Hi,just curious about expectations versus how much time you spend - are there any information somewhere (old thread maybe missed) about statistics versus time spent?

If one spend 30 minutes every day, one would increase characters/words learned and the number of 'items due' over longer run?
Thus over a longer period you will slowly reduce amount of new characters/words?
Is that correct or am I wrong?

Any feedback from you people having studied for year(s)?

Mats,

Like you, I started in January. By February, I had only learned 116 characters. By March, 314. In April I remained at the same level due to an extended holiday in China and no Internet access or Skritter app. By May, I had learned 515 characters. One month later, I am at only 613 (holidays really hamper one's progress).

Yesterday, I spent 74 minutes and went down from 600 to 598 characters. Today, I spent 20 minutes and went up to 613. There is really no saying exactly how one will progress. Your memory might be a lot better than mine, for instance, allowing you to learn 500 new characters a month while studying only 30 minutes (Skritter time) a day. You may be exposed to high levels of stress at work and/or experience sleep deprivation - all of which would influence your Skritter performance - while others may have it easy. Everybody is different.

If you want a more predictable monthly increase in the number of characters learned then consistency is key, but sometimes life throws a monkey wrench into the best of plans. In my case, quite often. I think the most important thing is to just keep on going and to enjoy what you are doing, while trying to set reasonable goals and be as consistent as possible on a daily basis. Do that, and eventually you will know those 4000 or so characters and many more words. It is inevitable to reach your destination as long as you keep on moving forward. All roads lead to Rome. Or, in our case, to Beijing.

Nil volentibus arduum! 加油！

Concerning your main question, that one day you'll be overwhelmed with reviews at the detriment of new cards, I don't think its generally true. I find that 9 months in I spend less and less time on old cards than new ones - that's partly because memorization abilities seem to be improving, and also because a few correct answers in a row push that card *very* far into the future. It's also the case that at around 1500-2000 characters a huge amount of new words you encounter (at that level of textbooks) don't actually have many new characters, but just new combinations of learned characters which generally are pretty logical (I think).

I've learned to *write* about 2000 characters and 4500 words in about 9 months, or about 10 per day. That meshes well with my strategy, which is to add at least ten words (and any new characters in them) each day, and clear my reviews at least twice per day - in the morning and evening. Sometimes that is slowed down by other obligations, laziness, or holidays, but not for more than a few days or a week, and I also have spurts of days where I binge on new words. I had studied Chinese for some time already (perhaps around 1000 characters and 2000 words by visual recognition), but never bothered heavily with writing which is why I only mention those stats.

I think setting a goal to add 3-5 new words per day is very feasible if you can commit to Skrittering for say 15 minutes each morning and evening; in a bit more time I manage my 10-15 per day average. Spend at least as much time absorbing other material with a strong writing or listening component each day and you shouldn't have much trouble remembering your new words. Also, keep in mind that Skrittering a lot will help with your reading and maybe listening comprehension (coupled with absorbing those other mediums) but will only help marginally with production - to improve that you need to actually practice composing written or spoken Chinese on the fly.

The more characters and words you know, the easier it is to learn more, in my experience. This is because a lot of new words will be new combinations of familiar characters(as icebear has already said), but also because a lot of new characters will be new combinations of familiar components. Remembering that 担 is “hand" and "dawn" combined is quite easy. Just remembering the shape 担 in itself is quite hard. So I would say that the number of characters/words possible to remember per day will depend on how long you've studied. If you still only have a few hundred chars under your belt I would stick with maybe 5 new words a day at first and see where that takes you. I've been averaging about 15 a day, spending on average 33 Skritter minutes a day, but this has been building on a base of roughly 1000 chars and about as many words. If you read and listen some, this will also integrate well with Skritter, as icebear also said. Some words which I half-learned in Skritter the first time around, were no problem when their reviews came up, as I had seen them in context a lot during that time, and often also learned related characters(using mostly the same radicals/components) or seen them in new combinations in new words.

