Hanzi
We're a little early with this post, but...
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!
This morning we chose to play Hanzi, a game originally released by EmperorS4, and re-released in English by Deep Water Games. Hanzi is a matching game in which players must find Chinese characters, or hanzi. Each player is initially given three 'task cards' which show the hanzi that they must try to find. On their turn, the player chooses one of their three task card, and tries to locate that character by finding two matching hanzi among the tiles. If they do not find a match, the player receives a 'creation token' and their turn is over.
A player can choose to use one creation token at the start of their turn to reveal three tiles, instead of two. They may also use two creation tokens to swap task cards; I chose to omit this rule so that the kiddos would have to use the tasks they were given.
If a match is found, the player takes the tiles, draws a new task card, and replenishes the game board from the tile deck. Each pair of matched tiles consists of one tile that states how many points are gained for the match, and one tile that gives the player an additional action they may take. These additional actions can allow for players to block others' actions, to draw additional task cards, and more. Play continues until a player scores 10 points.
We chose to ignore the additional actions gained by matched tile cards, in order to simplify the game on our first playthrough.
Genevieve and Benjamin, in particular, are big fans of matching games. In turn, I love introducing the children to new cultures and languages. At its core, Hanzi is a matching game with some extra twists. The thing that sets it apart from elementary matching games, though, is the added benefit of learning how the modern Chinese characters were built from precursor symbols. Each task card consists of a Chinese character, its English translation, and test that describes the components of the character.
For example: the task card with the symbol for hand (Chinese: shǒu) is 手 which is described as four fingers (three extended and one curled). The focus is not on learning how to speak Chinese, but rather to translate Chinese characters.
We played through the game once, and I was first to gain 10 points. As has become our custom, we continued to play until everyone had 10 points. I was surprised how quickly we were able to identify the various symbols by using the descriptions of the characters.
The children enjoyed playing Hanji so much that they decided to take it with them to a Chinese New Year celebration this afternoon! I'm hoping that they enjoy so much that they want to play again when they get home, as I enjoyed it quite a bit, as well.
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!
This morning we chose to play Hanzi, a game originally released by EmperorS4, and re-released in English by Deep Water Games. Hanzi is a matching game in which players must find Chinese characters, or hanzi. Each player is initially given three 'task cards' which show the hanzi that they must try to find. On their turn, the player chooses one of their three task card, and tries to locate that character by finding two matching hanzi among the tiles. If they do not find a match, the player receives a 'creation token' and their turn is over.
A player can choose to use one creation token at the start of their turn to reveal three tiles, instead of two. They may also use two creation tokens to swap task cards; I chose to omit this rule so that the kiddos would have to use the tasks they were given.
If a match is found, the player takes the tiles, draws a new task card, and replenishes the game board from the tile deck. Each pair of matched tiles consists of one tile that states how many points are gained for the match, and one tile that gives the player an additional action they may take. These additional actions can allow for players to block others' actions, to draw additional task cards, and more. Play continues until a player scores 10 points.
We chose to ignore the additional actions gained by matched tile cards, in order to simplify the game on our first playthrough.
Genevieve and Benjamin, in particular, are big fans of matching games. In turn, I love introducing the children to new cultures and languages. At its core, Hanzi is a matching game with some extra twists. The thing that sets it apart from elementary matching games, though, is the added benefit of learning how the modern Chinese characters were built from precursor symbols. Each task card consists of a Chinese character, its English translation, and test that describes the components of the character.
For example: the task card with the symbol for hand (Chinese: shǒu) is 手 which is described as four fingers (three extended and one curled). The focus is not on learning how to speak Chinese, but rather to translate Chinese characters.
We played through the game once, and I was first to gain 10 points. As has become our custom, we continued to play until everyone had 10 points. I was surprised how quickly we were able to identify the various symbols by using the descriptions of the characters.
The children enjoyed playing Hanji so much that they decided to take it with them to a Chinese New Year celebration this afternoon! I'm hoping that they enjoy so much that they want to play again when they get home, as I enjoyed it quite a bit, as well.
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