I feel like remixing the Hsk lists on the basis of their recurring elements - radicals and / or otherwise, for it seems to me that this may speed up the learning process.

Does this idea make any sense?

Yes, unless you're in a situation where you want the most useful language first (which is the current ordering). If you are doing Heisig, we have HSK lists that are ordered by Heisig characters, which are ordered by recurring components, so that might save you some work.

If you're not doing Heisig, you could take a middle approach and study the HSK lists in order, but use the word popups to add common components you need as you progress through the HSK characters.

But the approach you describe sounds useful; just seems like it may take a while for you to do the reordering.

Thanks for your reply.

HSK lists that are ordered by Heisig characters, I hadn't found those yet. I'll have a look tomorrow; it would be great if that's sufficient.

Adding common components in the course of one's progress is attractive as well, although unless I'm mistaken the whole will still be more of a mixed nature.

Oops, it took me forever to find it because I had indexed it wrong. Good thing for the reminder! Fixed it; here it is:
http://www.skritter.com/vocab/list?list=agVza3JpdHIWCxINVm9jYWJMaXN0SW5mbxiz6fUcDA

wb did all the work for this one. He has more details in this thread:
http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=59932484

This list follows the order in the traditional version of the Heisig books; we haven't made one for simplified yet, although if there's interest we can.

You're right that it would be more mixed; it's just one of the easiest things to do, and can be done while studying any list.

@nick I'd love a simplified version!

@laughinghorseman, I've been using the pop-ups to add radicals, components, etc. as I go through the HSK lists. Works ok, except that there are occasionally components missing and the newly added components end up at the end of the queue so it often takes quite a while for them to actually show up for practice.

Nick: Thanks for the link to that inspiring list.

Dorritg: I may also try this at some point, thanks for mentioning your experience.

Anyone else for a simplified version of the HSK Words in Heisig order list? It takes a bunch of work to generate it, so I don't want to figure out wb's script and munge all that text into Skritter unless it's going to see enough action.

As I am preparing to enter a university course next September, I shall need to study simplified characters as well. So, I am interested.

btw, I wonder if I am the only one who thinks they are not always that much simpler? Also, I understand this project was created to help improve literacy in China. Could anyone tell me if it was all really worth it?

I am also for the simplified ;-)

@LaughingHorseman I imagine they save people's hands from getting tired.

@LaughingHorseman - I do know that mainlanders have absolutely no interest in going back to traditional characters. They can read a lot of them, but they have to do it slowly and if the characters are too different they have problems.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_on_traditional_and_simplified_Chinese_characters



Pro-Simplified characters

* Proponents feel that Simplified characters having fewer strokes makes it easier to learn.[7] Literacy rates have risen steadily in rural and urban areas since the simplification of the Chinese characters, while this trend was hardly seen during 30 years of KMT rule and 250 years of Manchurian rule before them, when the traditional writing system was dominant, though this rise in literacy may not necessarily be due to simplification alone.
* Although Taiwan, which uses Traditional Chinese characters, has a better literacy rate, proponents point out that with a population 50 times larger and landmass 260 times bigger, the illiteracy in mainland China is much more difficult to eradicate. In 2004, the only provinces of China where the illiteracy rates were lower than Taiwan's were Guangdong at 3.84%, and Guangxi at 3.79%.[8]
* The literacy rate in mainland China is higher than that of Taiwan when compared at the same GDP per capita.

Pro-Traditional characters

* The literacy rate of Taiwan and Hong Kong is higher than that of Mainland, compared for the same year.[13]
* Although the adoption of Simplified Chinese characters is correlated with increased literacy rates, correlation does not imply causation.[14][15]
* Aside from correlational arguments, the only other form of evidence offered in support of script reform success through character simplification is anecdotal.[14]
* The validity of statistics about literacy rates in mainland China is questionable.[16]
* The increase of literacy rates in mainland China is likely due to educational reform.[17]



I suppose the point I am getting at is that both sides have their advocates, but, ultimately, I doubt we will ever know.

As someone who has been studying both for some time, I see benefits in both systems.

Simplified characters are natually easier to write in a physical sense, although I doubt that's the main reason literacy rates went up under the Communists. (Communist governments world-wide tend to be bad at many things, but teaching literacy is one of their strong suits.) Simplified characters are also easier to read when the font is small. However, traditional characters better reflect etymology and relationships between characters, which in one sense makes them a little easier to learn (counteracting their increased complexity).

James

jww1066 and west316: thanks for your interesting replies.

I would love to see simplified!

Well it should work just by replacing characters2.txt with the export of the simplified list of skritter, but things don't always work as they should ;-)
Python really makes it easy, so if you have some basic programming knowledge it's a couple of hours work to create a script for remixing...

I'll get it on my list and try to hack it together soon.

Done! Here's the list:
http://www.skritter.com/vocab/list?list=agVza3JpdHIWCxINVm9jYWJMaXN0SW5mbxjjisIeDA

Enjoy!

@ Nick: thanks for this new list :-D