Playing With Chinese: How to Play

First and foremost, this is not a site for absolute beginners. If you are interested in learning Chinese but have not started the process, here's what you need to do: bookmark this page and hit the books. First, get your pinyins in order. Watch a couple videos on pinyin pronunciation. I won't link to any of them because there are a million out there (and they're all stupid as fuck). Alternatively, you can go through this site to get a handle on the different sounds in 普通话.

Could you not read those characters? Next thing you need to do is get a browser extension that does pop-up character definitions. I use Zhongwen for Chrome and can recommend it. No recommendations for Firefox users, but I know there are extensions out there. Safari and IE people... Just stop.

Use the built-in features in Zhongwen to start making your vocabulary list, or Anki, or paper flashcards, or a combination of all of them. Get a book and start burning through it like Kim fucking Peek. Learn how to write that shit because you don't want to be an illiterate 乡巴佬 (xiāngbalǎo, hick). Learning how to write the characters is essential because it helps with memorizing and differentiating similar characters.

Last but not least, make sure you take time out of your busy life to study every day.

That's it for my tips on how to begin learning Chinese. The format for how this website will offer phrases is simple:

English word/phrase - 汉字 (pīnyīn)

I may or may not include pictures, video, audio, or other resources that will help reinforce the material.

Welcome to Playing With Chinese

Playing With Chinese is a blog dedicated to two things: learning Mandarin Chinese (普通话) and playing games.

When I say playing games, I mean all games. Athletic sports are the first that come to mind for many people, but these are only a small portion of the kinds of games that are out there. Bar games, card games, video games, school yard games, board games, driving-in-a-car-and-bored games, you name it. These are all forms of entertainment that unquestionably fall under the umbrella term "games," and they are all fair game here at Playing With Chinese.

Here is a quick list of some of the games I will try to tackle in the coming months:

• Pool/Billiards
• Poker (Texas Hold'em and Five Card Stud)
• Mahjong 
• Basketball
• Chinese Chess
• Soccer/Football
• Darts
• Ping Pong
• Badminton
• Tennis
• Tag
• Freeze Tag
• Hide and Seek
• Rock-Paper-Scissors
• Capture the Flag
• League of Legends
• First-person Shooters (e.g. CrossFire)

I am not a native speaker of Chinese and I cannot say I speak Chinese, but I am fortunate enough to be living in China at the moment. I'm also a gamer in every sense of the word. All of my life I have enjoyed games, and moving to a foreign country has not changed this base motivation of mine. 

The best way to learn a language is to learn something that can be applied to real world situations and use it; this was the genesis of Playing With Chinese. Day after day, I find myself playing a game with a Chinese person who cannot speak English. Both of us, however, speak the language of the game. What better way to help bridge the language gap than to be able to chat about the game?

Just as this is a learning experience for me, I would like to pass on any knowledge to those interested. If you have recommendations for games, are fluent in Chinese and English, are interested in games or language acquisition, or just think this is a cool idea, please leave a comment!

Cheers,

Zach