Number Builder
Assemble numbers, clock times, dates, and prices from script tiles in Japanese or Mandarin, with romanisation on every tile and audio on every answer.
About the author
Luke McLaughlin created Constructing Language after living in Japan and later learning Mandarin Chinese from scratch. The lessons, games, and guides are built from that first-hand learner experience and checked against native-speaker course work with Hiro for Japanese and Xiang for Mandarin Chinese.
- Lived in Japan and studied Japanese through immersion and structured self-study.
- Learned Mandarin Chinese from scratch as an adult learner.
- Created the Construction Method: audio-first sentence building, grammar graphics, and active recall.
- Built Japanese course material with Hiro and Mandarin course material with Xiang, both native-speaker collaborators.
What the builder trains
Learners tap kanji or hanzi tiles into the right order to build values like 347, 3:30, April 1st, ¥980, or 两个人. Each tile shows its romaji or pinyin, and every solution plays audio and includes a reading note for irregular forms.
- Japanese mode covers sound changes (roppyaku, hassen, ippon-style fusion), irregular dates like tsuitachi and youka, and the 万-based grouping system.
- Mandarin mode covers 两 vs 二, filling skipped places with 零, 点 and 半 for time, 号 for dates, and 块 for prices.
- Both modes reinforce that Japanese and Chinese group large numbers by 10,000 (万), not by thousands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the game include times and dates as well as numbers?
Yes. Puzzles cover plain numbers, clock times (三時半, 三点半), dates (四月一日, 五月五号), and prices (九百八十円, 九十八块).
Do I need to read kanji or hanzi already?
No. Every tile shows the script together with its romaji or pinyin, and the audio plays the full answer, so the game also works as script-reading practice.