Best for Characters
I prefer the flexibility of Anki for most things but if you’re looking to learn to write characters Skritter is awesome.
lag greatly improved
In the past there were issues with this otherwise excellent app lagging and failing to load. These seem to have been mostly fixed and I’ve renewed my subscription. If you want to learn a large number of hanzi, there’s no better app. And I appreciate the integration with dictionary entries in Pleco, the overall most essential app for Chinese learners. Thanks!
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Pretty good, minor drawbacks
This app is pretty good for learning how to write or read Chinese. I like it cause it gives you the option to choose between traditional and simplified. One of the drawbacks is that it automatically defaults to HSK 2.0, even though it has HSK 3.0. Another thing is that’s it’s pretty pricey for what it’s worth. The worst thing for me is probably the font it’s in. In the real world in China they use a more blocky font (Heiti, Songti, Mingti) and the one skritter uses is very calligraphy like, where there are nice angles and such (Kaiti), but in the real world instead of that specific angle they just do a 90 degree turn, or maybe just smush everything down so everything is even. An example of this is the word 哪 , in the app the Kou portion is sitting comfortably up in the top left corner. In heiti font it’s thin and reaches from top to bottom. The second part, 冄 , in skritter is pretty evenly spaced. And probably the one that was most difficult for me was 阝, in Skritter (Kaiti) it hangs below the rest of the character, in real life (heiti) it doesn’t. Heiti likes everything evenly spaced. Maybe add like a feature where you can add the font that’s used in mainland China so you can get used to it, cause it’s kinda difficult adapting. Like maybe show it right below the Kaiti font when on the reading and definition, and you can maybe like choose which one (Songti, Mingti, or Heiti). Cause I do understand you need to use Kaiti to learn how to write. But even when trying to learn to read. I’ve been living in China for the past month, and have only been able to recognize maybe a dozen characters due to the real world using Heiti. For comparison it’s like a foreigner in China learning how to read English by learning to read founding father style cursive, but when they actually go to an English speaking country, they realize the world is dominated by Arial and Helvetica. This is not just a problem for the real world, this is also a problem because all formalized online testing systems use Heiti, some of these exams include AP Chinese Language and Culture, HSK, and even AAPPL. Overall pretty good app though. (Edit, changed to 4 stars since the developers actually responded, and it seems like they actually care about feedback compared to some other apps ahem Duolingo, it seems that most of the reviews are responded to, so it’s nice to see that they actually care about their work!🙂)
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Response from developer
Thank you so much for the 3-star review, and for taking the time to share your feedback! I will share your feedback with the development team. If you ever have any questions, you can reach us at team@skritter.com
obsessed
Can’t stop won’t stop
Pretty good, minor drawbacks
This app is pretty good for learning how to write or read Chinese. I like it cause it gives you the option to choose between traditional and simplified. One of the drawbacks is that it automatically defaults to HSK 2.0, even though it has HSK 3.0. Another thing is that’s it’s pretty pricey for what it’s worth. The worst thing for me is probably the font it’s in. In the real world in China they use a more blocky font and the one skritter uses is very calligraphy like, where there are nice angles and such, but in the real world instead of that specific angle they just do a 90 degree turn, or maybe just smush everything down so everything is even. Maybe add like a feature where you can add the font that’s used in mainland China so you can get used to it, cause it;s kinda difficult adapting. Overall pretty good app though.
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