Hey guys! Finally arrived in Chengdu. Was surprised in the Shanghai-Pudong airport. I found some free Wi-Fi and was busily Skrittering away. A group of maybe twenty Chinese people took interest in what I was doing. They started whispering about me in Mandarin and sneaking looks at my computer, trying not to appear too obvious. Eventually a brave young man came right beside me and just stared over my shoulder. So I told him about Skritter--I wonder if he'll sign up :-D

Love being in China so far. It's funny walking around and seeing Chinese everywhere, as opposed to just on my computer. I bet the passive recognition really helps.

I'm one of those Shanghai-Pudong people that loves Skritter :-).

Nice! Haha, that's great.

Oh man, I'm going to visit my girlfriend's family in Shanghai for a couple weeks in June. I just realized that I really need to study my Skritter vocab. Handwriting recognition is 汉字笔画识别... spaced repetition? Hmm.

I won't have a computer though, so I won't be able to show it off!

“Handwriting recognition” is 手写识别 or 手写辨识. “Spaced repetition” is 间隔-重复, so may be you can say 间隔-重复读书法 or 间隔-重复学习法.

Thanks, pts!

Word of Mouth marketing at it's best.
Everyone mumbles about it, but here we can how it works in real life.

Nick, when you come down to Shanghai, I'd love to buy you lunch. Drop me a line, if you like (you should be able to dig out my e-mail address from the system, right?).

Oh, and I suggest to prepare a few less nerdy topics to talk about with your girlfriend's family as well ;-).

Yeah, you should be ready for something like this:

"When are you two going to get married? Why aren't you married already? How much money do you make? Why don't you get a better job? When are you going to have kids? Don't you want her parents to have the joy of seeing their grandchildren born? Don't you know that they're getting old and they deserve that pleasure before they die?"

Good luck... ;)

James

That sounds great, Christian! It'll be my only meal in Shanghai where someone isn't trying to fatten me up. 多吃一点儿, they always say, as if I haven't been 多吃一点儿'ing constantly since I got there. I'll send you an email later.

James: oh, dear. Last time I was there, I guess it hadn't been long enough for me to have been expected to wed and dandle. And they were still sorta impressed by my recent 读书读得很好. Now I'm probably in for it. And why don't I have a better job!

but your job is brining Chinese and the love of China to the uneducated western barbarians! Nationalism for the save!

I can emphatically say that not all Shanghai-Pudong people love Skritter.

I showed Skritter to some private Chinese tutors in Pudong. They were trying so hard to justify their existence that they tried to level any criticism possible at Skritter, specious as they may have been. Which is strange given that 99% of their clients want oral/aural training and not reading/writing skills. Skritter would have been the perfect complement to their intermediate and higher students!

I also find it funny to be walking around China and seeing Chinese everywhere. Makes you realize why they needed the one child policy. Next week is going to be crazy with World Expo 2010 opening up here and Chinese streaming in from all around the country. Heck, make that next six months...