I like the concept of the film quotes, as it adds a bit of variety. I just wondered if we could have alternative datasets.
(I don't recognise most of the quotes, nor even most of the film titles, and most of them don't make any sense unless you know the context.)
How about quotes from Shakespear, or American presidents, or Beatles songs, or Chinese sayings?

Any more ideas?

Rachael.

I really like studying chengdu and idiomatic phrases. A good list of those would be very welcome. I've been meaning to make a custom list for a while but haven't gotten around to it yet.

James

Hi jww1066 - I made a custom list of some of my favorite Chengyu way back in the day. This could at least get you started: http://www.skritter.com/vocab/list?list=agVza3JpdHIWCxINVm9jYWJMaXN0SW5mbxizzZUFDA

Ben

I was thinking this recently. The quotes are fun - maybe too much as I get distracted reading them. Chinese quotes would probably be more appropriate.

I like them, and there are plenty of non-film quotes. My understanding is that it is just the personal collection of one of the developers.

It does tend to distract sometimes, but maybe just the right amount. I can do something for a second without leaving the page by reading a quote and seeing where it is from, then return to skrittering.

Ben - that is a great list, I've added it (though alas, I am behind on my review queues still).

I thought the film quotes were great Easter eggs. I probably recognize about 5%, but it's like an aha! when I do and it does not bother me when I don't. Not a bad mindset to reinforce while studying Chinese.

Oh, you were talking about the quotes at the bottom of the page? I find them kind of annoying. If they insist on having quotes, I would also prefer quotes that had something to do with Chinese (or Japanese if that's what you're studying). Maybe Chinese proverbs?

James

Hi James,
have you tried this site for chengyu?

www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/chengyu/dictionary/search.html

Rachael.

I also found the quotes too distracting, so I wrote a Greasemonkey script to disable them. You can get the script here:
http://michaelkeenan.net/skritter_recipe_disabling.user.js

(For the script to work, you first need to install Greasemonkey, an add-on for Firefox which allows you to run scripts which customize the appearance or function of webpages. You can get Greasemonkey here: http://www.greasespot.net/ )

@michaelkeenan - awesome. Do you know how to do the same for Chrome? ;)

James

@benreitz, @rgwatwormhill, thanks for the lists. I will get down to work. I was originally planning on adding a bunch of these:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Mandarin_idioms_in_simplified_script

James

Chrome can now run most Greasemonkey scripts, too:

http://blog.chromium.org/2010/02/40000-more-extensions.html

I don't think we're going to make an expanded original recipe (that's what we call those) system with different corpii any time soon, sorry. More awesome things to do!

@nick - Thanks! I am now quotation-free at last.

With all due respect to others above, please do not replace film quotes with anything "educational." That way lies madness. Imagine: Skritter could put Chinese paintings in the left margin and maps of China with major cities in the right margin. So much more efficient for learning! (NOT) If film quotes are distracting, just think how much more distracting would be something that you feel you "should" memorize, in addition to, oh yeah, the character in the middle of the screen.
Of course I'm open to anything as long as there is an "opt out" option.