Mats, when learning new characters and I feel it difficult for a certain character to remember, then I go to the details view and look up, in which other words this character is used and put some useful words on my learning list, I especially look for words which represent the different meanings of a character. As such, the character is coming up more often and I feel it easier to remember the different meanings. However, I think it is only helpful from a certain level onwards, a Newbie might be otherwise overwhelmed with too many items.

Thanks for sharing all wise feedback, impressive how much some of you have learned! I thought that I spent a lot time with my 30 minutes every morning and some longer boosts in weekends but my pace is around 110 characters last month.
So maybe I'm more of a 'casual' learner in your company :)
But then I have to change/add swedish translation in the definitions for almost every new character/word since it's missing and that takes some time.

As you say I try not to make a big deal if I miss a day or to.
Also interesting to see per weekly basis the learning curve go down one-two days and then catch up, like two step forwards and one back :)

I have about 20% left of the "Skritter Chinese 101" and previously done some other lists like 60% of "HSK 1" and started the "Radicals" one, when finished added words from the 101 one I think I will finish the HSK 1 since it is almost done, then the radicals one.
From there maybe will create a list (if I can't find one) for the text book "http://www.amazon.com/Anna-Mei-Banfa-Chinese-Characters/dp/1440406448" which I bought some time ago and hope to be able to read some time this year.

Nice to hear that you probably won't be bogged down with reviews in the future.

Currently I don't speak much at all and don't listen/see much of audio/video either, 95% skrittering..
I think it's difficult to find anything that is on my level and hope once I get to round 1000 characters that I can understand more easier conversation, maybe some tv series or whatever, now it is just too difficult.

About characters, where do all the example sentences come from? I think many of them are a bit too complexx for a beginner at least, I find examples in Pleco much better, but then I don't check Pleco for every new character now, maybe I should.

@Mats For level appropriate listening material, see various podcasts with Newbie and Elementary levels such as ChinesePod or Popup Chinese. I strongly recommend starting there and listening to as much as possible at and just slightly above your level, otherwise jumping into TV shows at some future point will be horribly frustrating (and probably incomprehensible for a long time).

@Mats: 110 characters a month studying only 30 minutes a day is a great result! After Skritter Chinese 101, I would pick up a textbook series like New Practical Chinese Reader (http://www.skritter.com/vocab/list?list=list12). Supplementing with ChinesePod is also a good idea. E-mail me at fanbohan at boun dot cr for more info.

Misstänkte att du var svensk :)

Also, get textbooks(like New Practical Chinese Reader). They start of really easy, and give you context for the words you are learning, which will help you remember them. I'm not too big a fan of textbooks(who is?) but at the start they're indispensable, and compared to only skrittering, more fun too. The good ones come with audio. Read the texts first, and then listen to the dialogues over and over. This is the best way to quickly improve your listening abilities in the beginning. You will tackle the same words in reading the texts, writing them in Skritter, and listening to them in the dialogues. And this is all not mentioning grammar, which you will need both for comprehension and to speak/write. A textbook will cover this too. After a while, start with Popup Chinese or ChinesePod newbie. I use them for less focused listening, such as when commuting, cleaning, going grocery shopping etc.

Since you're swedish, a swedish book might be of interest: http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789157479488/kinesiska-spraket-i-mittens-rike/ I haven't used it so I can't vouch for it. Otherwise I would go with NPCR.

大家好！
Thanks for suggestions,
created an account at chinesepod but I don't like how the characters look in the dialogue/vocab page, maybe it's a font thing. They seem to have enough material though!
范博涵: thanks! Although 30 minutes Skrittertime, real time is probably twice the amount..

Actually, I already have the Assimil 'Chinese with ease, volume 1' book including audio and one in swedish for the class I'm attending so nothing is stopping me, wrong, skritter is stopping me, it's more fun to skritter than reading. Sometimes I read at bed time but my wife goes to bed usually before me so she complains when I'm reading out sentences aloud ;)

@roberg: Japp det stämmer :)
The text book "Kinesiska språket i mittens rike", I have borrowed it from the public library, it seems really good, so I am considering buying it.
Also, there is the brand new dictionary for us swedes I can recommend in case you haven't seen it: http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789113022925/norstedts-kinesisk-svenska-ordbok/