Tofu Learn for learning Hanzi

[agewisdom]

Good thing. Tofu Learn is fantastic.

 

Just needs a little more support.

[mungouk]

Thanks @Luxi, great to see it being updated again after more than 2 years.

 

I've not had any emails from the developers... are they actually posting/tweeting/blogging anywhere about what's going on now?

 

Edit: Oh, I see what you mean... text formatting is screwed up.  Let's hope they fix that quickly.

 

 

[Luxi]

52 minutes ago, mungouk said:

... are they actually posting/tweeting/blogging anywhere

 

I don't think so. I found out by checking for updates in my App Store app (I always check because automatic updates doesn't always work in my devices), it was a wonderful surprise to see TOFU listed, I updated manually.

 

55 minutes ago, mungouk said:

Let's hope they fix that quickly.

 

It is fixed now in my iPad. You can now also sign in using your Apple ID.

 

I think the developers may have done some 'repairs' behind the scenes over the last years, at least the Google login problem was solved quietly, but I wish the developers were a just a tad more proactive, they have an app to be very, very proud of.

[mungouk]

8 minutes ago, Luxi said:

It is fixed now in my iPad.

 

Did you change any settings? That screen shot I posted is from my iPad.

 

[Luxi]

Are you sure you updated it? Go to the Apple Store app and search for Tofu Learn.

 

Mine is working in all my devices, iOS12 and iOS14 included.

 

[mungouk]

Ah thanks!  

I didn't realise the update was still pending... I did an update just before I posted and there were 14 pending updates, but Tofu Learn wasn't one of them.

 

Sorted now.

 

[Luxi]

Here's a Tofu Learn feature I discovered recently. I don't know whether it's new or has been there all along, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere and I find it very useful. It's a way to collect vocabulary to study later from an ebook or document you're reading. I am using it with the Kindle App on iPad (it's probably also good in Android), but it also works on other ebook or document readers (not sure about pdfs). It combines the clipboard in iOS and the Quick Add function in Tofu Learn to extract a vocabulary list (card set) without disrupting the reading too much. This is how to do it.

 

While reading your ebook, keep also Tofu Learn's Quick Add screen open in the background. When you want to save a word or something from the book to review later, select (highlight) that word and Copy. Then go to Tofu Learn, focus on the Quick Add screen and, lo and behold, most of the times your selection is there*, under Word. Press AUTO FILL (though this seems to be done automatically) and then, very importantly ADD WORD (this is the Save function), you can now go back to your ebook until the next word comes along. This way, you can keep a list (set of cards) of terms for later review while you read with a minimum of time and effort.

* If not there, do it again or try Paste.

 

It seems best to move your per-chapter or whatever list out of Quick Add and onto a new list before starting to study the new vocabulary, just to be able to keep your lists in order rather than as a massively big set of words. This is a bit inconvenient because you can only edit a list on a Desktop browser (Or Chrome browser on iPad? ).  To do this, log into tofulearn.com on your browser,  open 'MY WORD LIST' / MY DECK (it will say something like "this list was automatically created with Quick Add) / Authoring Tools  and hit Clone.  This copies  your list onto a new list ('My Deck Clone') that you can then rename and use for study.

You can then also delete the words you had in Quick Add to avoid ending up with something unmanageable.

 

I'm not sure whether this is clear enough, but it is much easier done than said. Have fun trying.

 

 

 

 

 

[Moshen]

I've been trying to clone the TofuLearn HSK 5 Pinyin deck, and since yesterday each time I try to do this from their website, I get the message that the connection to the server failed. I've tried it on two different computers, with the same frustrating result.

Yet I downloaded another deck easily.

I posted something about this on their General Discussion board with no reply.

I am wondering if there's someone who is really tech-y who would be willing to try cloning this deck for me and then uploading it with another name? (Tell me what the name is, of course).

Again, the deck is HSK 5 Pinyin (not HSK 5 Recognition).

Thanks!

[AdGilBai]

I'm new to Tofu Learn. I like the price as compared to Skritter. I went through the help files, but I'm still a bit confused as to what is the difference between decks and lists. What do you study from or can you study from both? 

[mungouk]

Hi, welcome to the forums.

 

A "deck" on Tofulearn is what you study. It uses a word list. A deck has information like which words you've studied, when they need to be reviewed, etc.

