Very Chinese Time

How it works

How you learn Chinese in the game

Updated

Very Chinese Time in My Life teaches spoken Mandarin through everyday conversations that you answer out loud. Someone speaks to you. The words you need appear with pinyin and English. You say them, and the person reacts to what you said.

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What a conversation in the game looks like

Here is an example from the first day. You are eating beef noodles in a small noodle shop. The owner comes over.

  1. Someone speaks to you

    要喝什么吗？ (yào hē shén me ma?)Want anything to drink?

    You see the line with pinyin over each character and English underneath.

  2. The words appear as cards

    • 我 (wǒ)I
    • 喜欢 (xǐ huan)like
    • 喝 (hē)drink
    • 红茶 (hóng chá)black tea

    Each card is one word, with its pinyin and meaning. You can see how the sentence is built.

  3. You say each word, then the sentence

    我喜欢喝红茶 (wǒ xǐ huan hē hóng chá)I like to drink black tea

    Say the words one by one into the microphone. Then say the whole sentence. If you do not want to speak, you can click instead.

  4. The person reacts

    好嘞，一杯红茶！ (hǎo lei, yì bēi hóng chá!)OK, a cup of black tea!

    There is no score and no red X. The owner brings your tea and the scene goes on.

If you choose coffee instead

我喜欢喝咖啡 (wǒ xǐ huan hē kā fēi)I like to drink coffee
哎呀你这年轻人，吃面还喝咖啡啊？ (āi yā nǐ zhè nián qīng rén, chī miàn hái hē kā fēi a?)Oh my, you young person! Eating noodles and drinking coffee?

The owner is surprised, then goes out to buy you a coffee. A different answer leads to a different result. This is the main idea of the game: what you say changes what happens.

Why the game starts with speaking

In the first days in China, most of the Chinese you need is spoken. A driver asks where you are from. A stall owner asks how many buns you want. A stranger tells you to go straight and turn right. You have a few seconds to understand and answer.

Reading takes much longer to learn, because you learn each character on its own. Saying 这zhè个ge (this one) while you point at a bun works on the first morning.

Characters are still on every word, with pinyin above and English below, so you see them from the start. The game does not ask you to read them without help or to write them.

You learn each phrase in the place where you use it, and you say it to a person who is waiting for your answer. The places are the ones a visitor sees in a week, from the airport to dinner with a family.

Why pinyin is written the way it is said

The game writes the tones people actually say. If you copy the pinyin in the game, you say the phrase the way people say it.

Pinyin is Chinese written in the Latin alphabet. The mark over a vowel shows the tone.

In speech, some tones change because of the syllable that comes next. Dictionaries and textbooks write the tone each character has on its own, and leave the changes to you. The table shows common examples.

Pinyin in a dictionary and pinyin as it is said in the game
ChineseIn a dictionaryIn the gameWhy it changes
你好 nǐ hǎo ní hǎo 你 and 好 are both third tones. When two third tones come together, the first becomes a second tone.
可以 kě yǐ ké yǐ Same as 你好: 可 comes before another third tone.
有点辣 yǒu diǎn là yóu diǎn là Same rule in a longer phrase: 有 comes before 点, another third tone.
不要 bù yào bú yào 不 becomes bú before a fourth tone.
不客气 bù kè qi bú kè qi 客 is a fourth tone, so 不 becomes bú.
一个 yī gè yí ge 一 becomes yí before a fourth tone.
一天 yī tiān yì tiān 一 becomes yì before a first, second or third tone.
只会一点点 zhǐ huì yī diǎn diǎn zhǐ huì yì dián diǎn Both rules at once: 一 becomes yì before 点, and the first 点 becomes a second tone before the second 点.

The tone colours on this site are the same as in the game: orange for the first tone, green for the second, blue for the third, pink for the fourth. Grey is for short, soft syllables with no tone mark.

To see the pinyin of your own sentence with the tone changes marked, use the free pinyin tone change tool.

Why answering out loud helps you remember

Saying your answer out loud helps for three reasons. The studies are listed under Sources at the end of this page.

  • You remember words better when you say them

    People remember words they read aloud better than words they read silently. MacLeod and colleagues showed this in a series of experiments in 2010. The difference is clearest when the same person reads some words aloud and some silently.

