese site

Study More Chinese

Free Chinese Lessons, Learn to Speak Chinese

Found this excellent resource for learning. Topic based practical lessons. Definitely worth a look.

Chinese Learner  Learn Mandarin Chinese  Online Free

Basic Chinese Expressions 36 lessons with audio

LEARN CHINESE: SPEAKING CHINESE 20 Lessons with audio files

Everyday Chinese 144 Lessons

LEARN CHINESE: CHINESE GRAMMAR

Open University Beginners' Chinese

Quite often on the Chinese learning forums I read there are people seeking a place to begin learning Chinese. I Found this free course yesterday. Aimed at absolute beginners this course has excellent explanations of the basics. Very thorough texts on a variety of must know beginner information. The modules of work include;

• The Chinese Language
• Introducing Yourself
• Describing Activities
• Names of Languages
• Food and Drinks

Each of these main catagories has many sub sections. This is a Moodle course and has many quizes and tests that you can reinforce your learning. The quizes are corrected and you can get instant feedback. Redo these as many times as you need to get a better score. Overall this course is an academic yet practical course in basic Chinese. If you are a serious about learning Chinese this is an excellent place to begin Open University Beginners' Chinese

Beginners' Chinese

Tatoeba Project

I found this site by accident. It is an interesting site where the aim is to collect sentences translated into several languages. Tatoeba in Japanese means “for example”. According to the Stats page there are now 94 languages. There are 1097953 sentences in total. English has over 200000 sentences and Chinese Mandarin has 32000. The search engine for the site is excellent. For my learning I am able to search in Chinese and English simultaneously. I can filter, add to favourites, add to lists and find random sentences. There is an excellent forum and discussion in many languages. It is possible to join the site, contribute and stay informed on the translations. The sentences seem to moderated by native speakers so there is validity and authenticity for the project. You can even adopt “orphan” sentences. I found this very useful to supplement my course textbook. So I think the Tatoeba Project is an excellent learning / teaching community.  

Tatoeba Project Example