How can I use Board Games to help learn English?

Question

I have set two goals here:

1. Introduce my wife to board gaming
2. Improve her English.

Does anyone have personal experience with similar goals that could recommend a best course of action?

Answer 1

Tales of the Arabian Nights

This game has a ton of reading, but simple mechanics. You'll be getting a fun game, and an English exercise at the same time. Your wife will practice:

• Reading English text aloud
• Listening to English (when others read)
• Reading English text silently (from cards / other private information sources)
• Conversing in English (playing the game!)

Answer 2

I think getting a few card games that have English on the cards would be an excellent idea.
Of course, from a game standpoint, you want to make sure that not being conversant with the language isn't much of a hinderance. You don't want to have to show your hidden cards to get a translation every single turn. To that end, I've come up with a few suggestions off the top of my head, ranked in order from least to most difficult for a non-English speaker to understand. All are good 2 player games, and all but the last one play well with more as well.

• Citadels - There are a few role cards with descriptions of their powers on them, and a bunch of building cards, usually with just the title on them, but there are a few buildings which also have special powers listed on them.

• San Juan - Each building card has their powers written on them, but there are still only a handful (20-30, IIRC) to deal with. These blurbs are no more than a few words in each case. There are a few public-facing role cards as well, again, nothing more than a few words each.

(Large dividing line between the first two and these two. Tread carefully.)

• Agricola - There are a ton of specialty cards, each of which has a description of their power on them. Only a fraction of them are used in any game, so you'll have to play a lot to see them all. (Personal note: I own the German edition, and can vouch for using this game to help learn another language)

• 1960: The Making of a President - Ton of cards, ton of flavor text, detailed descriptions of the card's power on each one. Certainly not a good choice to start out with, but this would be a good test once you need something more difficult.

Answer 3

Dominion might work.

• If you start with just the basic set you can limit the diversity of Kingdom cards to keep it from being overwhelming. Then as she becomes comfortable with the contents of one set you can add an expansion.
• The basic concepts of counting money and actions and buys have symbols and numbers to help make up for the language barrier.
• That said, the game is very careful about how verbs (such as discard, trash, gain, reveal, etc.) are used. That might be useful in terms of practically teaching the subtle differences between these words.
• The cards in your hand at any given time may be secret, but the cards available in the game are there for everyone to see, so she can ask for help (hey, what's that card mean again) without giving up what's in her hand.
• The English comprehension isn't really that critical to winning so she might be able to give you a run for your money despite your fluency.