  • Finding the answer yourself works better than picking it

    Students who practised with short-answer questions and got feedback did better on a test three days later than students who practised with multiple-choice questions (Kang, McDermott and Roediger, 2007). Finding a word in your own memory takes more effort than spotting it in a list, and the effort helps you remember. Saying an answer out loud is one way to find it yourself.

  • It is what you will do on the trip

    On a real trip, nobody shows you three options. Someone asks a question and waits. Saying your answer to a person in a scene is closer to that than ticking a box. This is our own reasoning, not a study result.

The microphone is optional. You can turn voice input off and click your answers. If your computer has no microphone, scan a QR code and use your phone as the mic.

How review is spread over the week

The game brings each phrase back several times over the week, because practice spread out over time is remembered better than the same practice in one go. Cepeda and colleagues (2006) looked at hundreds of experiments and found this again and again. Trying to recall something also works better than reading it again (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006).

  1. Scenes

    You meet new phrases where they are used, and say them to the person in front of you.

  2. Panda review, after each part of the day

    A panda asks a question in English and shows three cards. Pick the right card, then say it out loud. The cards are the phrases you just used.

  3. At night, a friend back home

    Before you sleep, a friend messages you and quizzes you on the day, with a little teasing. You pick a reply from three. If it is right, you say it out loud, and then it is sent. At the end you see what to review.

  4. The next night, yesterday’s mistakes first

    Anything you got wrong comes first in the next night’s chat.

  5. Phrases come back in later scenes

    You first say 不bú用yòng了le (no need) to the drivers at the airport. It comes back at the breakfast stall, when the owner asks if you want anything else. 谢xiè谢xie (thank you), 多duō少shao钱qián (how much) and 这zhè个ge (this one) come back in many scenes.

What the game does not try to do

  • Free conversation

    You cannot say anything you like, as you could with a tutor or a friend. Each moment has a set of answers the game understands, including common other ways to say them.

  • Reading and writing

    The game does not teach handwriting or train reading on its own. Characters are always on screen, with pinyin and English.

  • Grammar lessons and exams

    The game does not teach grammar as a subject. It does not follow the HSK, the official Chinese test.

  • A score for each tone

    The game does not score each tone, as some apps do. It listens for the words you say and moves the scene on.

For those, see how the game compares with apps, courses and other games, or every way to learn Chinese, compared.

Questions

Why does Very Chinese Time in My Life teach speaking before reading?

Very Chinese Time in My Life teaches speaking first because that is what a visitor needs in the first days in China: answering a driver, ordering at a stall, asking the way. Reading Chinese means learning characters one by one, which takes a long time. The game shows characters on every word, with pinyin and English, so you see them from the start without being tested on them.

Why is the pinyin in the game different from my textbook?

The pinyin in Very Chinese Time in My Life shows the tones people actually say. Most dictionaries and textbooks write the tone each character has on its own. For example, 你好 is nǐ hǎo in a dictionary and ní hǎo in the game, because when two third tones come together, the first becomes a second tone.

Do I have to speak into a microphone to play?

You do not have to speak to play Very Chinese Time in My Life. It works best when you do, but you can turn voice input off and click your answers. If your computer has no microphone, you can use your phone as the mic.

Does saying words out loud help you remember them?

Saying words out loud helps you remember them, according to research. In experiments by MacLeod and colleagues (2010), people remembered words they read aloud better than words they read silently. Researchers call this the production effect.

Is Very Chinese Time in My Life a quiz app?

Very Chinese Time in My Life is not a quiz app. Most of it is everyday situations: people talk to you, you answer out loud, and what you say changes what happens. After each part of the day there is a short review with three choices, and you say the right answer out loud there too.

How is review spread out in the game?

In Very Chinese Time in My Life you meet a phrase in a scene, review it with a panda soon after, and see it again at night when a friend back home quizzes you on the day. Phrases you got wrong come first the next night, and many phrases come back in later scenes.

Does the game explain grammar?

Very Chinese Time in My Life does not teach grammar as a subject. Every word in a sentence is shown with its own English meaning, so you can see how the sentence is built, and the same patterns come back in different situations.

Sources

The studies mentioned on this page. Each link opens the paper’s page at its publisher.