Wortschatzwettrennen

Wortschatzwettrennen (Vocabulary Race) was designed for German instructors (and their students!) as a way to bring some fun into the often laborious task of committing vocabulary to memory. A board game with meeples, it pits learner against learner in a sprint to the finish, and the fuel that propels players forward is their own knowledge of German vocabulary.

Words covered in this game are what one might expect to learn in the first or second year of most college German classes, but when one must recall them quickly to stay in the race, the focus switches from a task based on mere wrote memorization to one that results in fun while learning.

Made for as many as 5 players, Wortschatzwettrennen (a challenging word in own right!) will keep students studying (playing) in order to win. With both an easy and also a hard deck of vocabulary cards, the game will prove rewarding for players at various stages of learning. Indeed, because the board allows for more than one way to get to the finish line, a skillful player with less experience with German could possibly even beat the "best" student in class! It is all in good fun, of course, since it is really about learning.

In the near future, look also for expansion sets with more vocabulary words and even additional rules to complicate the path to the finish line and thus heighten the fun.