Probably the most important disadvantage of language card games is that playing language card games will not necessarily teach you a whole language outright, but really, no one method could. So I think as long as you use a combination of study methods throughout your weeks, you’ll be fine. You could consider chatting online with language exchange partners; there are more and more sites for that kind of stuff now. You can spend some time working out of a textbook and audio CD. You can watch a movie or cartoon in your target language. Hire a tutor or join a class. In a nutshell, don’t depend exclusively on language card games or any other method for that matter.
Secondly, a language card game is gonna cost you some money. Now, there’s a lot of dazzling materials we can take advantage of online these days that are free, so you may be asking yourself why should I pay for a card game or a board game? The answer is: because you get a physical product that you can hold in your hand, that you can collect, learn from, and share with others, a product that someone else worked hard to create. Moreover, plenty of “free” online resources operate on the freemium model, which means you can use a basic level or amount of their product or service for free, but if you want their best content you still have to pay. So you get what you pay for and there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Just remember that a great language card game is an investment in your learning and you can also scout around for the best price and the best time to buy. On my website, for example, LanguageCardGames.com, just signing up in the footer grants you a coupon! So there you go. And I’m sure I’m not the only card game company that does that.
A third disadvantage would be the technology-less aspect of many language card games. That’s something we already talked about a little bit in this series. Some people may lament that physical card games have no tie-in to technology, or they would be more attracted to play educational video games or apps. What I would say about that is, some language card games do work with technologies like QR codes and barcodes. I would also say that there are a variety of very good reasons why we might need to go screenless sometimes: including our health, our sociability, and to increase our powers of attention and focus. But again, since I don’t encourage us to depend on language cards exclusively, I think we don’t need to worry too much.
Alright that’s it for this post. Don’t forget to like and subscribe so that you and other likeminded people can find your way back to my latest and greatest content. You can also head over to Language Card Games Shop to buy a game, support what I do, and start playing your way to language-learning success today.
In the next post, we get to dig into something really fun: Flashcards, the Leitner Box, and one of my card games that can be used together with flashcards for a fantastic battle!