 

If you "clone" a word list to make your own copy of it, it appears under "My word lists". You can edit it if you go to tofulearn.com in a browser, but not on the app — this is possibly what confuses everyone.

 

When you want to start studying the word list, you create a deck from it — if there isn't one already then you see a message in the app "You don't yet have a deck for this word list. Create one to start learning. [START LEARNING BUTTON]"

 

I've recently gone back to using Tofulearn for blasting my way through all the HSK 5 vocabulary, and I agree it works great for free. For me, using it on my iPad hits the sweet spot for usability, comfort, pacing etc. and the SRS seems effective.

 

 

[AdGilBai]

Hi! 

 

Thanks a lot for your answer. I like to do things my own way. I am studying word lists on Tofu Learn. I'm also reading some newspaper articles and children's books. Plus, I try to read everything in the environment around me (I live in Taipei). 

 

I have one more question about Tofu Learn. It seems like you can delete a deck, but you can't delete individual characters. Is that right? Trying to keep my decks organized and not out of control. 

 

Best!

[Jan Finster]

On 3/27/2022 at 12:54 AM, AdGilBai said:

I like the price as compared to Skritter

 

Does it cost anything? Last time (2021) I tried TofuLearn it was free.

[AdGilBai]

Quote

On 4/11/2022 at 7:00 PM, Jan Finster said:

Does it cost anything? Last time (2021) I tried TofuLearn it was free.

Free. Yep. It's free. That is a much better price than Skritter. And, cheapo me likes that.

 

[TaxiAsh]

On 4/11/2022 at 6:28 AM, AdGilBai said:

but you can't delete individual characters. Is that right?

When you are studying the cards, click ignore, and you won't see it again. 

 

So for example,

my HSK1 deck from 150 cards, now has 2 cards to review

my HSK2 deck from 150 cards, now has 42 cards to review

my HSK3 deck from 300 cards, now has 63 cards to review

 

etc.

 

Obviously you have to choose your own way to decide what to ignore... for me it is a character or word I can't remember in under about 1 second. i.e. If I have to think about it, it doesn't get ignored.

On 4/11/2022 at 6:28 AM, AdGilBai said:

I like to do things my own way. I am studying word lists on Tofu Learn.

Also, a tip, in case you don't already do this, a great way to use this APP, is when you get a 2 character compound word with a new character, click on it (the single character), and look at all the other compound words that it is attached to.

This generally gives me a better idea of the 'general' meaning of it when seen in other compounds, and often helps me when I see it in future. e.g. 判断 (which I remember in one list) 判 I see often now in words to do with judgements/decisions - so I remember this one as 'cut someone in half' (though I know we all have different ways of remembering things. ?

 

 

[Moshen]

Quote

I've been trying to clone the TofuLearn HSK 5 Pinyin deck, and since yesterday each time I try to do this from their website, I get the message that the connection to the server failed. I've tried it on two different computers, with the same frustrating result.

 

I finally came up with a workaround for this!  I simply uninstalled the app, then signed up again with a different email address.  It now thinks I am a new user and I have totally fresh decks, which is what I wanted originally.  (This solution should have been obvious to me before, but it wasn't.)

[dawoniu]

I like Tofu Learn and am a subscriber of the pro version. Used Skritter, which is good, but absurdly expensive when not using it every day. In the past Skritter had a vacation mode but they removed it. So a competitor like Tofu Learn is really good.

[Aslaksen]

I am very happy with Tofu Learn. Very useful!

[Thanhnguyen308]

@tofulearn tofu learn is absolutely perfect. Could you change the API from flicker to google or another searcher? The flickr api most of the time doesnt provide good picture meaning of the characters. Thank you. 

[Bobxiong]

I have tried it, it is a really nice learning tool. But it seems that it comes with some inappropriate images for kids. Is there anyway to disable or delete those sexy images?

[Luxi]

@Bobxiong Tofu Learn doesn't come with images, and I have never seen any images in the Public Lists. If there are any, they have been added to cloned or private lists by users, probably deliberate tampering. If you have any list with inaproppriate images in your decks, just delete that list from your deck and replace it with an original list with the same content but without images. Report the lists with unsuitable images in the Feedback section.

 

I would also run a thorough virus checker in your device(s) and make sure your OS is up to date with security upgrades.