Playing a card game or board game in Chinese

Chinese word cards

Some time ago I made a board game as a fun way to help with recognizing and remembering Chinese characters. It is fashioned after the game called “Sequence for Kids”. Instead of cards showing different animals, this “Chinese Sequence” uses cards showing Chinese characters or words. It is best played by two people, such as a teacher and a student, or two students who have become familiar with the game.

Game board with Chinese characters

 

I. Construction

I bought blank cards the size of poker cards, printed the Chinese words on large labels, then affixed the labels onto the blank cards. You will need two identical sets of cards, with 19 cards in each set. The same set of words are printed on two sheets of ledger paper that are joined together to serve as the game board. One half of the game board is pictured here. As the players will be sitting face-to-face across the game board, the two sheets will be joined and positioned such that the Chinese words can be read right-side-up by each player. Unlike Sequence for Kids, I don’t use wild cards. However, the board does provide a free space at each corner. You can use the pieces that come with Sequence for Kids or some other board game, or collect two different colors of plastic bread bag clips (bread tags), 19 pieces each.

The pictures here show the Chinese words with their pinyin annotations. You could omit the pinyin to make the game more challenging.

II. How to Play

Let’s call the players A and B. They are encouraged to speak only Chinese during the game.

Each player chooses the color of the playing pieces and collects his/her pieces in one pile. The players shuffle their own deck of cards then draw the top three cards. If Player A sees a word on the board that matches the first word on one of his/her cards, Player A lays that card aside and places one of his/her pieces on the spot of the board showing that word. Player A draws a new card. Player B gets the turn to do likewise.

The goal of the game is to get four pieces lined up consecutively in a straight row, column or diagonal. A blank space can be counted as part of the sequence. The player would usually try to take advantage of it when feasible. There is strategy involved. Sometimes it is more advantageous to block the progress of the other player’s sequence than to build up your own sequence.

The first person to make the sequence wins the game, and he/she receives one point. The players could agree on a set number of games to play over a period of time. Whoever gets the most points is the final winner.

After the players have familiarized themselves with the first word on the cards, then they will switch to playing the game by matching and calling out the second word on the card with the board. When they have learned all the 57 words, you could make new cards a new boards for them to use.

Another fun way to use the word cards is to give each player 5 or 6 cards and encourage them to make a simple sentence out of the hand. The player gets one point for each card used in the sentence. Those cards are laid aside, and replacement cards drawn.

All right, here are a few card game terms for you to learn:

请洗牌.
Qǐng xǐ pái.
Please shuffle the cards.

请发牌.
Qǐng fā pái.
Please deal the cards.

请给我一张牌.
Please give me a card.
Qǐng gěi wǒ yīzhāng pái.

谢谢.
Xièxiè.
Thanks.

不客气.
Bùkèqi.
You’re welcome.

轮到我了.
Lún dào wǒ le .
My turn.

轮到你了.
Lún dào nǐ le.
Your turn.

我的牌是 . . .
Wǒ de pái shì . . .
Your card is . . .

这一盘我赢了.
Zhè yī pán wǒ yíng le.
I won this game.

这一盘你输了.
Zhè yī pán nǐ shū le.
You lost this game.

三 比 二.
Sān bǐ èr.
3 to 2.

平手.
Píngshǒu.
It’s a draw.

Have fun!

中秋節快樂!
Happy Moon Festival!