When I'm studying with Skritter, particularly when cramming vocabulary lists for class (i.e. preparing for 听写), I find that I depend upon the definition of characters as much if not more often than the pinyin to recall the correct characters. It's currently possible to hide the pinyin. To prevent me from depending on definitions for memory recollection, would it be possible to add the ability to hide the definition?

I can understand where that might be useful if you have a specific vocabulary list your cramming that doesn't have any overlapping pinyin sounds, but in general I think it develops a bad habit. Isolating individual words by association of pinyin to character isn't very useful outside of the context of a phrase or sentence. Just my thoughts though.

You could try not looking at the definition when new prompts pop up and just pressing the 'Q' key to repeat the pinyin audio. I've done that on occasion to try and work on listening.

Good suggestion on the repetition of the pinyin via the Q key; the only problem is when I use skritter my tablet laptop's screen is covering the keyboard.

I find that not having the definition would actually support the process of defining words on que when both hearing the sounds and seeing the characters as you write them; this is much closer to the thought process one must go through in real life when talking in Chinese. It also saves time, since if I want to test myself on definitions I either have to do it outside of skritter or through the definition testing section. I would much rather test myself on both character definitions and recognition at the same time.

I don't think this option should be hard to add, considering it's already available for pinyin. Anyone else have thoughts?

I agree that this would not generally be useful for individual characters, only for phrases which are unambiguous in their meaning. For example, if I say "shang1 tian1 hai4 li3" this is a set phrase which can only mean "伤天害理". However, if I say "shi4" this can be about three trillion different characters.

This is directly in reference to studying set lists of characters, rather than studying one's entire queue. In the context of studying thousand-word-length queues, it is not very applicable, but as stated previously, for the sake of studying for dictation it is almost necessary; otherwise I find myself forgetting entirely the definition of the characters and simply remembering how to write them based off of their pronunciation.

While the argument that hiding the definition only works for 成语, 俗语 or set phrases makes sense, it isn't limited to only these types of terms. As stated, in the context of cramming specific lists and sections, I would find the ability to hide the definition infinitely helpful.

"otherwise I find myself forgetting entirely the definition of the characters and simply remembering how to write them based off of their pronunciation. "

I found that hide pinyin sorted that, as you were forced to get the pronunciation from the definition.. Before hide pinyin, I was just basing writing on pronunciation, and not properly retaining characters. Surely what you are suggesting wouldn't solve that? If all you have to go by is the pronunciation (heard or seen) with no definition, then this is much the same problem.

Still, I don't think this is your main point, that being of the benefits of listening practice (assuming hide pinyin + hide def). You're right, it would be good for diction for short lists. Real life and out of context, I'm not sure. Perhaps give hide pinyin another look - it may not be quite the way you want to go around things, but it might do a lot of the things you're wanting it to?

My line of thought is more along these lines:

When I attend class after studying a specific vocabulary list, our dictation as well as our one-on-one sections are entirely out of the context of seeing the characters or their definitions; it's entirely based on our ability to hear the pinyin pronounced and automatically associate it with specific character(s) and specific definitions. When studying with Skritter, I want to hear and perhaps see the pinyin, but automatically a) know what it means when I hear it (it is not out of context and randomized pinyin, since I already know the context of the chapter/vocab list the word is in) and b) know what it looks like.

In real life when talking with a native Chinese speaker you do not see any definitions associated with their pinyin, you have to recall it from memory. You also know the specific meaning of the word being pronounced based on the context of the conversation.

I suppose I'm beating the bush here. I can't stress enough how this would help me; if others don't think it would help them I may be at a loss, but without this function I have to continue to do it manually (not always possible) or I have to go through the definition section on Skritter (requires significantly more time).

Nick or anyone else on the Skritter team have thoughts?

Interesting suggestion. When I get some time, I will play around with this and see how well it works out. I can see it being helpful for some words (most while cramming), and if we could easily solve the ambiguity problem (which it seems the existing "show" bubbles do all right at), then it could be a useful mode. But I'll have to try it out.

But I probably won't get a chance to try it out soon, so until then, you can try to do it manually (the 'A' or 'Q' keys or the speaker icons all play the available audio), or if you're feeling adventurous you could hook up a user-specific stylesheet to fade out the definitions until you can't read them without trying.