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Learning Chinese
Thursday, May 30, 2013 | Permalink

I make an appearance in the latest Skritter newsletter discussing my experience learning Chinese. I did not choose the headline though.

For anyone interested in learning Chinese or Japanese, I definitively recommend Skritter. I started using it almost exactly 6 months ago now, and I have picked up a bit over 2400 characters.



Talking with a friend about babies some time ago she mentioned that young kids pick up 10 words every day., which of course is amazing. It's generally acknowledged that learning languages is something that kids do much easier than adults, but thinking about it, I've been picking up 13 characters a day on average, and about 35 words a day at my current rate. As an adult, I find that mind-boggling. So language learning at a similar speed or even faster is certainly possible for an adult. Of course, I need to make a conscious studying effort, rather than just existing within an environment where a language is spoken around me. But even so, using an effective method, which Skritter does, can get you a long way, even as an adult. Of course, YMMV, and maybe the reason I ended up in the newsletter was because I was a power user well above the average, with a consistent learning curve. The average user may have a harder time. Certainly, having a Chinese wife and Chinese spoken around me on a daily basis kind of helps. And I also believe you need a traditional school course as a basis to get going. Words and characters is great, but you do need grammar too.

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Ninjachang
Friday, May 31, 2013

加油~~

ChenA
Friday, May 31, 2013

呵呵,不错啊,学的挺快。
另外,汉语语法很简单,基本上可以说没什么语法。

Humus
Monday, June 10, 2013

Sorry guys, I'm afraid this site doesn't support Chinese characters. Maybe I should add that now that I have some basic ability to read them, if I ever find the time.

Yalin
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Wow, what a coincidence! I had your site bookmarked a while back, while researching for OpenGL and WebGL, and I haven't really used it afterwards. I decided to pay a visit again today, and I saw this article.

It's a coincidence because I used to take Japanese lessons about 4 years ago, and I got a JLPT Level 4 license, but I gave up afterwards due to some personal life issues. I also stopped watching anime about the same time, and ever since that day, my grasp on the language dwindled every day. I've been regretting not going back, but I haven't had any motivation to go back anyway.

This article is now that motivation. I took the demo test there and it's provided me hope, enough to get me looking for another course and possibly a subscription on the site. Many thanks!

Peter
Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Thanks for the advice on Skritter. I am living with a chinese too and have also been studying in evening school for a few years. There is the same focus on speaking and listening, so I welcome a writing supplement. If you got an active vocabulary of 2445 characters, then I am truely impressed. I guess I need to change some Graphics coding priorities and spend a little more time on my characters to keep up .

If you still talk to them and they need more game ideas, I suggest they add a multiplayer speed death match mode.

Krolli
Thursday, June 20, 2013

Heh, this is quite a coincidence. I just came here today to take a look at that 1k mandelbrot article you have somewhere around here and noticed this post as well.

I've been studying Japanese as hobby for a while and early on I stumbled upon skritter as well. Personally though, I chose Anki (http://ankisrs.net/), although Skritter might be better for characters. I still prefer pen and paper method though .

lolo
Friday, June 28, 2013

Very interesting, thanks!
And,y ep, Chinese/Japanese are very difficult to learn 8(

Chinese A
Monday, October 14, 2013

你们学汉语做什么?

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