This looks super interesting and I'll likely buy a printable version to start with, then purchase a real deck if I like it. Very interesting approach to language learning! These instructions, however, weren't easy to find. I watched Lamont's review (Days of French n Swedish) and then pulled up your channel to see how the game was played and had to dig a bit. This should be featured at the top of your channel page and listed in your other videos' descriptions. I look forward to trying this!
Thank you very much for your interest and support! And yes, I agree with you on that latter point...I'm going to spend some time this summer how to reorganize my channel layout better!
That's so funny what you say about UNO because I never knew about that drawing until you get the card version until I moved to Spain because my family never played with that rule. I prefer my family's version, which is like Language Guardians that you can only pick one at a time. Bravo! 🙌
EXACTLY! I like UNO, too, but I always hated that draw forever rule, so I didn't include it in the ruleset for Language Guardians. Of course, if people like that, they could just make a house rule. What's crazy, though, is that sometimes even with the just draw one rule of this game, you still might accumulate cards if you don't know what to say or you can't match something down. It happens! Anyways, I'm so glad you both like and understand what I'm trying to do with this! Your comment made my day! Cheers! --Matt
Now offering a gamified language learning program wherein we use card games just like this one! Details here --> languagecardgames.com/coaching-program/
I pronounced the fifth element "aether" wrong in this video. It should be pronounced ee-ther. Fun fact: Aether was the ancient Greek personification of the clear upper air of the sky.
Thanks for taking the time to do such a comprehensive overview. I'm an avid boardgamer who's learning Irish and Russian, so I've been interested in your games for a while. I have a bit of a problem though - my boardgaming friends are allergic to language learning and my language learning friends are allergic to gaming. Do you think this would work well for two handed solo play? I'm thinking about playing it such that with one hand I have to answer in Irish, and the other I have to answer in Russian - just to shake up my usual SRS routine. I suspect the answer to this is "yes," so in a similar vein, how useful would it be to try to solo Othertongue or Fighting Flashcards? I haven't given up on introducing my language learning friends to gaming or vice versa, but realistically, I'd need to be able to solo these to get heavy use out of them, so I'm trying to decide which ones to pick up (apart from the Leitner Box cards of course).
First, let me thank you for taking the time to leave such a special comment! I'm glad you liked the video. The problem you described with your friends is both illuminating and interesting. I cracked up when you said they are allergic! I love the way you phrased it. Haha. You've given me an idea of what to talk about in a future video because I have encountered the same thing: some people, including language learners, just do not like to game! And some gamers, don't really want to learn something in an educational way while they're playing games, they just want to simply play and entertain themselves to relax, not learn. So I totally get what you're saying. What we're doing at LCG is definitely a niche thing, but I hope we can grow this niche. And I hope you can do as I do and try to bring some people from each of those groups to the center because there are benefits to be gained by each group if they play games like this. Language learners can tap into the sociality, strategy, and organic-ness of learning with games. Gamers can actually learn a valuable skill for their life: a language! I think all it takes is someone creative and patient to introduce the games in the right way for that person and show them how it can work for them. To get to your question, there's a similar phenomenon at the base of it. I've noticed some people prefer to play the games EXACTLY by the rules and if the rules don't pin down every eventuality, they don't really like the game. If any grey areas come up, they freeze, they don't know how to proceed. They are the types of people that struggle to come up with creative ways to use the cards or creative ways to answer more abstract challenges. I'm not judging these people, just reporting the situation. I think it's a different brain type or personality type and I think they grow in new ways by working with these cards. But I think you are not in that group. I think you and I are in a different group, which sees the myriad ways we could creatively adapt and use the cards. So to answer your question, I think Language Guardians would be FANTASTIC for solo play. You could just flip through the cards one by one as challenges to test yourself, or you could technically play the game alone following the basic rules in the vid. This is actually what some customers already do to simply review what they know and warm up in preparation for playing a game with others or just for fun. Many people have let me know they like just using the cards as challenges for themselves, especially if they don't have the time or people around for a game. By the way, Language Guardians 2 is out in print-and-play now and it will be available in a professionally printed form before the