Zhuyin's Treasure Hunt

thingiverse

So I've currently been studying Mandarin Chinese for a little over a year and when I came across @SexyCyborg 's design "Thieves' Purse- a game for building spatial visualization and Chinese reading skills" I was inspired. Her idea and concept is a really well thought one and I wanted to build upon it in this design. I like the idea of using a game as a means of being able to teach children/players to develop spatial skills by using touch. I believe being hands on this way is really beneficial to the learners because it uses the brain in multiple ways to develop intuitive and reinforced solutions to problem solving. To quote SexyCyborg directly "it requires the player have a strong mental image, and be able to rotate that image in their mind." I cannot agree more because having this ability will be a solid foundation for Chinese language learners and for building spatial intelligence. However, In this approach I decided to take a step back from 'Chinese character reading' and focus more on 'Chinese pronunciation.' One reason for doing this is because of the shear number of Chinese characters. From what I've read there are thousands upon thousands of characters, some say 10,000+. Therefore, to try to continually update your coins to learn new characters didn't quite seem efficient to me. Luckily, for us, there is a romanized phonetic system called pinyin which helps with the phonetic pronunciation of the Chinese words and Characters. This method is very effective for teaching beginners how to speak properly. It is also useful when translating and texting as 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. Likewise, there is a less known phonetic system called Zhuyin(bopomofo). This system is primarily used in Taiwan and is taught in kindergarden and first grade. The Taiwanese school system uses Zhuyin to lay a solid foundation for Chinese pronunciation, and stroke order, and then in first or second grade begins teaching Traditional Character writing. Unlike the ten thousands of Chinese characters, Zhuyin uses only 37 characters and 4 tones. This is a number that I can manage to design and easily remember. All while providing the same game challenges set forth in SexyCyborgs original game concept. Similarly, Zhuyin(Bopomofo) can also be useful when texting and translating as it also has its own keyboard, but unlike pinyin, learning Zhuyin 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 4 tones available to you using @SexyCyborgs design as a medium. I want to keep the same ideas of choosing coins blindly, and guessing the coins character based on the way they feel. However, I want to add the challenge of creating words with the Zhuyin and use those words in a point system of sorts. This may require you to print out two sets of coins, but hey the 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 incaptivate children. However, I do not 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 being said I've decided to call this version "Zhuyin's Treasure Hunt". I challenge you all to help make a story and rules set based off of @SexyCyborg 's "Bàn Jī and the Thieves' Purse" located athttp://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 . Thankss 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%