So, there are like 30 million Chinese youngsters who need to learn Chinese characters and Skritter sounds like an excellent way to do so but I don't even see a (中文) button on your website. What gives? Get a bigger market (and use the $$$ from the sales to make skritter even cooler)!

Well one reason might be they've got better ways to do it than sitting in front of a PC writing them in. Kid's tv in China shows characters and how to write them, they learn them in school, they've got loads of flash cards, they see them all the time. It's just easier. And it's not going to be cheap to pay USD to a guy in the US from China.

That said I'm well up for a 中文 button.

I might be wrong but I think Skritter is not a very suitable tools for native speakers (in that form at least), I don't have much explanation on that except some observation. My GF's妹妹 which is barely 11 has no much interest in it and even find it quite slow (the pace of learning).

We, westerners needs a lot of works and repetions to learn a chars. Have you ever seen a Chinese guy learning a new chars ? A pen, a small sheet of paper and 15 sec, no more.

I completely disagree!

Every human can learn in the same ways. It's not that Chinese students learn characters mega fast, it's that they learn them over years and years and years. Also, they already know what most of them mean by the time they learn them where many times I'm learning a new word and character at the same time. I'm sure Skritter would be a huge hit with the Chinese kids if it was set up for it. Right now they only have textbooks for foreigners so of course the Chinese kids aren't interested.

One problem is, if they learn all the characters before hand, they still have to learn them with the rest of the kids in school!

If you read their plans, they're working on other base languages right now. Once they finish it will be a shock to the 学生 world.

"Every human can learn in the same ways"

Absolutely not, we have to overcome our own culture, langage and habits when we learn Chinese. I can learn Spanish and Portuguese in less than 3 months without any teachers just because I'm southern french and the culture & structure is the same, a Chinese just can't. It's the same in here

"new word and character at the same time"

They already speak chinese, why would they need Skritter to learn new one ?

"Right now they only have textbooks for foreigners so of course the Chinese kids aren't interested"

I don't get your point, textbooks for foreigners ?!

I've shown it to some Chinese friends. They thought it was interesting, but only having the pinyin and the English definition to tell them which character to draw of course is impossible unless they are already high level English speakers. In which case they probably know all the characters they need to know anyway.

- Sorry Torture - I thought everyone would automatically understand what I was talking about. Thanks for asking questions

"I can learn Spanish and Portuguese in less than 3 months without any teachers just because I'm southern french and the culture & structure is the same, a Chinese just can't."

Yes, you speak English and French, or so I assume, so it easy for you to learn Spanish and Portuguese. A Chinese (let's say a Chinese person, I think it's a little more politically correct) who speaks English and French would also learn Spanish and Portuguese easily. I hope you can agree with this. So, it appears to me no matter what background the person is from, they 'can' learn the same ways.

These great program is about teaching people stroke order, tones, and definitions. I assume Chinese students would normally have the definitions and tones down from learning to speak as a child, but maybe they'll have a few to learn. Anyway, they will still learn stroke order placement in the same way as the rest of us, easy with the help of this creative software which tracks your learning curve, gives you instant feedback, and so on.

"new word and character at the same time"

Here, if you'll read my first post, I'm talking about myself, not assuming Chinese students would need to learn new words. I was pointing out a difference to be more clear about what would need to stay the same. Maybe I could have typed it all out for you, but I just wanted to throw in a few comments.

"Right now they only have textbooks for foreigners so of course the Chinese kids aren't interested"

The topic of my first post is that I disagree with the previous - that Skritter can be just as useful for Chinese students as English speakers. I mention a few good things about the site and a few which could be changed when thinking of the Chinese students. One big one, other than changing the base language, is adding the textbooks those students work with. I mean, I like to work with the textbook I use, don't you? You say your girlfriend's little sister tried it out and didn't like it, I'm betting these are the two main reasons why.

Don't Torture yourself, don't take my posts personally. I'm just trying to help those who care understand my input.

This type of system could be useful to Chinese children learning characters, but right now it's packaged for highly-motivated adult learners, not Chinese elementary school students. It seems like Skritter would have to have a radically different presentation, marketing, etc. to be successful in this new market.

I'm curious how successful the current site is with middle school and high school students in the US.

Agree with comos.
Skritter would have to be radically different to succeed in the chinese market. Moving Skritter to chinese would require starting again from scratch.

I think one potential market within the native-speaking Chinese audience would be traditional versus simplified calligraphy. Many adult speakers of Chinese can sort of read or fake the other format, but younger generations are losing one or the other. With trade opening up between the Mainland and other Chinese communities, there might be a market for it.