So, it's really disheartening every time I get a word for the first time and have absolutely no idea how to write it. Is there any possibility of adding a setting where the first time a character is given it is visible to be traced? Or, is this a setting I haven't found yet maybe?

I kind of have a feeling this would be ridiculously hard to program, but no harm in asking, right?

=^.^=

Hi Renbit - there is a show button just below where you wrie the character (it is the big blue question mark)- it shows the character for you. But when you do the first stroke it disappears, so you have to remember it. You can't trace over it. But you can hit the show button as many times as you need to.

Cheers,
Donna

Yes I know that exists, but really, I would rather have an option to get the character to stay there for the first time or two. I don't find that showing and losing it repeatedly is particularly helpful for me, except for very simple characters. :/ Maybe I'm an exception to the norm there though.

It depends on your level I think, be patient on this because before you know it you'll be able to write hanzi much faster after it's only been shown once and disappears again!

I don't know your level but in the beginning it's hard to visualize different parts of a hanzi quickly, but this becomes much easier after let's say a few months. So for most people who already know more than a couple of hundred of characters it's better it disappears again. I think it's helpful for learning to remember parts of a character.

So for e.g. now you might only be able to know how to write 车 when seeing it quickly. Later you'll be able to recognize two or three parts of a characters much faster, 轻, then 输 etc.

But guys like Byzanti, James, and pts can weigh in on this.

I´d suggest to concentrate in learning the radicals and smaller combinations quite early, so the show button shows you a combination of known ideas, not a mass of strokes. Then the show button works fine for new characters.

I really like only being able to see the character for a brief period of time before I write it. It builds my ability to recognize characters quickly and accurately, so it helps my reading skill.

Elvin and GrandPoohBlah have got it right! At the start there are so many strange and new shapes, your mind is focusing on remembering these. Later on, it's more like putting pieces of a jigsaw together.

How I found it:
Stage 1: Strange new shapes!
Stage 2: Shapes I know, with a bit on the top or the side that looks sort of familiar (I'll use a mnemonic to remember...).
Stage 3: So this sound component, and this radical because...
Stage 4: Hey, this character is wildly complex and I've never seen anything like it before, but it looks cool. Learnt.

As GrandPoohBlah says - the census on Skritter is that if you just see a flash of the character and try to write it from memory, then this is a lot better than tracing which doesn't use your memory at all. This is true no matter what stage of learning you're at. It's just super hard to begin with. Stick with it!

It's funny. I was just introduced a new character a day or two ago on Skritter. I wrote it maybe once using the show character. The next day at work some fellow had the same character tatooed on his back. I saw the tattoo only briefly but was able to redraw it in seconds. :D It felt like a skritter lesson on human bodies. Unfortunately I didn't remember what the character was but man could I redraw it! HAHAHAHA.

Anyway, what everyone else said. For now it's probably better if you're not tracing! But what I do is I press the show button, draw the character on PAPER, then draw it on skritter (not looking at the paper, I just need to FEEL the character before I can remake it on the screen). Maybe try that. You wanna create muscle memory too, not just visual.

@nickybr38 -grand idea with the seperate paper. Time consuming though. I like it.

Thanks all, and sorry for the slow reply, been sick :(

While I'm just starting out, I think separate paper might be a good idea.

Learning the radicals would probably be wise too, but for now I'll try the paper and see if my memory improves as I get used to the skritter method. ^^

Renbit: I'd suggest not using paper where you are now. If you use Skritter to write it you'll have 2 big advantages. 1. constant reinforcement of stroke order, and 2. it'll force you to pay attention to, and use more correct strokes shapes. A pen tablet would help though!

:) I'm at the same place Renbit is and I find the paper method works well for me. I think it depends what kind of a learner someone is.

I do consult Skritter for stroke order (although before I started Skritter I did a little lesson on stroke order and really it's not that difficult) if I'm uncertain but most of the time I find writing it by hand reinforces memory ... for me. Clicking a mouse just isn't enough. :)

Oh, and btw, I disagree with Skritter reinforcing correct stroke shapes... it really, really doesn't. Sometimes I can just squiggle my mouse on the screen and suddenly the proper stroke appears on the screen but it's definitely NOT the stroke I was trying to make! HAHAHA.

If I try to use the version of Skritter where it doesn't auto snap I can't write the characters at all... I have issues with making my mouse respond in Skritter properly. Anyway, just my two cents.

That's because you're using a mouse not a pen tablet!

I can afford paper! I can't afford a pen tablet!!! ;)

It has the same effect with a tablet.... I can write a stroke pretty terribly and still have it interpreted as "correct". And I already understand stroke order so I'm not going to miss out on that by copying them down on paper as I go. For some people that might not be helpful, but for me I think it will be.

That's how I learned all the kana, and the small amount of kanji I already know.

Erasing a character and rewriting it is very helpful. I haven't used paper, I imagine it would also be helpful. Back in the day when I ran into a really hard one I used to rewrite the character, erase it, count to ten, rewrite it, count to twenty, rewrite it, etc.

However, as you develop more familiarity with the characters and common components (radicals, etc.) I think mnemonics and components will become more and more useful to you. You can try all sorts of techniques: look at the character component breakdown; look up the character on Zhongwen or Yellowbridge and see what the etymology is; look at the mnemonics that other users use, and maybe make up one of your own; figure out which part of the character is the radical, or if one of the components provides the pronunciation.

Human memory is an associative machine, and the more associations you build with other memories, the stronger the new memory will be. So try to look at the new character from several points of view and that should help you retain it.

James