Learn Chinese Faster
Have you ever tried to learn Mandarin Chinese? It was not easy, until now. Why? Because we have made it fun.
We have two games designed to help you to learn Chinese fast.
NEW: Our new Vocabulary version will teach you over 100 new characters.
The original version focuses on radicals, the building blocks of Chinese. Once you know these building blocks, reading and writing Chinese becomes much easier.
How to Play
The Cards
Radical Chinese games (Vocabulary and Radicals) have three levels of play (blue, yellow and red for the Radical Game and Green, Purple and Yellow for the Vocabulary game). The Radical game covers more than 90 radicals while the Vocabulary game covers more than 100 characters.
The basic level in both games covers 30 of the more common radicals/characters and has only 6 radicals/characters displayed on each card making it easier to find a match. The upper levels each cover over 50 radicals/characters, 30 new ones along with approximately 20 from previous levels for review. The upper level cards have 8 radicals/characters displayed on each card.
All cards have two sides. One side displays only the radical/character while the other side has both the radical and the pinyin for each radical or the character, pinyin and English. This allows beginners to play the games using the side with the pinyin to learn the radical/character names. Advanced players can use the radical/character only side and use the side with the pinyin to check their knowledge or confirm any disputes or questions that may arise during play.
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Two Sides
Front and back view of two different cards to show the sides with only the radical versus the side with the radicals and pinyin.
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Find the Match
Games are based on being able to quickly and accurately find the matching radical/character on two cards. All pairs of cards have one, and only one matching radical/character. Note that the radicals/characters vary in size and color.
There are many ways that the cards can be used, included in each set are the rules for five games to get you started.
The games are broken down into ‘small group play' for 2 to 10 players and ‘large group play’ (like classrooms) for groups of 8 or more. In all cases, Chose a level to play with (blue, yellow or red for the Radical game, and green, purple or orange for the Vocabulary game) and decide if you want to use the side with or without the pinyin.
All games come with all three levels for that game.
Game 1: The Dragon’s Claw
The dealer deals one card to each player. When all players are ready, the dealer places one card from the deck in the middle of the table, the first player to identify a match between their own card and the common card in the middle of the table claims that card. An additional point can be awarded for proper pronunciation of the matching radicals or proper pronunciation must be required in order to claim the card.
The player that identified the match first, takes the common card to become their playing card and sets their other card aside. The dealer presents a new common card. Play continues until no more cards remain in the deck. The winner is decided based on the most cards collected or by a combination of points and cards.
NOTES:
Radical Chinese helps students to recognize radicals which are the building blocks of Chinese characters. Some radicals are also characters. For example, ‘大’ can be seen as a radical called: ‘dà zì páng’ or as the character ‘dà’ meaning “big” or “large”. Some radicals such as ‘氵’ sān diǎn shuǐ are not typically seen by themselves but rather only as part of a character. ‘Sān diǎn shuǐ’ which connotes ‘water’ can be found on the left side of characters such as 海 ’hǎi’ which means ‘sea’ and 湖 ‘hú’ which means lake.
Some radicals also may take on different positions (top, side, bottom) in different characters and thus may be referred to differently. For example, the radical 羊can be either ‘yáng zì páng’ as in the character 群 ‘qún’ meaning ‘group’ or it can be ‘yáng zì tóu’ as in the character 美 ’měi’ meaning ‘beautiful’. In this game, you may find a radical identified as ‘…páng’ but you are only familiar with its use as ‘…tóu’. Check with your teacher to learn about new characters using this alternative position.
Vocabulary Version
Learn 100 New Words
The Vocabulary version shows characters on one side and the character, pinyin and English definition on the other.
The Story of Radical Chinese
How 'hard' became 'Fun!'
We have kids and our kids taught us that playing is a fun way to learn. So, we created this game to help us, and you, to learn Chinese, faster!
