How I make a game of this Learning-to-
Read-Chinese-Characters drill program

This Chinese Character Drill Program will help you learn to read Chinese.

It's really just a repetitive drill, but you can make a simple logic game out of it.

When you click on the "Character" button, a Chinese character will appear.

If you think you know the meaning of the character, click the "Answer" button,

and the answer will appear underneath the character. If you guessed correctly,

give yourself 150 points by clicking the "+150" button. Your score, displayed

at the upper left, will increase by 150 points.

If you guess wrong, then click the "-100" button to deduct 100 points

from your score. If you're not sure, rather than guess and possibly lose

100 points, you can ask for a hint by clicking the "Hint" button. This will

display 10 words, one of which is the correct answer. If after looking

at the ten words and you're pretty sure of the answer, click "Answer." If your

guess is correct, give yourself 90 points by clicking the "+90" button. But,

again, if your guess is not correct, click "-100." Anytime your guess is incorrect,

it's minus 100 on your score.

You may need more than one hint. If you ask for a second hint to deduce the answer,

give yourself 80 points. Click the "+80" button. If you need three hints, the correct

guess is worth 70 points. You can keep asking hints, but if it takes more than three

hints to find the answer, you don't get any points. But remember, you still have to

find the correct answer, or you lose 100 points. You just don't increase your score

if you ask for four or more hints.

That's how I play the game, but you can make up your own rules if you want.

It usually takes me ten to fifteen minutes to reach 3000 points. I usually play

a game of 3000 a day. It doesn't take much time, and I'm gradually learning the Chinese

characters.

Sometimes, you may want to look for a character. Whenever I make a wrong guess,

I force myself to look at the character I thought was the answer. You can search for

characters either by their number or by their meaning. Do that by clicking the "Search

by Number" or "Search by Meaning" buttons. You will be prompted to input the

number or meaning.

 

For checking purposes, there're "Next" and "Prev" (for "previous")

buttons which will show the next or previous numbered character. Those buttons are not

necessary to play the game.

 

At the bottom of the screen, are some input boxes where you can enter the minimum or the

maximum numbers you want to drill. You can change them at any time. They default to 1

and 450 right now because that's how many words are stored in the program as of April,

2022. I keep adding words as time goes on. If you wish to practice the characters between

100 and 200, for example, make the minimum 100 and the maximum 200. There's no need

to hit "Enter." Only the characters between 100 and 200 will be presented.

 

This is a simple drill game, but it will help you learn to read Chinese. Another benefit

that I've noticed is that my memory is getting better. I used to think that my memory was

getting worse, and I assumed that's what happens as we age. But since using the drill program,

I can see that memory is sort of like muscle. "Use it or lose it" applies to memory as well as

muscle. To keep your memory, learn something new. Force yourself to remember.

That's why "old" people become "forgetful." They don't practice remembering.

Hope you enjoy the game.