Classic Games

We all love to play and have fun, from the moment we breathe our first breath.  Games have been played by people everywhere since the dawn of humankind. They can be fun for everyone, whether you play with friends or family. Games can come in all shapes and sizes and are specific to certain cultures, while others are universal and are played by all ages, races, religions, and cultures across the globe. Let’s play, people! We’ll take a gander at classic childhood games on this week’s episode of FYI!

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[Music] we all love to play and have fun from the moment we breathe our first breath[Music] games have been played by people everywhere since the dawn of humankind they can be fun for everyone whether you play with friends or family games can come in all shapes and sizes and are specific to certain cultures While others are Universal and are played by all ages races religions and cultures across the globe[Music] we'll take a gander at Classic childhood games on this week's episode of f why I welcome to for your info English you got it thank you hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of FYI for your English where you'll learn about a different topic every single week just let me know what you want to hear about and who knows we could see one of your suggestions in an upcoming episode and thanks to everybody who sent me suggestions so far some of the best episodes have come from you guys your suggestions so keep them coming and today we are going back folks we're gonna take a trip down memory lane we're going back to our childhood and if you're like me it's never too far away my inner child is Alive and Kicking and showing no signs of giving up anytime soon and now with my daughter what I notice is that my inner child is even More Alive than it's ever been she inspires my inner child to come out every day and as we say in English she brings out the best in mejor De me and I have to be honest some of my favorite moments of the day are when I'm playing with Lara but as you'll see we can play and learn at the same time and that's what I try and do in all of my books on my radio show the show with no name and here on FYI and by the way if you haven't picked up my books check them out I've got five books the latest one is called this book is the[ __ ] quality the spider ham spider ham ah it's graciosis is this book is[Music] and you can pick it up wherever fine books are sold and really my books all of my programs they're all about playing and learning at the same time let's take a look at our intro I started off by saying we all love to play and have fun from the moment we breathe our first breath and I want you to be really careful with these words breathe is the verb and breath is respiration it's the noun sustantivo so don't hold your breath this is a very common idiomatic expression when it's not likely that something's going to happen so for example Alberto are you gonna give me a million dollars you ask me and you know what I say don't hold your breath but also to hold your breath is what you do when you go in the pool when you go underwater just don't mix it up with the verb breathe I've seen students mix it up all the time then we heard a baby crying and I said games have been played by people everywhere since the dawn of humankind and the dawn if you think the dawn is mourning so since the dawn of humankind it's a poetic way of saying the beginning of humankind then I said they can be fun for everyone whether you play with friends or family games can come in all shapes and sizes shapes are formas and sizes are tamanos and are specific to certain cultures so some of them are Universal as I said they're played all over the world regardless of your age your race your religion or what country you come from so we're gonna generally focus on those Universal ones today and then my daughter lent me a hand and she helped me out with the let's play people and great job Lara and I wrapped up the intro saying we'll take a gander to take a look to take a gander at Classic childhood games on this week's episode of FYI and I know some of you are probably thinking wait Alberto wasn't there an episode on toys yes there was an episode on toys so I made sure that this one is quite different and games versus toys what's the difference well don't worry we're gonna Define those throughout the episode but in general a toy is something you buy you have to buy things you need things whereas a game sometimes just with a piece of chalk or a ball or your fingers you can compete against each other so let's define it it's a good way to look at the key vocabulary three around a certain topic traditional children's games are defined as those that are played informally with minimal equipment as we just said that children learn by example from other children and that can be played Without reference to written rules many of these games have Unwritten rules then it goes on to say these games are usually played by children between the ages of 7 and 12 with some latitude on both ends of the age range children's traditional games also called folk games are those that are passed from child to child generation to generation informally by word of mouth and most children's games include at least two of the following six features in different proportion physical skill strategy chance repetition of patterns creativity and vertigo oh that's interesting well let's start with some basic ones the nursery rhymes the ones that have a song or a Melody that go with them there's one that's