Hello,

I have been having some trouble getting Skritter to test me on the specific meaning and tones of certain words when there are multiple meanings. For example, 背着, when pronounced bei1zhe5 means to "shoulder some burden," however, Skritter is only testing me on bei4zhe5, which means "behind back." Anyway to work around this? I have found this problem with several other characters as well.

Another problem that I have encountered is regarding the pronunciation recordings. While Skritter is nearly flawless when it comes to testing tones, I have found many errors in the pronunciation of tones. For example, 蘑菇 mo2gu5 is tested properly, but the voice over pronounces it as mo2gu1.

Lastly, is there anyway to make the pointer smaller? I would like to write thinner, more precise characters.


Thank you very much,

Paul

The thing with the word voiceovers is that the people doing them are Chinese people from Chinesepod, recording the actual word. I guess that on the odd occasion they don't quite match, perhaps there's just some leeway there in pronunciation. I'd rather have the native speaker pronunciation in, even if on the odd occasion it's not quite what you expect it to be. It is, for example, certainly better than having the computer put two sounds together, to how it thinks Chinese people might say it, or what the dictionary says.

On the pointer, supposedly if you change the width thickness of your pen in options (assuming you use one, not just a mouse), then the strokes will change too. Doesn't work for me, but then again, I don't use windows...

If you use a Wacom pen and the Wacom plugin under Settings and then tweak your Wacom settings you can make the pen strokes thinner.

Hi Paul,

I've recently changed the default popularity threshold for mnemonics from 3 to 5, so you should see a lot less of them (and the ones you see should be really good), if my theories are correct. Is it okay now?

I've changed 背着 to have the pinyin and definition you describe listed first, and the "behind one's back" sense noted as an alternate word in the definition. (The system doesn't allow multiple readings for multiple-character words,so that's the most we can do for now.)

I do have an exception for neutral tones, though, so when I next upload, 折磨 will let you put a second tone on 磨.

I've replaced the sound file for 蘑菇 with an alternate that does have the neutral tone on there. Good catch!

If you do find more pronunciation errors or pinyins you think should be changed, shoot some feedback our way and we might be able to fix it up for you.

As Byzanti and skritterjohan noted, if you have a Wacom tablet and can use the Wacom browser plugin (which is buggy on Mac), you can control the size of your pointer with the Tip Feel setting. If you don't, you can write more quickly to make thinner lines, but that's about it. The Wacom is the only device with pressures sensitivity, so if it (and the plugin, which is on your practice settings) aren't enabled, the line thickness is controlled just via cursor speed.

Hope this helps!