Huntington Beach, California – Mandarin Chinese is spoken and understood by well over one billion people worldwide and is notorious for being the hardest language to learn. As business opportunities continue to arise in Asia, mastering Mandarin is becoming more and more important.
Enter PinYinPal, a new app for the iPad that makes it easy to define, read, and recognize Chinese characters. This is the first and only viable word game available in pinyin and comes in a format that many will recognize. Think of it as Words with Friends with a twist.
PinYinPal is the brainchild of Adeline Yen Mah, author of the New York Times best-seller “Falling Leaves” and founder of Chinesecharacteraday.com Foundation. She said, “I set out to create a game that makes learning Mandarin fun. I’m convinced that the future of language learning lies in playing games, consumed in bite-sized chunks on tablets or mobile phones.” Dr. Mah and her husband, Robert, first conceptualized the game in their living room, playing with pieces of cardboard and paper. Little did they know the project would blossom into something more impactful.
“The first version of PinYinPal is being offered in English. However, at this very moment, our game is being translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Japanese and Korean. It is my dream that all the people of the world will unite while playing PinYinPal and learning Chinese. Regardless of one’s mother tongue, the basic programming is the same. By tapping a button, a Russian can play with an American; or a Chinese with a Japanese, without knowing one another’s language,” says Dr. Mah.
But wait, isn’t Chinese made up of characters? That’s the beauty of pinyin; it is the Mandarin vocabulary spelled out with the alphabet. PinYinPal includes a built-in Dictionary and Word Finder, which act as guides during the game. Because of this, novices who don’t know any Chinese can play competitively against native Chinese speakers from the first turn. Players are pitted against their friends on social networks or random opponents, and challenged to take turns spelling pinyin words.
Some of the other key features include:
* The ability to chat with an opponent in both English and Chinese characters
* The game is completely ad-free and there are no in-app purchases required to play
* Word Finder will analyze the letters in your rack and teach you what pinyin words to play
* Dictionary and Word Finder feature include audio pronunciations for each word
* View the characters associated with the pinyin words played on the board at the tap of a button
* Earn extra points by recalling the correct character and meaning of the word you just played
* Brag on Facebook about your high scores and successful games
Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iOS 5.0 or later
* 17.6 MB
Pricing and Availability:
PinYinPal 1.0.2 is only $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category. It will be available soon on iPhone and other iOS devices.
PinYinPal 1.0.2
Download from iTunes
YouTube Video (Trailer)
Media Assets
Chinese Character a Day Foundation is dedicated to teaching Mandarin Chinese to anyone who wishes to learn. It was founded by Dr. Adeline Mah, a physician and writer. Born in China, Dr. Mah lives in California with her husband, Professor Robert Mah, a microbiologist. In 1997, she wrote her memoir “Falling Leaves,” which became an international best-seller. To bridge the gap between East and West, she and Bob established their Foundation with the book proceeds. Conceived in the Mahs’ living room, PinYinPal was first played on a sheet of paper with cardboard cut-outs as letter-tiles. The Mahs are grateful for the help given to them in this endeavor by their nephew Larry Mar and Larry’s secretary, Ashley Gish. Copyright (C) 2013 Chinese Character a Day Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
