Character on screen longer (or permanent)

Hi,
Is there a way to see a character for longer so you can get used to copying it as a complete beginner it’s frustrating to keep double tapping the screen on complicated characters, frustrated after finishing my free trial & not knowing whether to subscribe because I’m worried I will get fed up because of this…
Thankyou

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Which platform are you studying on? The HTML5 beta (on the web) has a ‘teaching mode’ that will eventually be rolled out to all the platforms but is still work in progress right now.

Thanks for the reply I am on iPad & iPhone but iPhone seems to work better when I tap screen so I am on that more
Thanks
Ian

Thanks I will check out the teaching mode when it’s rolled out & then start my subscription
Thanks again
Ian

I would add that most Skritter users find it helpful to see the characters in context before adding them in Skritter, as it’s not designed to be a standalone learning tool, but a companion for Chinese/Japanese learners. I would suggest finding a textbook, class, podcast, or something to get you going and adding characters you come across from there. Many common books and lessons have word lists already created in Skritter by other users.

This post is on a similar topic How to approach a new character within Skritter?

Hi, I’m glad you asked this question as I’m finding it frustrating too. I thought I was just being thick. When you work through the introduction it shows you how to write the first character, then you delete it and try again from memory - great! Then it rolls on to the next character and gives you a blank screen! I find the fact that you need to use Skritter alongside a textbook a bit strange, given that the show > draw > erase > re-draw method seems like a great way of doing things.

I use Anki for learning pronunciation and spelling, and I love it because I can start a session having never heard the words before, and by the end I will have learned something, without having to consult a text book. I thought Skritter would work in a similar way :confused:

When you’re presented with a blank screen (on the 2.0 version), it means that you have seen that character before and the system is testing if you remember it. Any new characters you haven’t seen before will trigger the “teaching mode” for it, which has you trace the strokes step by step in the correct order while it stays visible on the writing canvas. In the meantime until all of the clients have been unified, and if you’re not using 2.0, if you aren’t sure what to write you can reveal the character entirely (which also marks the prompt as incorrect), and then begin to write it. If you still can’t remember after it’s faded away, you could reveal it again-- this enforces “active recall” opposed to just tracing the strokes over a character. Tracing isn’t as effective as writing it from memory, even if it takes a few times of revealing it until you get it down.

If you’re using Anki for pronunciation and spelling (and don’t study extensive definitions), there is no real advantage in the method versus studying the same material on Skritter, a textbook or class is not required to use Skritter, it is however recommend!-- the reason why is that you can learn to write, read or pronounce a word on Skritter, however you still need to learn how to use the actual word. Skritter can teach you vocabulary, but how to use that vocabulary you need to learn! Example sentences are a good way to put words into context and show usage, but it isn’t a replacement for a language course.

Hi Jeremy, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me.

When I left this comment I had only tried using Skritter on the iPhone app. After showing me how to write the first character step by step, for every character after that it just shows me a blank screen, which I then have to double tap to see. This seems to caused others confusion too, and I read a couple of times online that you need to use a textbook alongside it, which is what prompted my comment (see Catherine’s comment on the current thread, and lechaun and ricksh’s comments on this thread: https://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=363022680)

After reading Catherine’s first comment above I then tried to the online app on my laptop (which runs 2.0 beta). That gives me the option to see and learn the word before testing me, which is what I had in mind then I started using the app.

Anyway, I’m not sure if any of this is making sense or if I’m just waffling! :smiley: Summary: The iPhone app doesn’t work how I expected (or I’m not using it properly), but the online version on my laptop does.

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