end of this month. As for Othertongue and Fighting Flashcards, these games are more complex and challenging than Language Guardians. You might encounter some cards that don't have challenges on them per se, merely a rule effect. You might also encounter some cards that involve other players. But my answer is still basically the same, I think you could adapt those games, too, for solo play. To other people, I might say something different depending on what I know about them. But judging from your comment above, I think you're the kind of person who can imagine plenty of useful and exciting ways to play and learn with the cards on your own. Of course, I'm also available to play these games over video with anyone :) If you really want someone to play with sometime, you can shoot me a note at languagecardgames@gmail.com. Thanks again for your insightful and positive comment, Seanchai! Have a great week and happy language gaming! --Matt
@@MatthewRaymondBoyle Hi Matt, thanks for the in depth reply, I really appreciate it! I have some ideas for how to get more boardgamers on the language learning train, actually - in short, I think you're on the right track with the Othertongue series, but there are a few tweaks to the mechanics (less MtG, more Eurogameish) that would open up a whole new demographic to what it is that you do. (For starters, Eurogames have their origins in Germany, where gaming is seen as a family oriented, cooperative thing to do, so that mindset plays well to both the multi-cultural, multi-linguistic angle and also to the more cooperative slant that you've discussed in the past. Not all Euros are cooperative - far from it - but many competitive ones still have cooperative elements.) It's late here (GA, USA) and I don't want to ramble too much, so I'll drop you an email in the morning with further details, just to give you something to chew over - I know you're always looking to innovate and find new ways to bring language learning to the masses, which I think is awesome!
@@maccaj6565 I LOVE where you're going with this! I think the more cooperative-style games of Europe and Germany would be great to explore for the purposes of language learning. I'll look forward to getting your e-mail. --Matt
This looks super interesting and I'll likely buy a printable version to start with, then purchase a real deck if I like it. Very interesting approach to language learning! These instructions, however, weren't easy to find. I watched Lamont's review (Days of French n Swedish) and then pulled up your channel to see how the game was played and had to dig a bit. This should be featured at the top of your channel page and listed in your other videos' descriptions.
I look forward to trying this!
Thank you very much for your interest and support! And yes, I agree with you on that latter point...I'm going to spend some time this summer how to reorganize my channel layout better!
That's so funny what you say about UNO because I never knew about that drawing until you get the card version until I moved to Spain because my family never played with that rule. I prefer my family's version, which is like Language Guardians that you can only pick one at a time. Bravo! 🙌
EXACTLY! I like UNO, too, but I always hated that draw forever rule, so I didn't include it in the ruleset for Language Guardians. Of course, if people like that, they could just make a house rule. What's crazy, though, is that sometimes even with the just draw one rule of this game, you still might accumulate cards if you don't know what to say or you can't match something down. It happens! Anyways, I'm so glad you both like and understand what I'm trying to do with this! Your comment made my day! Cheers! --Matt
It’s a great looking game! 😊
Thank you!!! It was so fun to make and now to play!
I think putting the flavour text over the picture would make it more easy to appreciate but also to dismiss if you don't want to think about it.
What a great suggestion! I will definitely keep that option in mind moving forward. Thank you!
Now offering a gamified language learning program wherein we use card games just like this one! Details here --> languagecardgames.com/coaching-program/
I pronounced the fifth element "aether" wrong in this video. It should be pronounced ee-ther. Fun fact: Aether was the ancient Greek personification of the clear upper air of the sky.
TIME STAMPS
00:00 Intro
03:46 Backstory
08:04 Card Layout Breakdown
15:44 How To Play
29:15 FAQ
40:35 Variations
45:03 Different Games
53:52 Purchasing Options
Thanks for taking the time to do such a comprehensive overview. I'm an avid boardgamer who's learning Irish and Russian, so I've been interested in your games for a while. I have a bit of a problem though - my boardgaming friends are allergic to language learning and my language learning friends are allergic to gaming. Do you think this would work well for two handed solo play? I'm thinking about playing it such that with one hand I have to answer in Irish, and the other I have to answer in Russian - just to shake up my usual SRS routine. I suspect the answer to this is "yes," so in a similar vein, how useful would it be to try to solo Othertongue or Fighting Flashcards? I haven't given up on introducing my language learning friends to gaming or vice versa, but realistically, I'd need to be able to solo these to get heavy use out of them, so I'm trying to decide which ones to pick up (apart from the Leitner Box cards of course).