very popular and we do it ever since we're little kids and it's called Ring Around the Rosie it's a nursery rhyme slash folk song and it's played very often at playgrounds everywhere it first emerged in the mid 19th century but there's evidence that it came decades before and it goes like this Ring Around The Rosy pocket full of Posey ashes ashes We All Fall Down and basically kids form a ring a circle a ring and it was traditionally played around a rose tree ring around the rosie French Rosie rosary tree and when they say the final line We All Fall Down the slowest child to fall to the ground loses well they get eliminated it reminds me of one that you have here well for us that's Ring Around the Rosie and there was a rumor that that had to do with the plague they said that ring around the rosie was your rosy cheeks from being sick pocket full of posies but it's not that line it's ashes ashes We All Fall Down but they say experts I don't know if you're an expert in kids songs but they say that that was just a myth and that there was never any truth to it as with anything that's a fairy tale or something that has to do with folklore there's always going to be a lot of Gossip a lot of rumors a lot of word of mouth as we said it's like a friend of a friend of a friend friend told me that these are the rules of the game and you notice that too you can go to different countries and they'll have different rules for the same game and there's something called the rude folk song index and it's a database which references nearly 25 000 songs that come from oral tradition in the English language and many of them come obviously from all over the world they were just adapted when people moved Nomads things like that and the reason it's called the rude folk song index is because it was compiled by a guy named Steve Rood you got it he was a former librarian in Croydon in London so if you want to see the classics take a look at the rude folk song index but I've cherry-picked I've hand-picked some of the ones that are indispensable the next one too is kind of tongue it's duck duck goose and this is a game this one is one you can start when they're really really young what happens is you sit in a circle and the aim of the game is to walk around in that Circle there's one student one kid who goes around the outside and you tap each player's head until you say Goose so you go around duck duck duck duck goose when you say Goose that person jumps up and they have to chase you around the circle but your goal is to sit back in their spot before they tag you antes it's a classic and I think some of my earliest memories are playing duck duck goose with the people from our church congregation well the kids another classic is LeapFrog I don't know what you call this one in Spanish but it kind of makes sense in English because to LEAP is to jump and a Frog we all know is you know how to say unsapol in English unsapo is a toad but LeapFrog is this classic game where you jump over each other's backs it's a game that originated believe it or not in the late 16th century so don't think that you're innovating by playing LeapFrog it's been around for centuries and we'll see that that's the case with many of these classic childhood games I'll be interested to know in our class when we meet up every week I'll be interested to know what these games are called in Spanish oh and by the way if you want to join us in class every week if you want to get bonus episodes every week PDF documents with all the vocabulary and more importantly be a part of an awesome curious Community well then you can join us over on patreon.com Alberto Alonso and you can take a gander to use the Expression from before and you can even talk to some of my patrons and you can see their progress I'm proud of each and every one of you and speaking of my patrons let me send you all a shout out especially to my super duper students Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria Mila and Alex and don't forget about my Interstellar students Carmen Lina Issa bako David and Edgar I am extremely proud of each and every one of you keep up the great work if you guys want to make progress and more importantly fall in love with English learn with me every week in class and with additional PDF documents and content and so much more so go over to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and see what you're missing out on we're expecting you and of course we play every week in class there there's not one class that goes by where we don't sing or tell jokes so keep it up guys honestly I am so proud of you as I read each and every one of your names a big smile came to my face just thinking of the progress you've been making now where were we oh yeah we were looking at games and you guys were gonna tell me the name of these games in Spanish I know some of them but not all of them the next one is called Chinese Whispers And I love this word whisper it sounds like what it is Chinese Whispers we also used to call it operator and I think I've seen this one played here in Spain this is where somebody Whispers something in somebody's ear so you say that the Titanic hid an iceberg and then you say it to the next person then they pass it on to the next person and by the time it gets to the end it's never what the initial person said I know you know this game everybody in the world knows this game just like the next one I spy with my little eye I think the equivalent would be best hey do these games work do you know how I learned that I learned that listening to cassettes Spanish