Zhuyin's Treasure Hunt

thingiverse

So I've been studying Mandarin Chinese for over a year now, and when I stumbled upon @SexyCyborg 's design "Thieves' Purse - A Game for Building Spatial Visualization and Chinese Reading Skills," I was really inspired. Her idea and concept are truly well thought out, and I wanted to build on them in my own design. I like the idea of using a game as a way to teach children to develop spatial skills by using touch, because being hands-on is so beneficial for learners - it engages multiple parts of the brain to create intuitive solutions to problems. To quote SexyCyborg directly, "it requires the player have a strong mental image, and be able to rotate that image in their mind." I couldn't agree more, as this ability will be a solid foundation for Chinese language learners and building spatial intelligence. However, in this approach, I decided to take a step back from 'Chinese character reading' and focus on 'Chinese pronunciation.' One reason for doing this is because of the sheer number of Chinese characters - there are thousands upon thousands, some say 10,000+. Therefore, continually updating your coins to learn new characters didn't seem efficient to me. Luckily, there's a romanized phonetic system called pinyin that helps with the phonetic pronunciation of Chinese words and characters. This method is very effective for teaching beginners how to speak properly, and it's also useful when translating and texting - most Chinese characters can be selected from a secondary menu when someone writes in pinyin. This takes away the burden of having to write every character in a small drawing space where your keyboard would normally be located. There's also a less known phonetic system called Zhuyin (bopomofo). This system is primarily used in Taiwan and is taught in kindergartens and first grade. The Taiwanese school system uses Zhuyin to lay a solid foundation for Chinese pronunciation, and stroke order, then begins teaching Traditional Character writing in first or second grade. Unlike the ten thousands of Chinese characters, Zhuyin uses only 37 characters and four tones - a number that I can easily manage to design and remember while providing the same game challenges as SexyCyborg's original game concept. Similarly, Zhuyin (bopomofo) is useful when texting and translating, but learning it gives you the beginnings of one of the most crucial concepts of learning Chinese Characters: stroke order. With that being said, I've made these 37 characters and four tones available to you using @SexyCyborg's design as a medium. I want to keep the same ideas of choosing coins blindly and guessing their character based on how they feel, but I also want to add the challenge of creating words with Zhuyin and using those words in a point system of sorts - this may require printing out two sets of coins, but hey, children will love it. Looking forward, I generally see this being used in an education setting by teachers and tutors, and I think the appeal of "treasure" will captivate children. However, I don't think the 'well-written' story of "Bàn Jī and the Thieves' Purse," which may encourage children to steal, will go over too well with teachers or parents - that's why I've decided to call this version "Zhuyin's Treasure Hunt." I challenge you all to help make a story and rules set based on @SexyCyborg's "Bàn Jī and the Thieves' Purse" located at http://sexycyborg.net/Ban_Ji_and_the_Thieves_Purse.html. This project will be updated in the future as a story develops and rules are formally set. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading my word wall. If you like my work and designs, you can also find me (@midheaventech) on Twitter, Tumblr, Thingiverse, Instructables, Etsy, 3DHubs, Patreon - I'm just getting started, so if places seem kinda bare here and there, thank you for understanding. If anyone has any tips and tricks, I'm open to all feedback. Thanks! Don't forget to check out the original design and like/follow @SexyCyborg. P.S. Here is a wiki page about Zhuyin - this will further explain how to use it and the sounds each character makes. Print Settings Printer Brand Printrbot Printer Simple White Rafts No Supports No Resolution 0.3mm Infill 100%