A teacher in China has invented a new mahjong game that is designed to teach students English.

Tian Jingyun, headmaster of the Jitou Middle School in Chengdu, in southwest China’s Sichuan province, created the game which replaces the symbols and numbers on the tiles of the traditional ancient Chinese game with English letters.

Tian Jingyun, headmaster of the Jitou Middle School invented a special mahjong game to help students learn English. (Photo: West China Metropolis Daily)

The goal is to help his students learn English.

Students play “English Mahjong” on May 31 at the Jitou Middle School in Chengdu, Sichuan province in southwest China. (Photo: West China Metropolis Daily)

In the game, each tile stands for an English letter, and the number of tiles for each letter differs according to the letter’s frequency in the text.

(Photo: West China Metropolis Daily)

For example, there are eight tiles for the letter “i” but only two tiles for the letter “b” in his set of mahjong. Students have to draw and discard tiles to spell words.

(Photo: West China Metropolis Daily)

The more words they spell, the higher their scores will be. The one who gets the highest score has to make a sentence and tell a story with the words he or she has made to end the game.

(Photo: West China Metropolis Daily)

Story by China.org.cn