I'd like to learn to recognize Traditional characters but I'm not interested in putting in the study time to learn how to write them.

Is there some way to add the Traditional character definitions without adding the writings as well?

If not I'll just start adding them to ANKI but I thought I'd ask. :)

I don't think so, there aren't separate check boxes for traditional and simplified so it looks like you're out of look.

However, I will say that learning to write them will only help you learn to read them that much faster, so you might as well just go for it.

:) I suppose.

Comme Ça 应该可以了吧, betul kah:

deactivate writing practice, activate definition practice, activate traditional characters, add the characters, switch character style to "simpl. and previously added trad."

I would love a more elegant way to achieve traditional practice.

I would very much like to work on my traditional reading, but I just can't convenience myself trying to write is worth the effort; and the turn-on, turn-off methods, seem to defeat the purpose of a KISS approach.

You could try uploading your character lists into Anki as well. They have a plugin that can provide you with the traditional characters.

Assuming you mean the Pinyin Toolkit, I am one of the authors :p

However, I have relocated to Skritter for ease-of-use and a facilitated learning environment (which I prefer to time spent coding).

@NickC for real? Then can you please tell me why it locks Anki up for 10-15 seconds whenever I add a new Chinese expression? It seems to be going to Google Translate for the translation, but that doesn't seem to explain why it would take 10+ seconds and so much CPU. Does it have to do with audio generation? If so, how do I disable audio generation?

James

gaojian - that's a good idea. Thanks!

@jww1066 - yes for real, although as I say it hasn't seen much active development for, well, nearly two years.

You can turn-off audio by opening the anki config.db file and changing the "01" immediately after "audiogeneration" to 00. If you want to turn it on/off for short periods then just move the audio directory.

The other approach is to add sentences whilst the plugin is disabled and then use mass-fill to generate all of extra data.

Seems that someone posts a message with this kind of demand roughly every 2 or 3 months :P

@NickC thanks, that fixed it! Any chance that could be made a configurable option in the Pinyin Toolkit's preferences rather than something you have to edit in a config file?

James

I have a related (but slightly different wish) ... I would like the 'definition' question to be introduced for a period of time before the other three (pinyin, tone and writing). This would be especially useful when studying a list with a number of words I don't know, like an HSK list (as opposed to a list from a text I'm studying). I could use Foo Choo Choon's method (disable all but definition, work the list for a while, and then turn all four back on) ... but what I would love is a configuration that says 'add definitions (n) days before other tests' ... any ideas?

Antimacassar - > Sorry. I actually read the forums very rarely. :)

The turn-off, turn-on method is the only way to do it in Skritter right now. In a few days it will become easier to get your existing lists to start at the beginning and quickly add the traditionals for the non-writing parts when you do this. But yeah, it's not the simplest approach.

I just mentioned one alternative on another thread:
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We are open to changing what elements are in the study page; in particular, we're thinking about adding the alternate character version (traditional or simplified) and the containing words. But that's not going to be possible until we do a bigger redesign session on the prompt, since the layout would have to change to accomodate things. We are working on other things instead, so those changes are simply pending.
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KenM, I don't think we're going to add an option to control the order of adding of different parts. When it's come up in the past, there have been a few different desires, but most people seem to want writing first, and it doesn't seem worth the extra option.

I noticed that sometimes my sample sentences will show the Traditional characters for the Simplified word I'm learning. I'm presuming this is a glitch and not supposed to be happening (it has happened only once or twice). But I kind of like when it does happen. :)

Thanks Nick. It's not a big deal, of course, it's just one feature that would be an added bonus for those of us who would like to learn to recognize but necessarily to write Traditional.