Need some Help Picking a Game

Hussar · May 12, 2010

Hi there, thanks for stopping by. I've got myself a bit of a problem and I'm hoping you can help.

See, I teach English here in Japan. Lately, well over the past year, I've introduced one of my higher level adult classes to Catan. Worked great. They loved it. We now have a monthly board gaming "class". Great. We've beaten Catan to death and we've moved most of the way through Seafarers of Catan as well and I'm thinking it's time to move on to something else.

The question is of course, what. What should come next? I can't go too complicated as these are ESL students and their vocabulary is somewhat limited. They're pretty high level students, but far from native speaking level. I need rules and whatnot that isn't too strongly language dependent.

And there's another little wrinkle. I want to order from Amazon Japan. Which lets out Carcasonne as it's only available in German. Sigh. Been looking at Ticket to Ride, but, I wonder if that's perhaps a bit too easy. They don't need a "gateway game" as Board Game Geek calls it. They already like games.

Help.

MerricB · May 13, 2010

Good language-independent games:

* Caylus
* Power Grid
* Steam
* Tigris and Euphrates
* Ra
* Amun-Re
* Chicago Express

None of those games have language-dependent parts; the rules are another matter. Quite frankly, once you get beyond Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan there's going to be more of a rules burden. I don't need to reference the rules to play those games any more, but you'd have to be around to teach them.

Exactly how much of a burden that will be I can't tell you.

Cheers!

Hussar · May 13, 2010

Thank you muchly MerricB. I know you're a total boardgame head, so, your recommendations are really appreciated. Good grief there's a lot of games out there.

MerricB · May 13, 2010

I have over 200 of them now. Yep, there surely are!

Cheers!

JiffyPopTart · May 13, 2010

Ticket to Ride wouldn't require much reading at all. As an added bonus it would introduce the students to some American geography.

It's also pretty fun!

DS

Thanee · May 15, 2010

Shogun, of course!

english homepage
english rules
japanese rules

Bye
Thanee

Dannyalcatraz · May 15, 2010

When I first sat down to play back in the 1980s, I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but the Empire Builder railroad games are actually a lot of fun. I still play some of the variations to this day.

Another simple but classic game is Acquire.

For something a bit more "gamer-y" try Robo Rally or the classic Nuclear War. Or Munchkin! (and its myriad variations).

Generally speaking, each of these has fairly simple and straightforward rules- you probably wouldn't need a Japanese-language version (if any such existed).

(BTW, sounds like you have a pretty cool job! I'm pretty envious- I've been wanting to visit Japan for more than a decade. Besides a passing interest in anime and a lifelong love of Godzilla, I've read many novels by some of their greatest writers (like Endo, Kawabata and Mishima, translated into English), and I once started a class in Japanese, but couldn't finish due to other commitments.)

jmucchiello · May 15, 2010

All the games Merric suggested are great games with no language dependent parts. For most of them, you can find Japanese translations of the rules on BoardGameGeek.com. For example, for Power Grid this file is available. (I have no idea if it is accurate and you would have to compare it to the English rules, obviously): japanese rule book | Power Grid | BoardGameGeek

jmucchiello · May 15, 2010

Sabathius42 said:
Ticket to Ride wouldn't require much reading at all. As an added bonus it would introduce the students to some American geography.

Ticket to Ride? It requires that you can read the tickets!

Hussar · May 16, 2010

Just to point out. My students are pretty high level students. They can understand Catan in English after all - and the rules for that aren't exactly simple. Plus, there's all the conversation that goes on - the wheeling and dealing. Which is precisely why I used Catan - it forces them to talk and to talk in English.

So, basic reading skills isn't a problem. I just can't spring something like Squad Leader on them.

Or Trivial Pursuit for that matter. Or, likely, Descent.

But, thanks a HUGE bundle guys. You all rock. If I don't posrep you here, it's because I can't. Must spread around and all that.