SCL Group

Learning a new language is often associated with vocabulary lists, grammar exercises, and reading practice. But typing can also be an interesting way to become more familiar with how words look, sound, and are structured.

One format I recently found interesting is the use of real metro station names as typing material.

Instead of typing random words, the learner follows an actual subway route and enters station names one after another. A guide to this idea can be found on Metro Typing, which documents a Korean typing game built around real railway and subway stations.

What makes this format interesting from a language-learning perspective is that station names are not completely arbitrary. They are tied to geography, repeated during travel, displayed on maps, and often encountered in both the local writing system and romanization.

For example, a learner studying Korean may repeatedly encounter names such as Seoul, Hongdae, Gangnam, or Jamsil. Typing these names creates a small connection between:

visual recognition → keyboard input → geographic context

That is quite different from memorizing an isolated vocabulary list.

Why Place Names Work Well for Typing Practice

Place names have several useful characteristics.

First, they are short enough to type repeatedly without becoming exhausting.

Second, they naturally contain recurring syllables and character combinations. Over time, learners begin recognizing these patterns without consciously thinking about every individual key.

Third, a subway map provides an existing structure. Instead of being presented with fifty unrelated words, the learner progresses from one station to the next along a route.

This gives the exercise a small sense of progress and exploration.

Could the Same Idea Work for Chinese?

I think this concept could also be interesting for Chinese language learning.

Imagine practicing Chinese input by following the Hong Kong MTR, Beijing Subway, Shanghai Metro, or Taipei Metro.

A learner could see:

Central → 中環

Admiralty → 金鐘

Wan Chai → 灣仔

and then type the Chinese station name using their preferred input method.

The objective would not necessarily be to teach the entire language. Instead, it could provide a lightweight way to practice character recognition, place names, and keyboard input at the same time.

For students who already live in or are familiar with a city, the geographic context might make the words easier to remember.

A Small Example of Gamified Language Practice

Typing games obviously cannot replace structured language study. However, they can make repetitive practice feel less repetitive.

Projects such as Metro Typing show how something as ordinary as a subway map can become an interface for practicing another writing system.

It would be interesting to see more experiments that combine language learning with familiar real-world datasets such as metro stations, street names, landmarks, or maps.