In the world of learning chinese, there are two big players: ChinesePod and Skritter. ChinesePod handles the listening and speaking part, and Skritter handles the writing part.
I’ll admit in the language learning “trifecta” (reading, speaking, writing) I have decided writing is the least important. For awhile I basically ignored it. I signed up for Skritter a few times, but usually cancelled my subscription the following month. I don’t know, I just feel like I have such a limited time studying Chinese I’d rather learn vocab, or read something, not practice writing.
Also, and yes, I’m lazy, and going to the skritter website, to practice for a little bit, was usually just too much of a pain in the ass for me.
But I would like to improve my writing. That’s why I was excited for the new Skritter app. Honestly, they have been talking about t for friggin months, and I thought it would never come out, but it was finally released 2 days ago! I immediately downloaded it onto my iPod and……..nothing. It was totally weird, but the demo screen (in which you are supposed to learn how to use it) was just a 2 minute blank screen. Then when I tried to actually write something, also nothing. I was swiping my finger all over my iPod and it just wasn’t registering.
So, I deleted it, and downloaded it again. This time the demo thing was still blank, but I finally got the normal app to work. When I swiped my finger to write the character it actually left a black line behind.
There were definitely a few other quirks (like recycling the same 5 characters for about 15 solid minutes. I got so sick of it I turned it off, and the next time I used it it had a good variety again) but HOLY CRAP DOES IT EVER WORK!!
Yesterday, the first day the app came out I spent 45 frikkin minutes practicing writing. I have the attention span of a fish and doing anything for more than 3 minutes is tricky. And yet, I just kept going and going. And today? Well, I just opened it to draw one or two characters and I spent 15 solid minutes on it. So in the past 2 days I have spent more time writing characters than I have in the past few weeks.
I also like after every 5 minute period a deep voice comes on and says stuff like “good job” and “really good job.” It’s silly, but kinda funny.
I also like that you can be online or offline and it still works. Some online apps drive me crazy (like Evernote) because I use an iPod and don’t always have wifi. So I really like that feature, and I think it will come especially handy in my 16 hour upcoming plane ride.
So while the app isn’t completely glitch free I have to say that I really like it. And if I didn’t love my pod enough before, I now love it that tiny bit more.
Hi Becky,
Thanks for your review! Sorry about the demo being entirely broken; we’ve submitted a fix to Apple and it should be working as soon as they give us the go ahead.
Glad you like it despite this fault!
-Scott
I have a 2+ year old iPod with a chinese campus internet connection so I just figured that it was my own hardware’s fault. So I’m glad it’s not just me!
And here is a slightly strange endorsement, but this morning I woke up hungover, after 4 hours sleep, and before I got out of bed (or perhaps to avoid getting out of bed) I ended up skittering for almost 15 minutes. So yeah, you could say I like that app!