Chinese Learning Application

[Rudi]

Firstly, I would like to apologise if I'm not abiding by the forum rules or have posted this in the wrong forum. If that is the case, please move this thread to where it should be. Thank you very much.

For a project in university, I am creating an application to aid people to Chinese characters. Unlike most other applications, I'm not aiming for teaching people how to write, but rather how the characters are formed. For me, this application is more about making it a learning tool/game that will not only help you learn, but it will also have a competitive side to it also. Feel free to have a look at the image below to see what it currently looks like.

http://ww3.sinaimg.cn/bmiddle/a88fa144gw1e34ygp5r4uj.jpg

As you can see, the aim of the game is to form a correct character from the parts given. The features I have right now are:

Stopwatch to see how long it takes to complete each character.

Player profiles that are individual so you can check your own statistics (i.e how many you got wrong, right, your best/worst characters etc).

I am however adding difficulties where bogus pieces are given, the ability to turn off/on pinyin.character definition which would be above the character you're trying to guess (this is currently not implemented but soon will be), this would make it easier for the player to know what kind of arrangement they're trying to look for, I also plan on implementing an online feature to allow people to duel online and play via sets (i.e first to get 20 right wins or something like that). Problems I have noticed with this design though is that characters that have radicals or parts which aren't square based would not work for this game i.e 过， 感， 赶. I do have another plan for these kind of characters though.

I am still in the process of developing this and would like to hear any feedback about it. What would you like to see in a game like this? Are there any features you've seen missing in other apps that you want to see in this one? Please bear in mind that this is currently a standard Java application but once I have the base done, I am planning on porting it to Android and iPhone with all the features necessary.

I would be delighted to get some answers from this community as it contributes not only to our Chinese learning but to my Final Year Project evaluation. Thank you for your time.

[imron]

If that is the case, please move this thread to where it should be.

Done.

If you want feedback, is there a way for people to actually try out the program, rather than just looking at a screenshot?

[Rudi]

I am planning on having it as an applet sometime this week I hope. I will post the link here as soon as it's done. Right now though, I'm mostly looking to see what features people would like to see in a Chinese app like this. Thanks.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Based on the screenshots, it doesn't seem like much of a learning tool.

It appears that the object of the game is to drag the components into the three vacant spaces to form the desired character, but how do you know the desired character?

Does the program give the meaning or reading in audio/pinyin?

If not it's pure guess work. Unless the learner already knows the character.

For instance, in the screenshot, for three unique objects there are only 6 permutations possible.

木心目， 木目心, 心木目, 心目木, 目木心, or 目心木

So, you try all permutations until one fits?

Or, if given the three components 木心目 and I put it together to form 想, but, I haven't learned the character or if I have seen the character before but don't remember what it means or how it's pronounced, how does this program help me?

How do you learn from that?

I guess since the class is primarily for a programming course it doesn't really matter as to content.

Kobo.

[Rudi]

Thanks for your response Kobo-Daishi. Addressing your first point, the aim of the game is to guess a character yes, I did mention in my first post that pinyin or the meaning of the character wouod be added above the empty box to give the user an idea as to what the character should be. Given that you're being timed on how fast you do it and having to check each answer, the more you try and check the answer for an incorrect permutation, the more mistakes will be added to your profile results. Your most tried permutations will also be saved and will be shown in the results screen.

Also, I did mention a player can be given bogus parts too, parts that may be similar to confuse people, for example, if you were to guess 很，I give you 3 parts for it, left, top right and bottom right, but then I also give you the radical of 狠。I agree that I'd have to give you the meaning + pinyin for you to know what you need to make. You could potentially form two correct characters （很 and 狠）, however, when a character is chosen for you to play, only that character needs to be guessed so you won't have the trouble of having multiple answers.

Like I said, this is still work in progress and I really want to get some good stuff into this program. Content matters in any Computer Science degree you do, which is why I wanted to see what people here want to see in a program.

[roddy]

You could make it into a card game where you get more points for having more components in your character - eg， 木 gets one point,, 相 gets two points ,想 gets three points and so on. And you can steal cards from your opponent to try and make better characters, or to sabotage them.

Developers can have that game for free, as I'm fairly sure it won't work in practice.