Skritter Review: Learn to write Chinese Characters
While an app like Du Chinese is great for when you need to learn to read Chinese, there are not as many apps available for those who want to learn to write. Chinese characters can be very difficult to write even if you know how to read them because one small mistake can make your writing not make any sense at all. Learning to write also helps you to really imprint the characters into your mind so that you will be able to improve your reading skills at the same time.
Enter Skritter. Skritter is an app available on both iOS and Android that will help you to master those stroke orders and learn to hand write all those characters you are learning. Both traditional and simplified characters are supported. Through the app you can write your characters directly on your touch-screen phone or tablet so you can practice your characters on the go. You can also use it on your desktop, although using a mouse to write the characters is a little more difficult.
Writing characters is more difficult for most people than just recognizing the characters, but while you’re learning to write, Skritter also helps to test you on pronunciation and the meaning of the character. Skritter uses repetition to help you learn, and the program adapts to your learning so that the characters you don’t know as well are given to you more often in your study. You also will learn the pinyin for the word, as well as the tone for the character you are writing.
The way that Skritter works is that you choose a list of vocabulary words, and for those words you will be guided through a learning and revision process to help you learn the character. There are premade lists from some common Chinese language textbooks as well as other sources, or you can make your own custom lists. There are also great options in the app to monitor your learning. While Skritter is a great tool, it is not a complete learning solution, so although there is audio, this is meant to be a supplement to your language speaking studies and reading studies. While you may think your reading skills are getting good, if you simply memorize characters without learning to write them, you will find that before long you start mixing up the characters. A lot of Chinese characters look alike but have very different meanings so it can lead to a lot of confusion.
Overall, Skritter is an effective way to learn to write Chinese characters, and is great for both beginners and advanced students alike. The app works smoothly and it’s fun to use! If you’re considering learning Japanese, it can be used for those characters as well!
Skritter has a completely free guest experience, so if you want to check it out for yourself, just download it, pick a list appropriate for your level and try it out! Click here to check it out. If you love it, Du Chinese users can get a 10% off discount by using code DUCHINESE10.
