Ever wanted to know the difference between a Skritterer and non-Skritterer?

The Skritterer will always use words and characters that the non-Skritterer can't remember.

- After the first few weeks of learning Chinese, Skritterers write 干嘛，non-Skritterers write 干吗.

- At beginner-intermediate level, non-Skritterers write 桔子, Skritterers write 橘子.

- When Skritterers write fables, they are usually about a 龜 and a 麒麟. Non-Skritters write about a 马.

- At advanced level, when Skritterers give names, they usually involve guys like Mr 齧 and Ms 羲. Non-Skritterers still stick to Mr and Ms ... 马.

Why?
Skritterers are constantly confronted with the words that are hard to remember, i.e. the ones non-Skritterers will never be able to write.


[While there might be some truth behind it, this is meant more as a joke than a serious scientific observation.]



Addendum: I cheated about 龜, it's a 繁体字, but a very nice one indeed.

I thought this was going to be an interesting thread when I read the title

Heh. Funny, and at least partially true!

The Skritterer knows characters that even Chinese don't recognise, who claim they couldn't possibly be simplified...

(Sadly, 鬣 and 齉 don't really come up in conversation much).

*adds 麒麟*

I did a test of third-semester college students studying intensive Chinese. The class average for character retention was 39%. That is, given the pinyin, definition, and example words for characters they had learned and explicitly been tested on in the past, and were still expected to be able to write on essays, they could only remember 39% of them. Fifth-semester students had the same results. Another researcher did a study of students after their second semester and got 38% or 39%, I forget. She then published a paper arguing that students shouldn't even try to learn characters until a few years in.

So when Skritter users have an average retention rate of over 90%, I'm so proud! That's the difference, right there.

Well, perhaps I shouldn't have downplayed the scientific accuracy of my statement. In fact I am not referring to the mere fact that Skritterers tend to know more characters than non-Skritterers.

More precisely, Skritterers tend to study difficult words more than easy words - simply because easy words quickly move to long intervals. This may have awkward effects, especially in the case of more advanced learners. When there are two synonyms, a Skritterer may naturally choose the more difficult one because it's the one they usually review. 惆怅 may be less frequent than 悲伤 (not exactly synonyms, however), but if you study 惆怅 often enough, it will naturally be the word that comes to your mind first (and 悲伤 is so easy that you don't review it often).

@muer,

I'm not sure about other skritter users, but I tend to add practical vocabulary to my queue. I spend at least an hour a day communicating in Chinese, either spoken or using the Internet, so if I ever use an unusual synonym, I'm going to get an immediate bemused reaction, and that's going to discourage me from using it again!

Ah, that's true, 穆尔! I doubt I'm doing my natural conversational abilities any favors by studying Chinese translations of papers on the existential risks and rewards of artificial intelligence. A more practical student would be taking advantage of his ChinesePod subscription more often instead. Skritter does make it easy to sound funny.

One way I try to improve is to watch TV shows where Mandarin is spoken and focus on reading the Chinese subtitles! I understand Mandarin well - it's the writing that stumps me. I used to use Chinese lyrics too to help me recognize characters but I must admit, after some time, the same old words appear over and over again. There's this propensity for "love" in Chinese songs especially slow ones. Anyway that said, I think my new method of watching TV shows and hearing Mandarin spoken while focusing on the Chinese subtitles is helping me remember the sounds and the words.

As if English songs are any better. Baby baby baby baby baby baby baby...