A man is trying to share his love of the English language by using the traditional Chinese game mahjong, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xue Shengli, 57, created a version of mahjong that would help him learn English words in 2007.

The 2008 Olympic Games inspired his creation, when the government encouraged Beijingers to learn the English language. Xue has obtained a patent for his invention and is trying to teach others how to play his game while learning English at the same time.

In Xue's version, the rules remain the same, but the Chinese characters on each of the 104 tiles have been replaced by English letters. Each letter of the English alphabet, 26 in total, appears on four tiles and are used to form words.

The first player to form words and match at least two letters with 14 tiles wins.

By Chen Yingqun