User:Jaapgrolleman/Chinese Character Fun Map

"GoEastMandarin's Character Fun!" is a Roblox map to learn 15 basic Chinese characters in Roblox. Players can type the Pinyin pronunciation to progress, and a panda will guide them through each of the 15 gates. The gates each have their own character, such ‘sun’, ‘cow’, ‘up’, or ‘big’.

It is created by a Chinese language school, GoEast Mandarin. “We think video games can be a perfect mix of entertainment & education. We made some educational videos for adults in Fortnite before on our YouTube, and now we want to explore Roblox because it suits children. Right now, it’s the most popular game in the US for 5- to 12-year olds, and there are so many possibilities to combine education & entertainment.

Then there’s the educational aspect. We know that kids (especially from 6 to 9 years old) learn most effectively through storytelling and immersion. In a normal class, teachers teach them Chinese through story-telling, where they will create their own worlds in their imagination, but here the game does that. They also learn effectively through absolutes, such as ‘the biggest’ and ‘the smallest’. It’s a very different way of learning than adults do; adults ‘learn’ a second language (such as Chinese), really studying the grammar rules & vocabulary —while children ‘acquire’ second languages more intuitively.

Of course, one Roblox map doesn’t replace a real Chinese course, but it is worth trying out and exploring this. We think online education is still at its infant stage, with so many new possibilities coming out in the next decade which we cannot foresee now. But we definitely think gaming will be part of it — both for kids & for adults.”