First, let me thank you for taking the time to leave such a special comment! I'm glad you liked the video.
The problem you described with your friends is both illuminating and interesting. I cracked up when you said they are allergic! I love the way you phrased it. Haha. You've given me an idea of what to talk about in a future video because I have encountered the same thing: some people, including language learners, just do not like to game! And some gamers, don't really want to learn something in an educational way while they're playing games, they just want to simply play and entertain themselves to relax, not learn. So I totally get what you're saying. What we're doing at LCG is definitely a niche thing, but I hope we can grow this niche. And I hope you can do as I do and try to bring some people from each of those groups to the center because there are benefits to be gained by each group if they play games like this. Language learners can tap into the sociality, strategy, and organic-ness of learning with games. Gamers can actually learn a valuable skill for their life: a language! I think all it takes is someone creative and patient to introduce the games in the right way for that person and show them how it can work for them.
To get to your question, there's a similar phenomenon at the base of it. I've noticed some people prefer to play the games EXACTLY by the rules and if the rules don't pin down every eventuality, they don't really like the game. If any grey areas come up, they freeze, they don't know how to proceed. They are the types of people that struggle to come up with creative ways to use the cards or creative ways to answer more abstract challenges. I'm not judging these people, just reporting the situation. I think it's a different brain type or personality type and I think they grow in new ways by working with these cards.
But I think you are not in that group. I think you and I are in a different group, which sees the myriad ways we could creatively adapt and use the cards. So to answer your question, I think Language Guardians would be FANTASTIC for solo play. You could just flip through the cards one by one as challenges to test yourself, or you could technically play the game alone following the basic rules in the vid. This is actually what some customers already do to simply review what they know and warm up in preparation for playing a game with others or just for fun. Many people have let me know they like just using the cards as challenges for themselves, especially if they don't have the time or people around for a game. By the way, Language Guardians 2 is out in print-and-play now and it will be available in a professionally printed form before the end of this month.
As for Othertongue and Fighting Flashcards, these games are more complex and challenging than Language Guardians. You might encounter some cards that don't have challenges on them per se, merely a rule effect. You might also encounter some cards that involve other players. But my answer is still basically the same, I think you could adapt those games, too, for solo play. To other people, I might say something different depending on what I know about them. But judging from your comment above, I think you're the kind of person who can imagine plenty of useful and exciting ways to play and learn with the cards on your own.
Of course, I'm also available to play these games over video with anyone :) If you really want someone to play with sometime, you can shoot me a note at languagecardgames@gmail.com.
Thanks again for your insightful and positive comment, Seanchai! Have a great week and happy language gaming!
--Matt
@@MatthewRaymondBoyle Hi Matt, thanks for the in depth reply, I really appreciate it!
I have some ideas for how to get more boardgamers on the language learning train, actually - in short, I think you're on the right track with the Othertongue series, but there are a few tweaks to the mechanics (less MtG, more Eurogameish) that would open up a whole new demographic to what it is that you do. (For starters, Eurogames have their origins in Germany, where gaming is seen as a family oriented, cooperative thing to do, so that mindset plays well to both the multi-cultural, multi-linguistic angle and also to the more cooperative slant that you've discussed in the past. Not all Euros are cooperative - far from it - but many competitive ones still have cooperative elements.) It's late here (GA, USA) and I don't want to ramble too much, so I'll drop you an email in the morning with further details, just to give you something to chew over - I know you're always looking to innovate and find new ways to bring language learning to the masses, which I think is awesome!
@@maccaj6565 I LOVE where you're going with this! I think the more cooperative-style games of Europe and Germany would be great to explore for the purposes of language learning. I'll look forward to getting your e-mail. --Matt