Hi everyone,

Until I've only studied writing and tones on Skritter. I'm wondering what people think of the other two study settings (definitions and readings). Do you think that studying in "definitions" mode is helpful?

Readings are definitely useful, no doubt about that. I find they also help my retention of the *writing* portion of the word, maybe because they give my memory another connection.

Definitions are a little more mixed. Some of them get to be absurdly long and complicated for single characters. My favorite example is 干 which has the definition "to work; do; manage; tree trunk, to concern; shield; dry; clean". I find that if I try to learn the WHOLE definition I'll just make myself crazy, so in these cases I'll try to learn the first couple of definitions. Words of two or more characters tend to have much more specific definitions, like 干净 (neat, tidy) and I prefer to spend my time on them. I also figure that, while pronunciation and writings can't be learned from context, definitions certainly can be, so by learning 干净 you are also learning that 干 can mean "clean".

James

Early on I found that other flashcard programs worked better for me for definitions, partly because I can learn them much faster than I can learn writings and I didn't want the speed at which I acquired functional vocabulary to be limited by the speed at which I acquire writing. I find that with at least a couple of thousand characters in my arsenal, this is no longer so much an issue and I've pretty much stopped using other programs. As far as the problem with too many definitions that @jww1066 mentions, I also don't bother trying to memorize every definition. I focus on the ones I've encountered regularly in my reading/study and/or the ones that will help me remember the meaning of words it's used in. So for 干, for example, I'd probably have learned dry and clean at first, then maybe added to work, do, manage.

I don't even do the one for readings. I think in characters and my pinyin is garbage. That is the way I was taught, and I don't care to change it at this point.

Definitions are useful, but you don't want to get hung up on the literal word for word definition. Skritter's definition is just a rough English approximation. Yes, apple is apple in any language. Time... that gets a lot more complicated. Clean, the verb, that gets more complicated. I usually go by more of an emotional response or a Chinese synonym that pops into my head to know if I answered it correctly or not. I also check my pronunciation during the definition section. If my pronunciation OR the meaning are incorrect, I mark it as incorrect. That does admittedly make my definitions section have a lower accuracy rate, but meh.

For Mandarin, I've got all four modes turned on right now, but I'm thinking I might need to do something to streamline things. Maybe dropping tones is the ticket, since typing the pinyin sort of duplicates that effort anyway.

I need the definitions, since this is my primary source for memorizing new vocabulary, although the definitions for single characters gets kind of long. I went through the exact same procedure as jww and dorittg with regards to 干.

Just keep in mind that any changes you make today might take a week or two to come fully into effect, as items done "the old way" come due.