The current 'meanings' approach is not effective for learning Chinese. It can be done way better like this.

[FreGeh]

Problem Description

The Anki Deck for Chinese provides too many unrelevant meanings for words. For example 17 meanings for a simple word like ‘对’ / 'duì', of which only 11 are commonly used in everyday speech. These can be further condensed into 6 distinct meanings by grouping overlapping definitions (e.g., combining "Right" and "Correct" into "Right/Correct" or "Pair" and "Couple" into "Pair/Couple").

This overload of information makes the deck less effective for any user focused on learning the most relevant meanings for daily communication (Most users belong to this group). Users are left unsure which definitions matter most and are overwhelmed by the excess detail spread across the screen.

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Proposed Solutions

1. Simplify the data by using a source focused on the most relevant meanings.

   • Pro: Easier for beginners to study and understand. Simple to implement.
   • Con: May not satisfy advanced learners seeking a deeper understanding. (<- solved if the user can select which source they want to use (Simple/Advanded))

2. Combine multiple sources and use formatting to emphasize the most common meanings.

   • Pro: Balances simplicity for beginners while retaining details for advanced users.
   • Con: Harder to implement.

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Conclusion

As you’ve mentioned:

There are two simple concepts behind Anki: active recall testing and spaced repetition.

To align with these principles, the deck should focus on reducing complexity and emphasizing the most relevant meanings for everyday use. Unlike a dictionary, an Anki deck should prioritize learning efficiency by enabling users to:

1. [Look at the Chinese character]
2. [Recall its meaning/Pinyin/etc.]
3. [Show the answer]
4. [Instantly assess correctness]

It should not involve:

• Reading through an exhaustive list of definitions.
• Getting overwhelmed by not knowing which meanings are important for everyday use and therefore not knowing what to focus on.

If there's any way for me to help, let me know in what way exactly I could go about implementing this. I'd really like to. Because despite this basic flaw, I really enjoy using your decks and they help me a lot :)

[krmanik]

It all about creating a new card template, or option to let user to select among multiple card template, some may prefer simple, FrontSide - Simplified, BackSide - Meaning.

So you can create pull request for the features, everything that needed for generating the decks are in create.tsx file.