cassettes that my family would bring from Spain to the United States and I learned and I remember watching shusha all of those so yeah these games work not just to have fun and to be entertained but to give you insight into the culture and obviously the language and I think this one makes a lot of sense in English I spy with my little eye Joe Espio yo and this is where you have to ask yes no questions is it red no it isn't is it something you can use uh to wash the dishes no it isn't and again these are great games for anybody who's learning a language what better way to learn than by playing games and having fun the next one is truth or dare I think we played this one when we were a little bit older Truth or Dare and this is where you have a choice you can tell some kind of truth from your life you can come clean confess or you can be dared to do something and it reminds me of the the famous expression I dare you to do it and we know the word Daredevil Daredevil osado somebody who's very daring you see how we play with words here the next one is one we do with our hands and it's called patty cake add a cake baker's man bake me a cake as fast as you can roll it and Pat it and Mark it with a bee put it in the oven for baby and me and my daughter knows this one as well we're working on the hand slapping that part's a little bit harder but it's a lot of fun and again you're learning roll it that's what you do with dough you roll the dough like when you're making pizza you Pat it and you mark it with a b and you put it in the oven for baby and me another one which I'm sure you'll know the rhythm of is London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down London bridge is falling down my fair lady and this is a traditional English nursery rhyme time and singing game which is found obviously all over the world and everybody's got their own version of it and obviously the English version deals with the London Bridge and it started to Decay and well they wanted to repair it so they made a song and it caught on like wildfire they say it's from the late Middle Ages but the earliest records of this rhyme in English are from the 17th century and normally what happens is two players hold hands and they make an arch with their arms and the other people pass through it single file and then finally they lower the arch at the song's end and they catch the player my fair lady and you drop it down these are classic games and I'm sure they were played in Spain but had a different name other games where you really don't need anything and I think these are the great games because they force you to be creative sure if you've got a game that has a hundred different pieces and you know risk something like that of course it's going to be fun you know it's amazing you got all this stuff but the other day at the pool with my daughter we were having tons of fun just playing rock paper scissors and all you need is two people and a hand I know you play that one and I know it's got the same name in Spanish another one too thumb wrestling all you need is your thumbs Los pulgares and I guess it makes sense la lucha de los de los pulgares thumb wrestling I have to be honest I'm pretty good at thumb wrestling I might be a little bit Rusty these days but I remember kicking butt in high school and also you've got arm wrestling and that's where you hold the person's full hand so you can do it with your thumb or with your arm I think you say um another one where all you need is a stick is the limbo and everybody's got a broomstick sitting around their house house go around the limbo world of the limbo here we go and this one man this is if you've got a bad lower back maybe limbo isn't your game maybe you're not very limber limber limbo limber means flexible oh and a lot of people think that my mother's maiden name is limbo but it's lembo so I always have to explain I'm like that one reminds me of like cruise ships and weddings and things like that another one where you don't need anything and my daughter loves this one too the floor is lava and the moment you play that you got to get up on the sofa you can't touch the floor because as the title says the floor is lava and my daughter lovers this game okay all right never mind and what about Simon says this is great too because they're standing up they're working on their motor skills on their listening skills and you can do a lot of different things hey we can do this in class one day Simon Says snap your fingers Simon Says clap your hands say your name ah Simon didn't say so so this is one where you have to pay attention and you're eliminated if you do something when Simon didn't say to do it another game that I have very fond memories of I remember we could play for hours it was so much fun kind of reminds me of another one called mother may I Madre puedo pisar Tres pasos paralante yes you may mother may I mother may I take three giant steps forward and then there's one that I remember playing but once I was uh pre-adolescent a tween as we say and that was spin the bottle and I remember playing spin the bottle oh I was always hoping I would get to kiss Christy Gillis Christy Gillis if you're listening I'm married too late you blew it the translation of You Blue it is now we're gonna talk about some playground games Del patio the playground or El parque infanti which kind of makes sense playground and what would a playground be without a jungle gym and a jungle gym is the thing you climb on anything where there are bars and you can climb on them that's called the jungle gym umla and the monkey