[Feature Request] Ability to draw characters of sign-based languages (App)

Welcome to the Forum! General Discussion
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When learning languages with a foreign charackter-system (like chinese) a (maybe optional or Pro only?) learning-step that requires drawing (instead of just recognizing) would be great to improve the active part of my language skills. Instead of implementing full character-recognition an easier alternative could be to enable a “drawing area” on the screen with the tap on a button (like in the Pleco-App, at least on Android; see B and C) and let the user decide whether he was right by himself.

Implementing stroke-order diagrams (see A) would be a great bonus but probably a bit over the top.

composed
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In the image:

  • A: Stroke order diagram (paid feature) of Pleco
  • B: Drawing-area in the search-function of Pleco
  • C: Drawing-overlay in the (paid) vocabulary learning feature of Pleco
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That would benefit me GREATLY as a learner of Japanese. But where would it fit in? And wouldn’t you run out of time really easily?

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You could disable time-limits for this. Also I only use the App where I do not experience these limits. When learning new words the steps for each word you go through are recognize character, type word in your language (e.g. Chinese word given, you need to write German), type word in target language (e.g. German word given, you need to type Chinese Pinyin (phonetic transcription), choose sound-sample based on a given German/Chinese phrase, choose from multiple choices based on a given phrase, etc…
On of these steps could easily be draw the character based on German/Pinyin, with two-step verification: 0. Draw character 1. Show real character 2. confirm if you are right.

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I would love to have this added as well. It would be especially nice on a tablet with pen support, such as the iPad and the Apple Pen.

A very easy way to implement it, could be to do it like the pronunciation of words: Initially simple show a sequence of how to draw the character and let the user draw it above the shown character. Then for repeated learning, let the user draw the character out of memory. Afterwards he should be able to display the expected result and he can manually confirm or reject whether he did draw the character correctly (similar to playing back your own recorded voice and compare it to an expected recording provided with the course).

A bit more sophisticated solution could use a handwriting recognition software, like MyScript that detects the character drawn by the user and compares it to the expected character.

The best solution would even detect if the strokes where made in correct order and direction, but is probably not as easy to implement.