Teaching materials
Board games
Two board games have been created by new speakers and activists —one takes inspiration from both “Monopoly” and “Pandemic”, while the other draws its inspiration from the realm of “Voodoo”.
The first game is named “An me platetsise zio” (“If you speak me, I live”). Starting from the name, it encapsulates the essence of what is more than anything else necessary for the Greek of Calabria to live as the language of communication: being spoken, taught, transmitted; that’s why a relatively advanced knowledge of the language and its variants is required for players. The game aims to make players understand that language revitalization is a collective effort. For this reason, the concept of this game is far from Monopoly’s traditional competition, as it embraces a collaborative spirit instead. In this linguistic revitalization challenge, the concept is simple but profound: no one can truly win unless everyone does – where winning is defined as successfully advancing the revitalization mission and securing a vibrant linguistic legacy for generations to come.
Grekù, the second game, is tailored for language beginners, providing an accessible and enjoyable way to deepen their understanding of different semantic fields through two crucial cultural traits, that is the evil eye and the curses.
Both games can be easily adapted to other minority languages. Write to us at toddomadigreko@gmail.com and we will be happy to help you!
Authors: Martina Nocera, Francesco Ventura