bars are the ones where you hang they're over your head and you swing from one to the other those are called the monkey bars and don't forget to slide down the slide what I know it's redundant but I wanted to look at the word I feel like we're at recess right now recess I think you say El recreo well before we talked about games where you just needed some chalk and one of those games is Hopscotch I don't know you say treston right no no is a different one Hopscotch is the one where you draw boxes on the floor one two three four five six and you have to hop and it's interesting because from this game we can get the expression start from square one the other one I just mentioned what was it Tres and Raya I think in Spanish we call it tic-tac-toe another one where all you need is a pencil and a piece of paper and you're good to go and that's tic-tac-toe I mean you can do it with chalk on the wall but get your parents permission first and then you've got marbles I think you call them kanikas I've got to be honest I never got into marbles but I loved tic-tac-toe I loved Hopscotch I also love playing with tops okay Tapas well no tops are these things that you speak my daughter loves playing with tops something I never got good at and I just think it's not my thing it's not my cup of tea is jump rope jump rope I think you say cuerda saltarine jump rope and I remember having some girls in my school that they used to do double Dutch what does that mean that means with two jump ropes I couldn't handle one and I remember seeing people you know jump through two or three of them oh and by the way to go double dutch if you're on a date means that you're splitting it 50 50. another one that reminds me of the summer is tetherball and tetherball is this one where there's a ball and it's on a string I think it's an elastic string and it's tied to the top of a pole and you have to hit it I I remember seeing it all the time when I was a kid but I never really got the hang of tetherball speaking of Summer game times Marco Polo summer doesn't kick off until you hear the first kid at the pool say Marco Polo then you've got tag and tag I believe is and this is one where you have to go run after people and then you tag them you touch them and you say tag you're it and if you've been trying to reach somebody on the phone all morning and you call them and they don't pick it up and then they call you back and you don't pick it up and you go through that a couple times we say we're playing phone tag is another one my daughter loves is hide and Seekers is an irregular verb seek sought sought did you say El escondidite you got it the next one is tug of war and this one is pretty fun too this is where you have a rope and in the middle of the Rope you've got a flag and you've got two teams and each one pulls to their side and the one who gets the other side to fall wins we call it tug of war and the word tug is to pull and another one which you don't need too much for is stickball what stickball well let's just put it this way not everybody had money for a baseball or a bat but anybody could find a wooden stick laying around somewhere enter the game stickball very popular in New York neighborhoods just be careful you don't break a window old neighbor Johnson's gonna be pretty pissed off and now we're going to switch over to board games no not aburrido board board like Tabla you say juegos de Mesa and some of them come with dice some of them come with cards some of them come with little pieces like parchesi and you've got puzzles dominoes there are so many games that you can pick up but I tried to stick to the classics here today folks do you know Connect Four this was a really fun one my daughter has this one here she doesn't quite get it yet but Connect Four is where you have like these red and black little pieces and you have to drop them down these slots and the first one to have four in a row wins it's called Connect Four two of the earliest board games I ever had and I think every American kid was Shoots and Ladders so if you hit a ladder you would go up and if you hit a shoot you would come down it reminds me of your game laoka and another one that reminds me of laauka and again these are the two Classics here as far as board games are concerned Shoots and Ladders and Candyland and again they're both kind of like laauka you roll the dice and then you know you wait your turn you go again and if you hit a bad spot you go down if you had a good spot you know kind of the same idea then you've got operation which that's another classic I've got to say I don't have a steady hand at all I was always horrible at this game Monopoly which is obviously one of the most popular games and there are so many different versions of Monopoly I think we could even do an FYI episode on Monopoly you've got clue you call it glue though we call it clue you've got Scrabble and Boggle and we're going to talk about those in the bonus part because those are really good games to help you learn English and gain more vocabulary you've got Trivial Pursuit which is a lot of fun too that's one of my mom's favorite games twister which is another classic game and one of my favorite to learn English guess who I think you call it we'll look at more ideas and games and things you can do to learn English in the bonus part we'll also take a look at some card games we'll look at tons of fun facts and lots of idiomatic expressions that have to do with playing and games that and so much more and I hope you guys will join us in the bonus episode of f y ah foreign[Applause][Music][Music]