Learning characters with fun game
f1b1
May 19, 2007, 01:22 PM posted in General DiscussionHi all,
I was thinking of writing a game to help me learn characters. Someone has done exactly what I had been thinking of, but way better than I ever could. It's called WeiLiYu, and is available free here http://weiliyu.sourceforge.net/ . A fish with a character swims down the screen. You have to type in the pinyin correctly to feed the fish. You get a percentage score at the end, plus a graphic of your troublesome characters. You can create your own vocab lists, and even save the characters you have most trouble with. Simple, fun, effective.
Phoebe
f1b1
May 20, 2007, 01:36 AMYou're welcome. I've noticed a marked jump in my character recognition after only a couple of hours.
bazza
May 20, 2007, 11:08 PMExcellent game. My tone recall is pretty shocking. lol
bazza
May 21, 2007, 01:34 PMJust had an idea for a way to remember the tones, instead of 1,2,3,4 use a,b,c,d
So:
yi1
er4
san1
si4
wu3
liu4
qi1
ba1
jiu3
shi2
becomes:
yia
erd
sana
sid
wuc
liud
qia
baa
jiuc
shib
f1b1
May 22, 2007, 08:01 AMHow does this system work, Bazza? I don't have a huge problem with tones though, and the game certainly reinforces the tones as well as the characters. Except that I entered an incorrect tone in my vocab list for one word, so that's something to be watchful for.
Kyle
May 22, 2007, 11:49 AMI actually seeing this creating more confusion--particulary with the use of the 'a' as first tone. Check out how hu becomes hua ji becomes jia etc etc
bazza
May 22, 2007, 04:12 PMYeah good point, bad idea.
franch
May 22, 2007, 04:41 PMHow about a lively script such as, say for ba: bA ba? baa ba! That's an idea I've been fiddling with ever since I had it, but in fact it's a poor one, because if you devise an alternative for yourself to the pinyin, then you lose the tone reading skills, or habit and all the pinyin you find everywhere becomes as alien as at first encounter. One must stick to the Roman tradition. Still, it's a good way to explain how not to overdo your tones.
rich
May 24, 2007, 07:26 AMHey Phoebe, Sorry to hear someone already beat you to making that program. I hope to have an impact in the understanding-character-world. Hope to download the game, but at the moment China has for some reason blocked sourceforge.net... go fig. -Rich
rich
May 25, 2007, 04:53 AMOops, China doesn't block sourceforge, just the wireless Internet I tapped into at McDonalds... heheh. So Phoebe, no need to sent it to me, even though I still have yet to download it. -Rich
man2toe
May 19, 2007, 03:46 PMThanks for the tip Phoebe:)