“I learn coding to play cool.”
“I learn coding to play cool.” says Hongyuan Li, student of CODE.GAME, learning Python currently
Learning coding for playing cool
If anyone shows off in front of Hongyuan which stimulates his competitiveness, he will definitely learn more about it and show it back.
When he was in third grade, his best friend since kindergarten, Rong Wong, learned about Scratch and introduced it to Hongyuan. It suddenly occurred to Hongyuan that coding knowldedges are barely known by his peers. If he could learn about programming, he would absolutely become the coolest kid in his class.
Since then, Hongyuan started his way of learning coding, in which he befriended with lots of “geek” friends who are also enthusiastic about programming. To take part in CODE.GAME national programming competition, he teamed up his friends and called themselves “Red Hackers”, who competed among 7,500 attendees and finally placed second.
“I love programming because I can program anything I love, and I am also enable to share it with others. Although I’m an ametuer, it is still very helpful to learn programming thinking, the logic.” says Hongyuan.
Red Hacker and his friend Rong Wong are essential for him in his way on learning programming.
Our battle team — Red Hacker
If we talk about how Hongyuan is getting more experienced in programming, Red Hacker and his friend Rong Wong will definitely be brought up.
Red Hacker team, including Hongyuan, Rong Wong and two more friends, was set up for CODE.GAME National Programming Competition. Against all odds, they finally succeeded and won silver prize.
Speaking of the key to win the competition, Hongyuan said, “It is not only coding skills but also outstanding team work that counts. Each teammate was responsible for a certain part of the project based on what they were good at.”
He added, “Rong Wong is really creative, so he is in charge of the whole idea. Other two teammates, Yizhou Li and Wenze Li are good at special effects, and I’m doing visual designs.” With clear responsibilities of each teammate, their works kept at a high level as well as creative.
Red Hacker Studio
They didn’t dismiss after competition. Last October, Red Hacker released a promotion video to establish their studio and to recruit more teammates who share the common values with more creative thoughts. With dedicated image and novel thoughts, the video soon went viral online.
Now, countless students have joined Red Hacker, and even Hongyuan can’t remember how many people they have recruited. Since the number of members is large, Hongyuan was asked if it was too hard for him to manage. He replied, “No it won’t. When we are chatting online, basically we end every sentence with a funny sticker. Evern if we do have disagreements with each other, we won’t get too mad because those stickers are really hilarious!” He was confident, “We keep communicating everyday, so we know clearly what each other is busy with, and when someone has problems, we all give our hands so he can learn and solve them, which will not only improve his skills but also ours. With so great friends as them, we make progress quickly!”
Rong Wong as a friend and also teacher
The relation between Rong Wong and Hongyuan has far gone beyond friendship after Hongyuan started learning coding. They are now friends to share lives, teammates to help each other, and also rivals to compete.
These two boys are now in 7th grade in different schools, and each of them lead a programming team. At the thought of competiting with Rong Wong, Hongyuan feels stressful.
“Rong is teaching Python, but most of my teammates haven’t never learnt about coding, so I have to start with graphical programming. That’s why I feel stressful.” he explained, “but I won’t just quit! Graphical programming can also do lots of stuff, and it is easy to start with. I trust my team, and I know we will do better than his team.”
“We took part in Scratch competition before. At that time I socred the second place, but he won the first. I felt weird. I couldn’t take it!” said Hongyuan. Though unwilling to feel surpassed by Rong, Hongyuan still learns a lot from him. Since their skills are at the same level, competition between goes fierce, in which they both improve their skills really soon. Hongyuan also admitted that he did learn a lot from Rong Wong.
For example, in primary schools, Rong Wong was elected as the head of class. He could lead the class well, and classmates always helped each other. Now, in junior school, Hongyuan is also the monitor, and according to him, he is learning from Rong to lead the class better.
Enlightened by Rong, Hongyuan also decided to establish “CODE.GAME Community” in his school. When available, Hongyuan will discuss how to run the community with his friends and start a brand new journey in his life.
Even Hongyuan has so many things to do, he keeps communicating with Rong about coding skills. He won’t feel too stressful, yet he even regrets that he should have worked harder in primary school. Enjoying the full schedule, he says he is living the life he loves.
