Growing up, my house was filled with different board games. We had all the classics, like Candy Land, Monopoly, and Chess. This is in addition to all the card games my family used to play together. One in particular I remember was Rummikub, which I know I liked to play, but couldn’t recall why. I had seen Rummikub at a department store in Korea and pointed it out to my wife, but when she asked me how to play it, I drew a blank. We didn’t end up getting it, because I couldn’t give her a reason why it was worth the purchase. It was a bit too expensive for a impulse buy.
As luck would have it, one of my students happened to bring the exact same game in with English and Korean instructions. He said he had gotten it as a gift for Children’s day and didn’t know how to play it. He asked me if we could play it in class after we finished studying if I taught him how to play with the rest of the students in class. I had played board games in the class with students in class before, but I guess I was his last hope to learn how to play. I agreed to his offer. Since I didn’t remember how to play myself exactly, I took him up on the offer and studied the rules to prepare. We had a great time playing the game, and eventually I remembered why I thought it was fun.
I immediately ran out and bought a Rummikub set after class for my own. It was expensive, but I like having the chance to play lots of different games. It’s also not language intensive, which is a plus.
