How's the progress with implementing a way to practice (not self review) definitions coming? I'm sure you're up to your ears in work, but learning the definitions is a very very important part of studying a language, and imho the lack of a way to actually practice it makes skritter incomplete, thus implementing it should take priority over pretty much anything else. Thanks!

I'm not sure how else you would practice definitions ... you mean typing in a definition and Skritter marking you wrong/right based on what you typed?

There are plenty of ways of doing this. The simplest would be a "clicking exercise", where you would get the chinese word and then 5 different random definitions, and have to click on the right one (just like with the tones):
喜欢
1.food 2.run 3.like 4.green 5.airplane


You could also get an example sentence, the definition of the sentence, and then have to write the chinese word thats missing:

我____她.
I like her.

There are a lot of possibilities, but the fact remains that we really need a way to practice definitions in an active way, and the sooner the better!

"makes skritter incomplete, thus implementing it should take priority over pretty much anything else"

"but the fact remains that we really need a way to practice definitions in an active way, and the sooner the better!"

Hyperbole and tosh.

You could always do something like this in a flashcards program yourself, if it's that important?

Yeah, I don't really see what's missing; we already have definitions as one of the four parts you can study. It shows you the word in Chinese (or Japanese) and you have to think of the definition, then grade yourself on how well you know it.

This is in fact much harder, and therefore much more effective, than the multiple choice quiz you are suggesting.

@Byzanti

I dont know what Hyperbole and tosh is, but anyways: is there a reason not to constantly strive to make skritter better and better? And of course its important. Definition practice is obviously one of the most important aspects of learning a language.

@junglegirl
I agree that its much harder, but not in a good sense. How effective is it to try to figure out how well you know something?

"Hmm, do I know this word? I know what it means, but how well do I know what it means...hmm, maybe I don't know it, but still I do know it because I can use it, but did I think about it right away, or how long time did it take? How long time does it take to think of a word you really know and a word you only know a little? Can you know something a little? If you know it you know it, and if you dont, you dont......so do I know it?"

What I suggest is a way to try to actually practice the definition. If you get it right, you know the word. Simple and effective. And also, there is that little satisfaction of getting something right and to see that "rewarding" green light. That feeling of having accomplished something, makes the brain register it in a completely different way, and makes it a lot easier to remember it the next time.

If self reviewing was an effective tool for learning things, then the entire school system would probably look very very different.

Hi DaXia,

I think you may be in the minority for this feature request. I'm pretty happy with the definitions as they are now, and making a new system would require a lot of time and energy. I'd rather they put out a mobile ap long before they work on this.

Especially since I still don't see this as a workable idea. For example, can you come up with sample sentences that would distinguish "happy," "glad," and "pleased"? I think happy and glad are pretty interchangeable, and it would be very misleading to an english learner if you marked him wrong for having written "glad" in the sentence, when the expected answer was "happy."

I have four words that mean obviously/clearly: 显得，显然，明显，清楚. Writing sample sentences that would distinguish all of these, if it is possible at all, would require a native speaker. It would be extremely labor intensive. And like I said, I'd much rather be able to Skritter on the go on my iPod Touch than have them focus on this.

I agree with Byzanti. This have been discussed numerous times. I myself am quite happy with the current way. The way you suggest have been suggested before DaXia. Just be honest with yourself. Mark hard. Then you wont have a problem.

If you really want, you can write the definition on a paper and the hit the show button. Grade yourself accordingly.

As has already been said, multiple choice is extremely easy an IMO would be counter-productive. Something that hasn't been brought up is that the problem with writing "like" in "I like her" when provided with "我...她" is that there really are many different words you could put in there to get the same meaning. I know in my Chinese course two different students can have almost completely different translations of the same English sentence but both get full points because they are expressing the same meaning.

Just think of something like the word "think." You could have 想，觉得，认为, etc. It would most likely be extremely complicated to code and I would prefer the Skritter team focus their efforts elsewhere (like getting iPhone/iPod support).

I think there is a tendency for people to look at Skritter, see how awesome it is (and boy is it awesome), and then start making suggestions for how it could become a stop destination for studying Chinese. I know this is how I　felt awhile ago and I had a ton of suggestions on how to turn the site into that. However, when it comes down to it, Skritter is about learning how to write Chinese (and Japanese). Although other features are built in to help in other areas, to truly learn grammar, word usage, speaking, and listening comprehension you need to actively find something else to do. If the definition practice on Skritter really doesn't cut it for you, I wouldn't hold your breathe waiting for them to change it, I'd start actively looking for something that helps you get what you need.

Good points by atdlouis and joshwhitson13 I think. If the Skritter team had nothing to do day in, day out, yes, then I would also like them to provide some different exercises. But Skritter like it is now is already pretty perfect as a basis to study the W/P/T/D and personally I would like them to focus on making THAT experience even better.

I wouldn't say that Skritter is "pretty perfect"; nothing is perfect and everything can be improved. More to the point, I am also somewhat dissatisfied with definition practice and would welcome a new and better way to learn definitions, but I'm not sure that multiple-choice questions are the best way to go about it. It seems like a hard problem and it's not obvious to me what the Best Way to learn definitions is.

However great a suggestion might be, our priorities as users are often (usually?) not the same as the priorities of the Skritter developers. However, if it's a change which would be relatively easy for them and would clearly benefit the majority of users, they are often willing to bump requested items up in priority. But it looks in this case like we would be talking about a new study mode, no?

James

I have to agree with James and everyone else on this one. I for one would not like multiple choice quizzes.

After-all, when our main goal is to be able to read, write and understand Chinese texts in the real world, we aren't going to see multiple choice options magically appearing for us to select, but instead, we'll be relying on our memories to recall the definition, just as we currently do in Skritter.

I agree that a new definition mode will be helpful (though it's not going to be multiple-choice--we'll need something very clever), but there are many other things to do before we get there. As I'm the one that implements new practice modes in the Flash app, and as I am hesitant to do any more major projects before I get the iOS app done, I wouldn't expect me to get a new definition mode in there for a long time.

Please keep focusing on the iOS app Nick, and keep up the great work! Is there an ETA for the app by any chance? I'm starting to worry about skritter access during my holidays later this year.

@James I mean the formula, what it's meant for and does is pretty perfect, and I agree that they should stick to that good basis and improve on things that makes the basis better, like Skritter in 3D and that sort of stuff.

There's a nice tool for multiple-choice definition practice in MDBG.
(You can either use their lists, which are HSK-level-based, or enter your own.)
Unfortunately, it only does characters, not words.

Rachael.

No ETA on iPhone app, sorry! I will have to get most of the way through testing before announcing an ETA, and I'm not close to doing that yet.